water tank filling hose - ribbed or braided?

[skyflyer]

(Don't read this whilst your consuming water from your onboard tanks!)

I bought a cheap pencil camera on the end of a long cable from fleabay and as an experiment shoved it down the water tank filling point and along the hose between there and the tank.

Oh dear - euchhh!

It is a white plastic reinforced hose, I guess with spiral wound plastic reinforcing so has lots of ridges all of which had accumulated over the years a rather nasty brown sludge.

Although I disinfect and steriise the tanks every season and fill right to the top of the fill point when I do so, clearly the damp dark warm environment which is mostly not full of water is a breeding ground for .. well, for whatever!:disgust:

Being ridges there is no practical way of cleaning it so I am going to replace it. It is 1.5 inch so my first thought was to use that braided clear PVC hose but I suspect that might buckle and close up where it bends. However being smooth, water is less likely to 'pool' anywhere and it would be easy to use some sort of springy rod with a mop to 'rod it' every so often.

Any other suggestions what to use?

Please don't bother thinking of ways how I might clean the original hose - it's going in the bin!

 

[Seashoreman]

I replaced my water system using braided clear 1.5 inch internal PVC hose into a bow bag. One thing I can assure you is this stuff doesn't buckle. I wrestled it through a couple of holes and a locker, the air was blue! I tried pouring boiling water on it to assist a couple of turns but it is as stiff as hell. The stuff I bought is on Seamark Nunn website which is within driving distance for me.

 

[prv]

I replaced my water system using braided clear 1.5 inch internal PVC hose into a bow bag. One thing I can assure you is this stuff doesn't buckle. I wrestled it through a couple of holes and a locker, the air was blue! I tried pouring boiling water on it to assist a couple of turns but it is as stiff as hell. The stuff I bought is on Seamark Nunn website which is within driving distance for me.

If you use a hot-air gun to soften it then it goes in fairly easily - but then it does potentially buckle!

I've just fitted a length of this as water filler because I missed it off my main hose order and it was all that Force 4 had in stock on the day. I would have preferred something opaque to exclude light that encourages growth.

Pete

 

[Stork_III]

Don't forget to change the overflow pipe as well, they are usually even worse.:disgust:

 

[Seashoreman]

Ah, did all this on a swinging mooring when I bought boat and sailed it home, so a bit tricky to use hot-air gun. I defy anybody to bend it otherwise.
I thought it was air that encouraged growth? certainly very clear after 4 years.

 

[garvellachs]

Have you done any plumbing at home lately - things don't look too good inside there either?

 

[GrahamHR]

Ah, did all this on a swinging mooring when I bought boat and sailed it home, so a bit tricky to use hot-air gun. I defy anybody to bend it otherwise.
I thought it was air that encouraged growth? certainly very clear after 4 years.

Reinforced smooth wall PVC is fine to begin with; the problem is that it is not PVC, but rather plasticised PVC. Those plasticisers eventually leach out, some to the outside, some into the liquid they are carrying, whether they are bad for you or not depends on precisely what they are. The hose becomes more rigid with time. Silicone hose is the way to go, it isn't even that expensive anymore (due to all the boy racers buying it for their turbo cars)

 

[prv]

I thought it was air that encouraged growth?

That too, but anything green probably photosynthesises and therefore giving it light is literally feeding it.

Pete