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causeway

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So I'm going to be putting pressurised water, calorifier, immersion into the boat but I'm trying to get the price down as low as possible.

The calorifier was 282 quid and should be here next week. Not the cheapest but easier to fit.

Can anyone recommend a good 12v pump that is cheap?

Likewise an accumulator? Jabsco mini one?

What's the best pipes to use? Caravan type? Hep?

I'm assuming car hoses for calorifier to engine?

I'm getting a couple of extending taps £20 each off eBay.

What else will I need?

I've got some help in the form of a plumber matey.

Thanks in advance!
 
Hep or something similar. Lots of spare push fittings. We have a sure-flo pump - quiet and reliable with built in pre-strainer. Would suggest some kind of inline filter as well. Good luck!
 
Fit a thermostatic mixer to the calorifier, it'll help save water. And put a non-return valve on the cold water inlet to the calorifier.
 
causeway said:
So I'm going to be putting pressurised water, calorifier, immersion into the boat but I'm trying to get the price down as low as possible.

The calorifier was 282 quid and should be here next week. Not the cheapest but easier to fit.

Can anyone recommend a good 12v pump that is cheap?

Likewise an accumulator? Jabsco mini one?

What's the best pipes to use? Caravan type? Hep?

I'm assuming car hoses for calorifier to engine?

I'm getting a couple of extending taps £20 each off eBay.

What else will I need?

I've got some help in the form of a plumber matey.

Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...

Shurflo or Jabsco are the only 12v pumps I know of, both are similar prices but I think Jabsco may be slightly cheaper.
We fitted a small accumulator to our boat a couple of years ago, cost was £25 but it's now nudging £30 I think. Cleghorn Wareing. The smallest they do (forgotten the size) but it works a treat.

Best pipes to use are plastic, same as now used in house plumbing and cheaply available from all builders merchants with all the fittings, Tees etc. Just Plug and play, really easy to fit.

Hoses to calorifier can be standard automotive heater hose.

A bag of pipe clips will also be needed.

All parts also available from Screwfix and may be even cheaper than builder's merchant. Good choice there too.

The only other thing you may need is a small inline strainer before the pump, an isolating valve so you can remove the pump and strainer for maintenance without having to drain the tank, and drain points (a tee and isolating valve) built into the lowest points so you can drain it down in winter.

Good luck.
 
Trundlebug said:
Best pipes to use are plastic, same as now used in house plumbing
Click to expand...

I'll need to replace the freshwater plumbing on Ariam fairly soon (hoses already split, taped to minimise - but not stop - the leak). I had assumed I'd be using hose again - but does pushfit (Speedfit, Hep2o, etc) bring any significant benefits? I'd be concerned about fittings (elbows or whatever) coming loose at the bottom of a cockpit locker or behind panelling, whereas hose would be seamless except at the actual joints.

Pete
 
AndyJ76 said:
You can buy the push fit pipes in reels, and it's relatively flexible: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIr6lWRf8H0

The fittings are really good.
Click to expand...

I'm reasonably familiar with the stuff, having replumbed my whole bathroom in it at home. I'm just curious what benefits it brings on a boat over even-more-flexible hose, that's much easier to run over the typical contorted route. I have to go through the engine bay, the cockpit locker, the space under the heads locker, a duct under the chart table, a locker under the bunk (in which I want to take up as little space as possible), a glassed-in tube under the sole, through the battery locker, and into the gash locker and join onto the galley tap. Even with the flexibility of pushfit tube, a lot of the corners will need manufactured elbows, which cost money, take time to fit, are bulky, and have a non-zero leak potential. I'm not seriously worried about leaks, at home I have pushfit joints under a tiled floor and above a freshly-plastered ceiling, but things do move around more on a boat.

Even given those downsides, I'd fit it if the benefits were worth it over quality potable-water hose. So what are they?

Pete
 
prv said:
Even given those downsides, I'd fit it if the benefits were worth it over quality potable-water hose. So what are they?

Pete
Click to expand...

Have you checked the price of hose versus plastic? If hose is better/cheaper, then I assume the volume boat builders would be using it . . . which they aren't.
 
Playtime said:
Have you checked the price of hose versus plastic? If hose is better/cheaper, then I assume the volume boat builders would be using it . . . which they aren't.
Click to expand...

That's interesting - I assumed they were! All the production boats I've messed with have had hose, but I guess if I was messing with them they tended to be older. So pushfit is the norm now, is it?

