Deliberately burning surplus power: water maker, waffle maker, sourdough
When a sailboat's batteries are completely full and there is nothing drawing them down, you actually need to find ways to use power so the charging system does not just sit there doing nothing. Lauren Landers Sailing ran her Seawater Pro water maker for about five hours straight, used a waffle maker that morning, and started baking sourdough crackers, all specifically to draw down the surplus energy her batteries were holding. Her tanks filled up so completely that she then had to do laundry just to use up the water so she could keep making more.
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You cannot safely rewire solar panels while the sun is shining on them
Lauren noticed her boat was not bringing in as much power and traced it to a wiring problem with one of her solar panels. She also suspected that two of her older hard panels had gone bad. The core practical problem she ran into: you cannot
Sometimes replacing the whole toilet assembly is faster than chasing seal failures
Lauren's aft head had seals replaced a couple of times and still was not working properly. Rather than continuing to chase individual seal failures, she decided to replace the entire assembly. The result: two out of three heads on the boat
Heavy calcium buildup in hoses can defeat even a new toilet pump
On the master head, Lauren replaced the pump assembly but the toilet still was not working correctly. Her suspicion is that the hose itself has too much calcium buildup inside it, meaning the new pump is fighting against a restricted line.