fresh water tank cleaning

Wandering Sagebrush":3ohi96es said:
I went out to drain the tank on Constant Craving today, and I can not get the system to hold a syphon and now it's not pumping water into the hose either. I suspect that there is a flapper valve inside the foot pump that has given up. Until I can get a replacement, does anyone have a good idea on how to get the water out? Any good small pumps that fit on a drill? I guess I will pour over the WM catalog and see what's available.

Steve
Click to expand...

The KISS Princiiple says just put a small 1/4" to 1/2" hose down the intake tube and siphon it back out onto the ground. Prime it with a water hose if you don't want to suck on it to get it started.

Joe. :teeth :thup
 
Confronted with a similar problem, boat afloat so I figured siphoning wouldn't work, I bought a drill pump at Home Depot. As anticipated it didn't work any better than any other drill pump I've ever tried in spite of priming, reducing the lift to zero, and anything else I could think of. I strongly suspect that I'm the problem but have never seen one of these pumps actually work.

I'd tapped into the water line with a fitting, hose thread one end and 1/2" barb on the other, to attach a garden hose, so poked the other end of the garden hose into the intake of an unused Guzzler diaphram pump and wrapped the junction with duct tape making it airtight. The Guzzler emptied the tank in short order. This is no good, though, without some kind of bilge (or other) pump available.
 
There have been several suggestions presented on cleaning water tanks and "novel" solutions to defeat fungal growth ... I particularly like the vodka idea!

When we cleaned Naknek's water tank, I found the main challenge was getting access to the inside of the tank for a thorough cleaning.

I cut an 8" access hole and installed a screw-in cover which made the job much easier, and subsequent cleaning would be easier as well. The white "deck hatch" from West Marine worked well, and silicon sealer (and screws) sealed the ring to the tank.

See the deck hatch at: ( http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs/st ... sNum=12946 ).

[Wow, is that a URL or what??]

Best,
Casey
(vice) C-Dory Naknek
...currently in AZ
 
On our 2000 22 ft C-dory it had a plastic sight tube. I just pulled it out of the holders and layed it on the floor out the door. ( also pulled the drain plug right under the door and poked the tube out the hole. drains more completely) It drained into the bilge and was pumped out. Good test for the bilge pump. Also a small 1/4 inch tube fits air tight into the 3/8 then it will syphon out of the boat. Good time to clean the scum out of the sight tube.
captd
 
Looks like I get another delta sierra (dumb s___) award. Following Joe's keep it simple stupid (KISS) message, I went down and bought 15' of 1/2" clear vinyl tubing to syphon the water out of my water tank.

When I got it down into the water tank, I couldn't get a syphon going, nor could I hear bubbles if I blew down the tube. Either I never filled the tank this year (we didn't cruise, just fished) or I had emptied it earlier in the year. Must be an early onset of "Old Timer's Disease".


:oops:
 
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