Pete
 
Trundlebug said:
Shurflo or Jabsco are the only 12v pumps I know of, both are similar prices but I think Jabsco may be slightly cheaper.
We fitted a small accumulator to our boat a couple of years ago, cost was £25 but it's now nudging £30 I think. Cleghorn Wareing. The smallest they do (forgotten the size) but it works a treat.

Best pipes to use are plastic, same as now used in house plumbing and cheaply available from all builders merchants with all the fittings, Tees etc. Just Plug and play, really easy to fit.

Hoses to calorifier can be standard automotive heater hose.

A bag of pipe clips will also be needed.

All parts also available from Screwfix and may be even cheaper than builder's merchant. Good choice there too.

The only other thing you may need is a small inline strainer before the pump, an isolating valve so you can remove the pump and strainer for maintenance without having to drain the tank, and drain points (a tee and isolating valve) built into the lowest points so you can drain it down in winter.

Good luck.
Click to expand...

thanks I'd never thought about the strainer and inline filter.

I'll probably buy the cheap stuff off screwfix and make sure it's well fastened to stop it moving too much
 
prv said:
That's interesting - I assumed they were! All the production boats I've messed with have had hose, but I guess if I was messing with them they tended to be older. So pushfit is the norm now, is it?

Pete
Click to expand...

I think plastic push fit has been the norm for more than 10 years. My year 2000 Bavaria had push fit.
 
Playtime said:
I think plastic push fit has been the norm for more than 10 years. My year 2000 Bavaria had push fit.
Click to expand...

OK. Yes, I'm talking older than that. Our new 1998 Maxi has hose, which is now past its best.

Starting to sound like pushfit is no better than hose, but is used by the big builders as it's cheaper?

Pete
 
I would say that the push fit systems are used if preference to hoses because as well as being quick to install, the plastic used does not taint the water. If you are using a pump to deliver the water you could use 10mm pipe, much easier to feed through tight spaces. With regard to a filter I would have to ask, what was being filtered out? Admittedly I have only ever filled water tanks from a mains supplied tap.
 
I have a filter (jabsco one) on the galley tap, I suppose I could use this before the pump?

I've been offered a 'parmax 1' pump, any opinions?

10mm pipe might make the install a lot handier, will this work ok with that pump and will pressure be ok? not after a power shower or anything!
 
myquest said:
I would say that the push fit systems are used if preference to hoses because as well as being quick to install, the plastic used does not taint the water. If you are using a pump to deliver the water you could use 10mm pipe, much easier to feed through tight spaces. With regard to a filter I would have to ask, what was being filtered out? Admittedly I have only ever filled water tanks from a mains supplied tap.
Click to expand...

I actually suggested a strainer, to ensure no tiny "bits" cause problems with the internal check valves in the pump etc.

Yes I too only fill the tank from a tap, but when I inspected the inside of our water tank was surprised to see some sand on the bottom of the tank - 20 year's worth of the odd bit in the air, blown off the decks when filling etc I guess.

To improve water quality further some people fit an activated carbon filter just before the galley c/w tap. Filters out just the same things as a Brita filter. Not obligatory but some prefer it.
 
causeway said:
I have a filter (jabsco one) on the galley tap, I suppose I could use this before the pump?

I've been offered a 'parmax 1' pump, any opinions?

10mm pipe might make the install a lot handier, will this work ok with that pump and will pressure be ok? not after a power shower or anything!
Click to expand...


See my post above. Only fit a strainer before the pump, leave the filter where it is.
Parmax pump should be fine.
10mm pipe. Depends on the lengths involved but for a short length (1m) it'll be OK, otherwise it'll probably restrict the flow considerably. Pressure wise (for the pump) not a problem but flow will probably be very slow IMO. You could give it a try I suppose if flow isn't critical and it makes the installation much easier.

Ref. age of plastic pipe, my boat is 1988 and fitted with 14mm plastic pipe throughout for all the domestic plumbing from new. Not exactly new technology. Leak free and reliable too. Galley, heads, shower, calorifier. The only part that's hose is the feed from the tank to the pump.
 
Trundlebug said:
some sand on the bottom of the tank - 20 year's worth of the odd bit in the air, blown off the decks when filling etc I guess.
Click to expand...

I think you do get a tiny amount of sand in mains water - don't they run it through sand as part of the cleaning process? Fairly sure I've seen a little of it on the bottom of old loft tanks, anyway.

Pete
 
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