Where is the water?????

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yankeebloke

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after draining the water system for winter, i finally filled up the water tank today.

Turned on the water pump and i can hear it running, but i cannot get any water out of the taps???:confused:

i assume its some kind of air lock? or something?

not sure how to go about recitifying the issue, please advise, i am a bit clueless on this, and dont want to go at it from the wrong angle!

Cheers

John
 
could be a leak between the pump and accumulator (if you have one) or the pump and the first tap. Any sign of unusual water in the bilge ? Is the water level in the tank falling ?
 
this is where my lack of familiarity with the boat lets me down.

No idea what pump it is, dont know if i have an accumulator, and i have no way to know what level the tank is at (no indicator)

on the plus side there is no water appearing anywhere (yet)

On sat i will go back to boat and turn on pump and lift / take things apart until i get to source of the sound! and see whats there.

All pipework is connected, as i was able to drain the tank via the taps.....that took a long time.

I have two sets of taps, sink taps and shower / toilet taps, tried both no joy on either set, it must be the pump not priming properly? i thought weight of water in pipe/pressure etc would prime/fill the pump, maybe i need to do something else?

The boat is a Sealine 218..........if anybody can tell me exactly where to look and what to look for?:rolleyes:

thanks

John
 
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Pump should be a shurflo this is located in the locker that houses the seacocks for toilet in aft cabin on the bulkhead that will be facing you as you look into the locker. There should be a glass bowl at the bottom of pump this has a gauze filter inside this usually needs cleaning calcium build up.Make sure the relief valve on top of calorifier (hotwater tank) is closed give it a couple of clicks otherwise water will just be pumping out through relief valve overboard.If you have filled tanks completely just turn taps on after a lot of coughing and sputtering (air in system)water should flow.
 
my only other suggestion is that you night not have let the taps stay open long enough for the water to prime the pump and then fill the pipework between the pump and the tap. ?
 
Thanks all

H20...you said if i had filled both tanks fully.....

I only filled the water tank, i have not done anything with the calorifier should i also be filling this? i assumed it took water from the main holding tank?

but thanks for pump location etc, no i know where to look:D
 
no thats ok you have not confused me,

i will top up the tank again on saturday, i will fill it until the water comes to the top of the filling valve (i assume it wont cause an issue to to do this) and i will have more time to turn taps on and let pump run, then i can also look at the pump etc
 
Just to finish this thread out.

went back to boat this eveing and filled the water tank fully, turned on taps and water pump and let it all run for a good 5 mins....................WATER CAME OUT!!!!!!:D

Thanks all for the help, problem sorted, i just wanst patient enough:rolleyes:

John
 
yankeebloke said:
Just to finish this thread out.

went back to boat this eveing and filled the water tank fully, turned on taps and water pump and let it all run for a good 5 mins....................WATER CAME OUT!!!!!!:D

Thanks all for the help, problem sorted, i just wanst patient enough:rolleyes:

John
Click to expand...


This thread is EXTREMELY interesting to me. I too have a Sealine 218 (just purchased) with almost the same problem.

The difference we have is that when we fill the water tank up to point at which it flows out the filler, then put cap on and run pump, it primes and we can get water, even ran it to empty yesterday as a test BUT, and this is a very annoying but, if you turn the taps off and leave it for any length of time such as 5 minutes or longer then no more water comes out! The pump just runs and runs without priming.

Like you I have looked in the engine bay but can't see any water. Unless there is another bilge area I am not ware of that I should be looking?

It's causing a problem in that when we go out for the day and want to wash up, make a cuppa etc we can't.

Any thoughts from the knowledgeable of this forum would be VERY much appreciated.
 
Any thoughts from the knowledgeable of this forum would be VERY much appreciated.

Does the system have a cartridge filter somwehere in line.Is it blocked ?
These are supposed to be changed every 6 or 12 months, but @ £25+ a pop doubt it gets done very often.
Took mine out years ago and the tea still tastes the same.
 
I had a similar system in my last boat, every time you fill the tank (if it has run dry) you need to open all taps/shower (remember the one on the bathing platform) and flush wc (if its on the same line). Leave the taps open until water comes out them all this ensures there is no air in the line.
 
if its of any help to any body...when i bleed the system on my s24, i only do 1 tap at a time. this does 2 things. 1, you know that the tap that flows is bled .2, if you have a prob you will know which tap has the air lock....
 
Managed to finally take another look into why the pump doesn't prime on our boat. Found another compartment under one of the sleeping bays which had the metal water tank underneath and surprise surprise there was a small swimming pool around the tank!

So I assume, and please correct me if I'm wrong, that I now need to pump out the water, fill up the water tanks again to see if the leak is from a pipe or the tank itself. There were three pipes connected as far as I could see, one of which is the filler pipe.
 
It's my guess your tank will be holed.

I had to replace both alloy tanks on our sealine 240 after discovering they had severe corrosion, usually where they rest on the rubber tape put under the tank when built.
My sympathy is with you when you need to do the fuel tank, allow for 2 days to extract it, have many plasters and savlon to hand for the cuts and injuries you need to sustain.

Water tank on the other hand is straightforward.
 
enterprise said:
It's my guess your tank will be holed.

I had to replace both alloy tanks on our sealine 240 after discovering they had severe corrosion, usually where they rest on the rubber tape put under the tank when built.
My sympathy is with you when you need to do the fuel tank, allow for 2 days to extract it, have many plasters and savlon to hand for the cuts and injuries you need to sustain.

Water tank on the other hand is straightforward.
Click to expand...

From what I could see the tank was just sitting in the compartment, no fixings.

Petrol tank eh, PLEASE, PLEASE don't let that spring a leak! I don't think I have enough plasters.
 
There were no fixings, tanks rest on foam strips and not directly onto the fibreglass, held in place by strategically placed bits of batten.

Both tanks looked perfect, water tank went first followed 12 months later by the fuel tank, they both went where there was no air circulation , so unable to dry if wet with condensation etc.

The tanks were both severely pitted on the underside, more where the foam had been, so my advice would be, if you can, check around the tank for the same foam material, if you find it assume you might need to remove your tanks in the future.

PS these were alloy tanks made for sealine by 'The Tank Co.' (according to the labels on the side), when we tried to get some replacements they were difficult to source.
In the end I went to sealine who gave me a copy of the drawings and dimensions.

The freshwater tank we purchased from CAK tanks who do excellent replacements in Poly, the fuel tank we had the original vulcanised (coated internally and externally in rubber), like they do for classic vehicle tanks when it's hard to source replacements.
 
I found the leak!

Many thanks for all the advice and help. I removed the swimming pool in the bilge compartment where the water tank sat then removed the hoses and took the tank out.

As you described the underneath was quite pitted and there was indeed a small leak, wouldn't have thought it was enough to stop the tank priming but obviously it was.

I am lucky enough to have a friend who owns an engineering business who has kindly offered to repair the tank, or failing that can fabricate another if it can't be made air/water tight.

I have some photos of the tank in place and also when removed. I will upload at some point in case it may help others in future.
 
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