New sea cock time.. stainless, dzr or Marelon?

contessaman

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Just looking on ASAP website not a great deal in it price wise between dzr, stainless or marelon.
thoughts on what’s best or the pros and cons of each?

my boat currently has stainless seacocks throughout. These are now old and leaky and upon disassembly pitted and corroded. Not necessarily a failing they could be 20 years old for all I know . Anyway I’ll be replacing skin fittings valves and hose tails starting from fresh so now the time to chose...
 
Bronze. I wouldnt use dzr or similar anywhere on a boat. Ok for a house but not if it floats!
I think that you might struggle to find a true bronze seacock these days. I recently purchased a Blakes model (which I'm very pleased with) but I don't think that it's bronze. I think that they have been DZR for some time.
 
+1 trudesign. Take care with the dimensions as they are a bit bigger than most dzr, bronze (or brass!!) ball valves; however it's easy to remove and refit the lever for installation purposes.

Leesan were jolly helpful when I did mine earlier this year.
 
I looked at Tru Design when I changed mine this year, they are much bulkier than a standard DZR, I used DZR from ASAP as Tru Design would not fit in the tight space.
 
Just looking on ASAP website not a great deal in it price wise between dzr, stainless or marelon.
thoughts on what’s best or the pros and cons of each?

my boat currently has stainless seacocks throughout. These are now old and leaky and upon disassembly pitted and corroded. Not necessarily a failing they could be 20 years old for all I know . Anyway I’ll be replacing skin fittings valves and hose tails starting from fresh so now the time to chose...
DZR from ASAP Supplies. In my experience they will last at least 15 years. Bronze is too risky as you can't trust what bronze alloy is used and some bronze alloys are just brass. I would not trust stainless ones not to corrode, you may be lucky. I have no experience of TruDesign though.

www.solocoastalsailing.co.uk
 
DZR from ASAP Supplies. In my experience they will last at least 15 years. Bronze is too risky as you can't trust what bronze alloy is used and some bronze alloys are just brass. I would not trust stainless ones not to corrode, you may be lucky. I have no experience of TruDesign though.

www.solocoastalsailing.co.uk
American bronze valves and tails are as good as you can get in my experience. Island Packets fit Groco as OE. The 21 year old ones on the previous boat, an Island Packet 350, were as good as new.

The True Design ones on our steel Kiwi boat ditto. Boat was built in 1986, No way of knowing when the valves were fitted, but most appear to be from build time by the hoses and clips and the paint on them from the several internal spruce ups before we got her.

Conversely, a Gibsea 96 we owned for a couple of years and a Hunter 27OOD both had shaft/handle failures. Dealing with the heads outlet after it had failed closed and had been used was not a pleasant job.................................................
 
My mate's, brother's, aunt's darts partner knew a chap who once went fishing with an around the World sailor, who's cousin's friend's boat fitted these bloody awful plastic death traps. His boat didn't sink, but he did once had a hose weep a bit due to a loose jubilee clip !

Wow those damn awful plastic valves - how dare they let them anywhere near a boat !

Anyway I fitted ~Forespar Marelon in 2017 to my engine inlets and last Winter replaced the remaining seacocks with similar. No sticking, no bonding, no problem. the rest of the boat is plastic, so why not the seacocks.
 
My mate's, brother's, aunt's darts partner knew a chap who once went fishing with an around the World sailor, who's cousin's friend's boat fitted these bloody awful plastic death traps. His boat didn't sink, but he did once had a hose weep a bit due to a loose jubilee clip !

Wow those damn awful plastic valves - how dare they let them anywhere near a boat !

Anyway I fitted ~Forespar Marelon in 2017 to my engine inlets and last Winter replaced the remaining seacocks with similar. No sticking, no bonding, no problem. the rest of the boat is plastic, so why not the seacocks.
That's what I figured. If you believe the blurb the Trudesign ones have been tested to hell and back, and I couldn't find any evidence of problems.
 
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