Water System

[Norman]

Hope someone can help me with a water problem. I purchased my Catalina 28 Mrk ii from a Maine seller and transporter her down by land to Lake Lanier in North Georgia.  She is a beautiful lightly used boat just perfect for our lake north of Atlanta.  When first commissioned her but before hooking up the water tank (she had been winterized) the water in the head, galley and shower worked. Then I reconnected the hot water tank located very far aft section of the boat.   Then the water flowed in the galley for a while, sputtered and now I can get hardly a drop.  My water pump is working and I have both hot and cold water running in the head and at the swim shower, but nothing at the galley sink.  I can see no kinks in the lines and I am sure I have hooked up my hot water tank correctly. I can't tell if there are filters in the lines to the galley sink that may have clogged as it hard to access back behind the sink.  Any one have any ideas what my problem could be?
Thanks,
Norman

[Stu Jackson]

First step would be to unscrew the screen at the faucet outlet.  Sometimes they clog.

Norm, there is a VERY active C34 Fleet 13 on your lake.  Find Dottie Toney and join up, they have all different sizes of Catalinas.

[KWKloeber]

Norman,

I'm a little confused about the sequence...

but before hooking up the water tank (she had been winterized) the water in the head, galley and shower worked.

Worked before you hooked up the water tank - ass/u/ming that hose was pulled and it was drained for winter -- how did you get water then?

I'd either go to (1) the last point in the water supply hose (1/2" hoses) where you get water and work toward the galley sink or, (2) start at the galley sink and work toward the pump to see where's the problem.  If you have a compressor or an air tank you can remove both ends and see if there's an obstruction.

There's always a chance the PO added a taste/odor filter on just the galley sink line, but I would think it would be seen/accessible for changing the cartridge.

Just a check, did you remove the faucet aerator (make sure it's not totally clogged and blocking flow)?

Also, there make sure there is no check valve in the supply line -- unlikely -- there's one off the water heater supply, but if you have flow elsewhere that's on correctly/not blocked.


Ken

[tommyt]

I am going to assume that the HW tank was bypassed for winterization as that is what we do. So, I will be the third to say...... look at the aerator at the galley faucet. That is usually where the problem is if everything else is working.

Good luck

[Ron Hill]

Norman : I'm sure that Stu is correct in that the aerator screen on the galley faucet is clogged.

When you winterize this next fall, I'd blow out all of the water in the water heater and watch all the "junk" come out!!

a thought

[Jim Hardesty]

I'd blow out all of the water in the water heater and watch all the "junk" come out!!

Ron,  When I changed my water heater I was surprised at all the water that was still in the tank after being drained.  I'm sure draining completely would be good.  Just how do you blow out the water from the water heater?
Jim

[Indian Falls]

You don't have hot or cold at the galley faucet?  Pull the aerator.  If you do have cold but not hot, did you wait 5 min for the tank to fill?  The sputtering was just water in the lines coming out in that case.

[KWKloeber]

Jim,

I use one of these.
http://www.harborfreight.com/catalogsearch/result?q=air+tank   (good also for lots of other uses)

I installed my new WH with garden hose fittings (I can unscrew, and screw the male/female hoses together to bypass the WH if pumping pink stuff.   So I can also purge using those w/ a hose I made for the air tank. I added a cheap HF digital pressure regulator on my tank because I use it for many other purposes. Everything is on quick connects so I can remove and store it w/o damage, swap different hoses, inflator ends, etc.

Or you could purge with a shop vacuum and an attachment that fits inside the 1/2" hose http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000HJ94ZQ

Or plumb in a hard fitting you can screw into.  Haven't tried, but plumbing in a schrader (tire) valve probably might restrict the air flow too much - you want volume and pressure.  That's what's on the OEM hose on the air tanks.


ken

[Ron Hill]

Jim : Just switch the hose on your shop vac and exhaust the hose into the top fill and catch the water and the extra sediment from the bottom exit fitting. 
I've also done the same by attaching a short section of 1/2" hose and just blowing in it! 

Yes, people are surprised at how much water is still in the hot water tank after the butter fly drain stops dripping!!

A few thoughts

[RV61]

Jim,
After draining hot water tank I use my dinghy foot pump to blow out the rest of the water out of the HW Tank.

[Fred Koehlmann]

Yep, we also use the shop-vac (an essential boaty appliance) to suck out as much of the remaining water from the drain hose of the water heater. Once nothing comes out, there still is some in there, so we then start adding plumbing anti-freeze from the pump end. Effectively diluting the water as much as possible with the anti-freeze as we continue sucking it through.

Maybe a bit paranoid, but after the first season we found having to replace the tank wasn't much fun. An unfortunate aspect of living further north.