Flexible water tank. Source?

PuffTheMagicDragon

PuffTheMagicDragon

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I would like to replace one of the flexible water tanks on my boat but I have been unable to find one made in the shape of a trapezium. This lives in the keel of my Centurion 32 so it might have been of French origin; it seems to be well made but, unfortunately, the outside has been contaminated.

I don't imagine that they were custom made. Does anyone know where these are available please?

TIA.

Keel%20water%20tank_zps1ajs1ry5.jpg
 
I fitted a standard 100ltr rectangular water tank from Force 4 to my boat , resoning the tank will flex to take up the space inside the 'locker' that housed it.
It did.

One mistake I would caution against is make sure the filler pipe has enough length to follow the bag down as water gets used.

I 'tidied' mine up and found that on the first slow emptying of the tank as water was used placed strain on the connection to the tank sufficient to cause a big leak.
 
Thank you for your replies.
I followed the link provided by jakeroyd wherein Aeolus IV (who had a boat like mine at that time) recommended Duratank and also Frontier said that he had ordered flexible tanks from them. The impression that I got when I visited the site was that they only do rigid tanks. However, once the holidays are over, I shall contact them directly with dimensions and take it from there.
Once again, thank you all.
 
macd said:
No, they certainly do flexible tanks. See here: http://www.hovercraftconsultants.co.uk/pdfs/Single-SkinnedFlexibleTanksandLiners.pdf

Amongst the company's other products are hovercraft skirts, which are immensely tough and flexible. I had a water tank made by them about a decade ago: tough as old boots.
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Yes, you are quite right. I see from their enquiry form that one needs to specify "Rigid" or "Flexible". Once the holidays are over I shall remove the existing tank from the boat so that I can take dimensions because, at the moment, all I have is the photo that I posted.

Did you choose single skin or double? Mine lives in the fin keel and would have a capacity of 100-110 litres; I hope that, being custom made, it will still be affordable.
 
PuffTheMagicDragon said:
Did you choose single skin or double? Mine lives in the fin keel and would have a capacity of 100-110 litres; I hope that, being custom made, it will still be affordable.
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I chose single-skin, on the basis that the existing single-skin flexible tank had lasted about 25 years without ill-effect. (The Duratank was to give extra capacity: the original tank, in the top of the keel of a Rival 32, remained in use.) The material of the two tanks, a sort of thick, rubber-impregnated fabric, seemed very similar. Incidentally, the second tank replaced a double-skinned Plastimo tank which split after a matter of months.

Afraid I can't recall the price I paid: perhaps £140, but that could be miles out, around 10 years ago.

Incidentally, I've no idea who might have made the R32's original tank, but Rivals were built in Woolston, Southampton and HCL/Duratank are in Woolston, so...
 
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macd said:
I chose single-skin, on the basis that the existing single-skin flexible tank had lasted about 25 years without ill-effect.
:
:
Afraid I can't recall the price I paid: perhaps £140, but that could be miles out, around 10 years ago.

.
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Thanks for that info. I guess I'll know the current price soon enough when I send them the dimensions. I shall need to unscrew the cabin floor to get the existing bag out; not something that I wish to do with the weather we're having at the moment. :(
 
Well, I had two of these in my old Jeanneau. The only positive thing about this floppy stuff is that you can easily remove them before winterising the boat and take them home. Then you can throroughly clean them with a citric acid solution. The bad thing is that over time PVC the plasticers evaporate ( slower in Scotland , faster in the Med ) and that they fail unpredictably. Mine cracked when during filling of one tank and we ended up with about 250 ltrs of fresh water in the bilge ( and some liters were hiding somewhere and still surfaced after 12 months.
Now I have a solid 230 ltr Polyethylene tank with a large easily accessible inspection hatch. For my black water tank I build a wooden model with a snug fit into the available space. I then took it to a stainless steel fabricator, who made a perfect tank complete with a level sensor flange and a inspection whole.
 
Fendant said:
Well, I had two of these in my old Jeanneau...The bad thing is that over time PVC the plasticers evaporate...Now I have a solid 230 ltr Polyethylene tank
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Two of what, Fendant: Duratanks or some other flexible tanks? So far as I'm aware there's not a hint of PVC in a Duratank.
BTW I don't think a 'solid' tank would suit the OP. I think he wants to put water in his ;)
But good choice of material: polyethylene is the bees knees for rigid tanks.
 
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I had two tanks made out of the floppy stuff, never again.
Materials used for flexible tanks are fibre reinforced Hypalon(r) ( = clorinated PVC from Du Pont ) or PVC with Phtalate based plasticisers.
I removed the tanks every two years for intensive cleaning but failed to detect the increasing stiffness. I would have never imagined that such a long sudden large crack in a 12 year old tank which never saw sunlight could develop during filling, all seams still were ok.

I agree with McD, that a rotomoled HDPE tank is probably todays the preferred solution. Hope that the OP poster has a possibility to fit one.
 
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Fendant said:
I had two tanks made out of the floppy stuff, never again.
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Flexible tanks can be very durable, reliable and convenient. They can also be the opposite. Unless you're able to discriminate between the two, I'm not sure your comments are helpful. Certainly descriptions like "the floppy stuff" don't pin anything down.
 
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Hello,

I have a Sadler 290 with a Plastimo flexible water tank under the starboard berth. 150 litres I think. My problem is that if I brim it right up to the deck filler, I get about a bucket of water in the bilge over the course of an hour or two. It is a replacement one and only about 2 years old, so shouldn't be punctured. Any ideas very gratefully received.

John Willis
 
John Willis said:
Hello,

I have a Sadler 290 with a Plastimo flexible water tank under the starboard berth. 150 litres I think. My problem is that if I brim it right up to the deck filler, I get about a bucket of water in the bilge over the course of an hour or two. It is a replacement one and only about 2 years old, so shouldn't be punctured. Any ideas very gratefully received.

John Willis
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John, this points to problem with the filling hose and/or the flanges deckfill or tankside. Did you tighten the jubilee clips? I would then wrap household tissue around these spots and check again after the filling process. You will find the culprit quickly.
 
John Willis said:
I have a Sadler 290 with a Plastimo flexible water tank under the starboard berth. 150 litres I think. My problem is that if I brim it right up to the deck filler, I get about a bucket of water in the bilge over the course of an hour or two. It is a replacement one and only about 2 years old, so shouldn't be punctured. Any ideas very gratefully received.
Click to expand...

Fendant's advice may well be right, but I made the mistake of installing a Plastimo tank about a decade ago. It lasted a couple of months before a seam split. A truly feeble piece of kit compared to the Duratanks mentioned above.
 
VERY helpful thanks. The Water escapes from under the bunk so I guess the issue might be more at the filler pipe to tank join? Will get tissue trick��
 
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