Plugged pipe between seacock and sea strainer and out of ideas!

[Bob Quinn]

So the raw water intake for the AC's is plugged again, again after a short trip.

Usually it's just the strainer basket, but this time there is seaweed in the seacock itself.

It looks like some wise guy along the way decided to put 2 90 degree elbows between the seacock and the strainer, making it impossible to stick anything down there to clean it out. I tried one of those plastic stick drain cleaners but even it wouldn't make the 90 degree bend(s).

I have one of those drain de-cloggers you hook to a garden hose and it swells up, plugs the hole you put it in and pressurizes anything beyond it. That didn't help either.

Can anyone tell me if having 2 90 degree elbows between the seacock and sea strainer is normal?
My assumption is that it is not. It looks like it was connected this way so the sea strainer could point in an accessible direction.

I might have to tear it apart and figure out a better way.
Maybe in place of one of the 90's put a tee in there with a plug so at least I can pull the plug and half a straight shot into the seacock.

Anyone every use drain cleaner to get rid of sea weed?

Have I overlooked any options?

Thanks for any help

 

[drburke]

I hope you find a good long-term solution.

When I faced with a similar sharp 90 in a sanitary line, I replaced the offending fittings with so-called "long sweeps" as a temporary fix until I could re-engineer the system.

Chalk this up to my ignorance of plumbing. The sequence of curvature in order is "street", "short", "sweep", "long sweep".

DAN

 

[Pascal]

Best solution will Be to relocate the strainer so you can have the hose curve gently to the strainer inlet. If real necessary you can keep a 90 degree at the strainer inlet but two of them is too much. Chances are the clog is at one of the elbows not the sea cock.

Since you re going have to pull the hose all the way to the sea cock you may has well buy hose now and redo it correctly.

Next time you haul out do yourself a favor and put a South Bay strainer outside to replace the slotted scoop. That what I put on my boat and the one I run… no more clogged strainer or hoses.

 

[Bob Quinn]

Thanks Pascal and Dan, I also read elsewhere about using a shop vac in reverse.
Then I thought maybe bring the portable air compressor, maybe I can put a shot of air down the pipes. Also, since the plastic drain hair removal thing didn't work, maybe I could get lucky with something mor flexible like a large zip tie. Letting the hose with the expanding bulb run in it for a few hours, maybe that will help. Too hot to go back down there right now.

 

[Bob Quinn]

I'm curious about something else... I kind of figured the garden hose / expanding bulb thing would have the ability to supply enough water for one of the air units to run. It did not seem to work, still very little flow out the water outlet. I can't really see much inside the sea strainer where I stick the bulb thing. I can see the inlet hole going into the side of the sea strainer. It looks like the bulb thing would just expand and plug that hole, but can't tell entirely. I can not see where the outlet hold from the sea strainer is. It looks like it might face the bottom of the sea strainer or be some passage all around the sea strainer.

So the question is: if I could find a way to attach the hose to the sea strainer (with something like a rubber plug or cap) would a garden hose supply enough water for one of the air units to run?

 

[rwaldrop13]

So the raw water intake for the AC's is plugged again, again after a short trip.

Usually it's just the strainer basket, but this time there is seaweed in the seacock itself.

It looks like some wise guy along the way decided to put 2 90 degree elbows between the seacock and the strainer, making it impossible to stick anything down there to clean it out. I tried one of those plastic stick drain cleaners but even it wouldn't make the 90 degree bend(s).

I have one of those drain de-cloggers you hook to a garden hose and it swells up, plugs the hole you put it in and pressurizes anything beyond it. That didn't help either.

Can anyone tell me if having 2 90 degree elbows between the seacock and sea strainer is normal?
My assumption is that it is not. It looks like it was connected this way so the sea strainer could point in an accessible direction.

I might have to tear it apart and figure out a better way.
Maybe in place of one of the 90's put a tee in there with a plug so at least I can pull the plug and half a straight shot into the seacock.

Anyone every use drain cleaner to get rid of sea weed?

Have I overlooked any options?

