Another Stupid Question

[Pat Anderson]

The water tank on the 2005 CD25 is in a really stupid place - it is encapsulated, forever, in foam and fiberglass under the vee-berth. It has a fill tube and an outlet. I want to empty the water tank and sanitize it. I tried siphoning from the fill tube - never able to get more than a couple of gallons. And I am good at siphoning from years of beer and wine making. I am using a semi-rigid tube down the fill neck and a vinyl hose attached to it. I cut an angle on the rigid tube so it wouldn't just close up against the botom of the tank. Still, we get about two gallons and it stops. So I am wondering, is there a baffle or something down there that is preventing the pickup tube from reaching the bottom of the water tank? How would I know? How would anybody know?

Then I tried just pumping it out. Got about 3 gallons, then the pump slowed down and the water out the faucet became just a trickle. I suspect the water pump is now plugged with whatever junk is floating around in the water tank. What to do now? Does it have a filter or screen on the inlet side? No way to tell. Guess I have to pull the water pump. This is a new water pump too, installed when the boat was detailed at the Bitter End a few months ago.

I am REALLY not up to all this...depressed. Advice? Don't say quit boating, not THAT depressed (yet).

[Will-C]

I would pull the electric pump and make sure there is no attached filter that could be clogged. Then using a length of hose and a couple of hose barbs add that into the line to take place of the inline pump plug the vent and see if pressurizing the tank by putting some air to the filler closing off the wider opening with a rag so it will build pressure to see if that will force the water out of the OPEN water spigots . I hope you have access to an air compressor or it's new boat time You could also try to blow the air backwards though the OPEN water spigot if the pickup line was clogged first.
D.D.

[thataway]

Pat, Is your water tank in the bow or stern? In my boat the tank was foamed in under the V berth, and the water pump was near the water heater under the aft dinette seat. There should be a screen mesh filter right in front (intake) of the water pump.

If your water tank is aft--as later boats were--then the water pump is probably under the aft cockpit floor--and again, there will be a wire mesh filter on the intake line. Some of the filters are just in line, (Jabsco) and others are actually part of the pump (Flo Jet, or ShureFlo)--In either case, the screen needs to be removed and the screen washed under a good pressure from domestic mains water supply.

You can always pull the pump inlet off and put a hand pump, or 110 volt fountain type of pump (Impeller type pump) on that tubing.

Good luck on the repair!

[Pat Anderson]

Bob, our setup is as you describe, the tank is under the veeberth and the water pump is behind where the water heater used to be - it is a lot more accessible now that the water heater is gone! I will TRY to get the inlet side hose off and see if there is a screen, my pump is a Jasbsco PAR Max-3, and the spec sheet does not show a filter or screen. I will probably buy one of these thingees and put it inline ahead of the pump:



Abot $30 at West Marine, I would much rather empty a strainer basket than have to disassemble a pump (ugh, my skin crawls at the thought) to deal with debris inside it.

[thataway]

Pat,
Yours is exactly like my 25 then. I had one of the in line filters as you pictured in the pump line between the tank and pump. (I may have put it in, rather than having been in when I purchased the boat).

If you have debris in the first stage of the pump, it should be fairly easy to get out--maybe even back flushing may get rid of it.

[Dora~Jean]

Pat, yours is like mine, up front under the v-berth. I cut an inspection hole above the inlet to the tank and installed a screw-on porthole. This allows me to check the fitting and tightness of the clamp on the hose.

Then I cut out a large section of fiberglass in the step area of the v-berth to be able to see the water level in the tank--plus marked off each gallon level by filling 1 gallon at a time. This I use on every trip to monitor how much I fill and how low it is getting (especially helpful on week-long trips!). See 2 photos under "Freshwater Systems". I'll attempt to put them in this message:


Be extremely careful cutting out that fiberglass, my tank was laying right up against it...

[redbaronace]

[starcrafttom]

funny that the tank has a slope to it, until you relieve that the factory used the same 20 gallon tank they used for fuel .