A water line fiasco

[mrdeepseafisher]

Our son was away on a church youth retreat this weekend so the Wife and I thought we would start on a few winter projects this weekend and try to finish up a few summer ones. Saturday I spent working on the galley and late in the day we decided to go out to eat an earlier supper. While she was finishing getting ready I was on the dock talking with some neighbors and started topping off the fresh water tank so the discussion came up regarding using the dock water or water tank.

Our neighbor keeps their water line connected as do a few others on the dock. They asked why I always filled and used the water tank. I said I dunno just that we have always used the water tank both at the dock and away. I have always thought that this keeps the tank both fresh and clean. It takes about 10-15 minutes to fill the tank and I had just finished when the wife came out and we left for dinner.

After dinner we returned to the boat and headed down below to call it a night. I went into the master head and wife was gonna use the guest head when she called out to me to come check the floor. The entire floor was wet as well as the passageway. I started turning off the heat pumps so I could listen and opened the starboard engine room. The rear wall of the engine room was wet and the fresh water pumps were running. I quickly asked her to check the water display panel in the galley and she starts yelling that she hears bilge pumps running.

She shouts that the display panel reads 249 gallons used (our tank holds 249 gallons) and we are empty. I am on my belly on the engine room looking for leaks, holes, whatever. I can see a small river of water running from what looks like the guest head back into the engine room. One of the fresh water pumps is still running but I can tell it is running dry.

I yell for her to shut off the breaker to the water pumps and grab the flashlight by the main helm.She keeps yelling she hears bilge pumps running and I am yelling that's a good thing. After a bit of looking I find that the main water line coming off the water heater has burst and we pumped close to 280 gallons of water into the boat (water tank and contents of water heater).

With the power off and after drying out as much of the floor as possible we hit the hay. This morning instead of working on the planned winter projects I spent a good while repairing the water system. It appears that the flexible stainless steel connector hoses for the water heater are all stainless but the crimps which hold the ends on. They are galvanized and one end corroded and when it failed the pressure popped the hose end off and we drained the system. I also lost one of my fresh water pumps. It looks like they ran dry for awhile and one failed (new winter project!).

Never had this happen before with any of our boats. NOW, I am glad we have always used our fresh water system in this manner as I would have hated to see the amount of water in the boat if it had been connected to the city water.

This raised a new question. What are your thoughts on devising a low pressure cutoff to shut down the water pumps if this happens again? I think I could devise a controller that would shut down the pumps if pressure were to drop below say 5-7 psi. You would need a temporary bypass for restarting the system if you ran all your water out but once above the cutoff pressure it should work ok. I have diaphragm pumps which I thought were supposed to be able to run dry but I guess not

[Genesis]

A low-pressure cut-off is as simple as an engine oil switch wired to a N/C relay with the power feed for it off the pump breaker and the contacts in series with the pump itself. With the pressure in the system the switch is open and the relay de-energized; the N/C contacts are closed and the pump runs as directed by its pressure maintenance switch.

http://www.wellsve.com/custom_search...p?partno=PS108
http://www.wellsve.com/custom_search...hp?showall=yes

(PS108 will do what you want; the low-pressure contacts will open over 1-5psi, which should be pretty much where you want this to activate, and this version has a convenient set of isolated terminals.)

When the pressure drops below the cut-off the switch closes (it would be "alarming" on low oil pressure if it was on an engine), pulling the relay and opening the feed to the pump. Put a momentary N/C switch inline with the engine oil switch so you can drop the relay manually to re-pressurize the system.

It will draw whatever the coil current is when energized (in cut-out mode) so you do have to take that into account, but it draws zip when the system is pressurized as the switch is open.

Whether it's worth it is an open question since what it prevents is a mess and a potentially trashed pump. As the water in the tank is already IN the boat when you put it in the tank it is incapable of sinking you.

Of course it does no good if city water is connected. I never left the boat with it hooked up on mine for exactly this reason; connecting the inside of your boat to an infinite water source just didn't seem all that smart to me.

[Jaxfishgyd]

It's why I use a meter counter on my hose. I set it for 200 gals so should something like that happen, that's the max that will flow. I keep it connected at the dock faucet so as I get on/off the boat I can just look at it and reset easily.....
We also turn off the water if we're gonna be gone for more than a few hours

[MikeP]

". What are your thoughts on devising a low pressure cutoff to shut down the water pumps if this happens again?"

You can buy the low pressure cut-off switch you seek at any hardware store. The oem Hatt setup uses one and it's just a standard switch for that purpose which has an adjustable cut-in and cut-out pressure as well as the low pressure shut off. It will shut off power to the pump if the pressure drops below 15 PSI or thereabouts. THere is a manual lever on the switch that allows you to turn on the pump for priming, whatever.

Here's one: http://www.amazon.com/Square-FSG2J24.../dp/B000FKBY8W

[SKYCHENEY]

". What are your thoughts on devising a low pressure cutoff to shut down the water pumps if this happens again?"

You can buy the low pressure cut-off switch you seek at any hardware store. The oem Hatt setup uses one and it's just a standard switch for that purpose which has an adjustable cut-in and cut-out pressure as well as the low pressure shut off. It will shut off power to the pump if the pressure drops below 15 PSI or thereabouts. THere is a manual lever on the switch that allows you to turn on the pump for priming, whatever.

Here's one: http://www.amazon.com/Square-FSG2J24.../dp/B000FKBY8W

Ditto what Mike said. I have those on both of my pumps.

[Genesis]

That'll definitely work :-)

[Bob Bradley]

A friend of mine had his 38' Chris sink at the dock this way. He had shut off the water, but left the hose hooked up. He thinks someone on a nearby boat turned the wrong lever, pressurizing is boat accidentally. Unfortunately, the boat happened to blow a line and went to the bottom in the slip. I have never and will never hook mine up. 165 gallons is plenty.

[luckydave215]

connecting the inside of your boat to an infinite water source just didn't seem all that smart to me.

No $hit Sherlock.
This is so obvious that even never-left-the-slip liveaboards should be able to figure it out.
I have 400+ gallons if I fill all the way......plenty.

[captddis]

I have used dockside water hook up on dozens of boats since forever. Just use common sense. MANY more boats sink from fittings on the Air cond system letting go!! That is als an infinate water source and it is sea water!!

[magnawake]

Sorry to hear about your problem. We've had a few boats in our marina almost sink because of cracked hoses and leaving their seacocks open (duhhhh). Several friends fill their water tanks, but they leave their A/C's running. When I leave for a few hours, I turn A/C off and city water off. During the winter, I always use my water tank. Sometimes they turn the city water off because of freezing. Luckily, we have lots of livaboards that constantly look out for one another. That helps as well.