Thanks for any help

First, I saw the next post said they replaced the offending 90. I had the good luck that from the seacock to the strainer was hose - Sorry! I had this happen often enough that I loosened the barb fitting on my seacocks so I could unscrew them, clear the thru-hull with a long object and reinstall the barb/reconnect the hose. I used an old 14" large flathead screwdriver. I didn't have to deal with this as often as I did clogged strainers, but when I did weekly strainer cleaning (Fort Myers in the summer), I would also back-flow from the strainer thru the seacock with dock water at full pressure. I also went out of my way to tip my divers in more than just money to ensure they gave all the intakes extra attention. One of them actually used a mechanics' hook and cleaned each one. All it cost me was a dozen donuts from the place across the street from the marina. This tool was essential for me for my AC system(s) and flushing.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01C04HAN...ref_=cm_sw_r_cp_ud_lstpd_RD58W8G8Y5NDJXBJBD4H

 

[Captain Ralph]

Compressed air blowing down (backwards)? Sadly, long strings/straws of weed/grass may well be stuck in there needing disassembly.
Are these 90s after the sea-cock?

 

[Bob Quinn]

Compressed air blowing down (backwards)? Sadly, long strings/straws of weed/grass may well be stuck in there needing disassembly.
Are these 90s after the sea-cock?

Yes, it's sea-cock, a short piece of what looks like black pipe, then 2 90 elbows and straight into the strainer.

They have hose coming out of the strainer so the sea-cock is basically what the strainer is mounted to. Maybe I should find a place to mount the strainer to a wall or something and run nice hose to both sides.

 

[Bob Quinn]

Thanks Rob, didn't know something like that existed, just ordered one of both sizes that appear available. Maybe even if this won't push it out I can at least turn an air conditioner back on!
(Not sure a garden hose is enough flow, kinda doubt it LOL)

Will be bringing my pipe wrenches back to the boat tomorrow. ugh.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01C04HAN...ref_=cm_sw_r_cp_ud_lstpd_RD58W8G8Y5NDJXBJBD4H[/QUOTE]

 

[madhatter1]

When we hauled last winter and I was changing engine seacocks I also did the AC and gen to upgrade to larger through hulls (to reduce flow, therfor suction) and go to vertical strainers. Now everything makes it into the basket as its now a straight run up through the bottom and into the strainer.

 

[Briankinley2004]

Thanks Rob, didn't know something like that existed, just ordered one of both sizes that appear available. Maybe even if this won't push it out I can at least turn an air conditioner back on!
(Not sure a garden hose is enough flow, kinda doubt it LOL)

Will be bringing my pipe wrenches back to the boat tomorrow. ugh.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01C04HAN...ref_=cm_sw_r_cp_ud_lstpd_RD58W8G8Y5NDJXBJBD4H

[/QUOTE]

A garden hose will flush it out. I dealt with this 3-4 times a week when I lived on the boat on the Anclote River. I had a regular clamshell strainer and grass would get in the intake. I would remove the strainer and put a rag around a water hose, open the seacock, then turn the water on. The cap shown would be alot less messy but I would be worried that the pressure would go toward the pump and not the thru hull. By using the rag method you can insert the end of the hose directly into the inlet of the strainer so you know full pressure is going to the back flush. If you could get a blow ball to fit in the inlet that would also work good. Here is one at the Homo Depot

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Husky-Small-Drain-Bladder-82-975-111/301879467

 

[rsmith]

When we hauled last winter and I was changing engine seacocks I also did the AC and gen to upgrade to larger through hulls (to reduce flow, therfor suction) and go to vertical strainers. Now everything makes it into the basket as its now a straight run up through the bottom and into the strainer.

What he said. The local nuke plant has low velocity intakes to prevent sea life from getting sucked in. Same applies on your boat put bigger seacocks and strainers in next haul out. Until then put in a tee valve and hose fitting to back flush it.

