Note: I/we are not sponsored by any companies mentioned in this article. We cruise full time on our test bed, SV Confianza, and we enjoy sharing our tests and opinions to give back to the community.
It's been over a year with two Raritan Marine Elegance toilets on Confianza with daily use, and we are as enthusiastic as ever that it was the right choice. We have had NO issues whatsoever of any kind, and Angie still happily exclaims to any returning guests, "you just push a button, and it goes away!"
Magic aside, I am still impressed with how low maintenance these have been. Our old Jabsco manual toilets had me replacing parts on one out of the three maybe every other month. I have had to do absolutely zero, and they feel brand new.
We had upgrade our last boat with a marine elegance, and even after it has passed to full ownership of our original boat partner, it has still be going strong for I believe 9 years.
This time we sprung for the sea fresh option and the smart control.
It is great to be able to control the total water flow in, timing out, and small and large flush. Has been very useful to add water to the bowl when water is sucked out for one reason or another or take water down after the rare incomplete flush (too much paper perhaps?)
The macerator works fantastically. I have flushed paper towels, but wouldn't recommend it. One time I reduced the flow of the flushes and got nervous after that.
These are also easy to self install. The packaging even comes with a template to really help the mounting process. Just try not to lose any of the pieces while seeing up the template (or throw them out with the box). However, if you do happen to throw out any of the pieces (*ahem*), customer service is amazing and will find a way to get you seemingly hard to find replacements.
You'll need to be comfortable with:
Cutting fiberglass - highly recommend using an oscillating tool / Multi-tool for cutting the holes for the smart control panel and/or sea fresh switch.
Wiring - the manual is actually well well done, but you should understand the basics of tapping into your boat's power properly.
If you have the option with the smart control panel, which I highly recommend, you will need a place to mount it and run your wires.
From the build quality, to customer service, to low maintenance, to feature/function, I'm not sure you can find a better product for a cruising boat.
