Head lubrification?

[Alain Déry]

Peggie,I would like to know what is recommended to lubricate the head. Recently, it started to be stiff to pump and I did use a bit of vegetal oil and it worked for couple days and I had to do it again. It does not seems right to me. Your advice will be appreciated.Thanks,Alain Alegria .5

[Peggie Hall/Head Mistress]

You can either pour vegetable oil down the toilet every week--which is a very bad idea, 'cuz it creates an oil slick in the holding tank that increases odor problems--or...about twice a season you can take the pump apart, soak the pump shaft seals in vegetable oil, and lubricate the cylinder with SeaLube.It used to be so simple..until we had had to have holding tanks...now, anything that's easy to use in the toilet screws up something else in the system.

[Paul Akers]

West Marine sells a head lube ($3.99/Pint). I tried it three weeks ago (4-oz. dose) and things are still smooth. What's your take on this stuff? Has experience showed it to be OK?

[Peggie Hall/Head Mistress]

A bunch of lubricants that are essentially the same stuff are sold under different brand names, not only in the marine market, but in swimming pool supply stores. If it works, use it

[Tom D]

I had the same problem on my 340, the pumping operation became very hard and eventually broke the O-ring (I found these O-rings hard to find). I repaired the O-ring with some German superglue and then placed some teflon o-ring lubricant around the O-ring. It has worked better than new ever since (1 month so far). I got the O-ring lubricant from my pool supply store.