 

[Jwatson]

Maybe install this on your next haul out. I love mine.

https://www.hodgesmarine.com/grobvs...Rvjzdhy_h5N31_f2Q2UxFk8ci78Y8QRxoCAF0QAvD_BwE

 

[bostonhatteras]

You can’t create a smooth transition with street fittings? 22.5, 45, or 90 and hose gets a lot of variations There is the abyc rule of being able to withstand some ridiculous (200 pounds?) weight straight down on whatever fitting arrangement is used. That abyc rule usually works out to be a one fitting on seacock arrangement

 

[tjshuler]

Best solution will Be to relocate the strainer so you can have the hose curve gently to the strainer inlet. If real necessary you can keep a 90 degree at the strainer inlet but two of them is too much. Chances are the clog is at one of the elbows not the sea cock.

Since you re going have to pull the hose all the way to the sea cock you may has well buy hose now and redo it correctly.

Next time you haul out do yourself a favor and put a South Bay strainer outside to replace the slotted scoop. That what I put on my boat and the one I run… no more clogged strainer or hoses.

That is what I did. We get really long, fibrous weeds on the north end of the River D in Detroit and they jammed up those elbows so tight, I could not unweed them. Took them out, a foot of re-inforced hose, never a problem since. I will look into the South bay strainer this fall. The AC strainer is the only one that gets full of weeds. Getting too old to crawl back in that corner of the port engine room any more than I have to.

 

[Bob Quinn]

Maybe install this on your next haul out. I love mine.

https://www.hodgesmarine.com/grobvs...Rvjzdhy_h5N31_f2Q2UxFk8ci78Y8QRxoCAF0QAvD_BwE

Well that is about as "straight in" as you can get.

 

[Bob Quinn]

Well I thought I got it fixed. I had one of those pump it up and pull the trigger drain blaster things.
So I used that and fit a 2 ft. long piece of garden hose on the firing end of it and jammed it as best I could into the inlet fitting on the strainer. On pull of the trigger and water was gushing in at what appeared to be the normal rate.

However I'm still not getting the discharge that looks any good. It's still just kind of a dribble.

I'm able to keep the front stateroom / galley air unit running but that's about it.

Maybe I have a pump problem. Will be calling the air guy in the morning. Hooked up a temporary portable air unit up in the salon for the moment. 88 degrees and 98 percent humidity does nothing for my temper or sanity, so I threw in the towel and ran to the local tractor supply for the portable unit. Cooling down now. Hopefully the guy that worked on this the last time isn't booked up for 6 months. I meant have to tear the pump apart myself and see what I can see.

 

[Bob Quinn]

Can anyone tell me how far water should shoot out the raw water output port?

I don't exactly recall what ours was originally doing, it is only about half way out of the water line but I seem to remember the top half of the stream shooting our 6 or 8 inches.

Does that sound about right?

 

[Pascal]

Shooting water backward to the seacock and thru hull isn’t guaranteed to clear the obstruction. If the shells ans grass are already past the slotted scoop chances are they are going to get blasted against the inside of the scoop. Some may get loose and pushed out but most will remain.

If you a have slotted scoop, you need to have a diver go under and poke thru the slots to clear whatever is in there.

I once had that issue. It turned out there was 1” piece of shell inside the slots that would get sucked in and shut down flow

What kind of pump do you have ? If you have a bronze impeller pump (Cruisair/oberdorfer) the impeller may be eroded which will greatly reduce flow.

As to how far the water should shoot out, it depends. On most hatteras and certainly all the MYs, the air con water discharge anll go into a single sea chest and discharge at the water line. Nothing shooting out. If yours shootout of single thru hulls, they ve been modified.

The only way to check for adequate flow is to disconnect the discharge from Each unit at the sea chest and time how long it takes to fill a gallon jug. That will give you the actual flow rate so you can see if you have enough water. On average you need around 200/220 gph per 12-16k btu unit. So a one gallon jug should get filled in about 15-20 seconds.

 

[Pascal]

When is the last time you had the coils descaled?

Another thing you can try is to back blush each coil with pressure water. At this time of the year here in sofl I have to do it as often as once a week even with freshly descaled coils. We get these small shells in the system which jam at the coil inlet and reduce flow.