My friends Niagara 35 has an accumulator tank which maintains water pressure so his pump does not come on with every use of the pressure water system as mine do. Have you heard of these on a Catalina?
Mark
Mark,
I don't have one on my 34 MKll, don't see the need. I assume that your reason for wanting to add one is for noise reduction. Did put one on my previous boat, the pump was in the head that was next to the vberth. Wanted to keep the sleeping cabin as quiet as possible. Remember that the larger the accumulator tank the more water you can draw without the pump comming on. And you can mount the tank anyplace in the system past the pump. With the boat type tank you can only draw a glass of water or two before the pump cycles. If you put in a house sized tank you could draw a half gallon. That would make a real difference.
Before doing anything you may want to look at the mounting of your existing pump to make sure that it isn't allowing excessive vibration.
Jim
Mark : The accumulator tank is not necessary with the Sureflow and Flowjet fresh water pumps that the factory installed.
If you have another brand, then one may be necessary.
There also is the concept of "knowing" your pump works and, more importantly, that you do not have a leak in your system, by hearing the pump run when a faucet is turned on. You'll also know if you left a faucet partially open. Just old school, here... Also just bought a replacement, old style, pump, on a good sale. I'd thought about an accumulator for many years and haven't been able to justify it.
When we bought Donnybrook the water pump was very noisy. I found it had worked its way off some of the rubber bushings. Correcting made it much quieter. My boat before Donnybrook had an extremely loud pump so I'm satisfied.
I actually find someone pumping the manual head at night more disruptive than the water pump.
Hello folks,
I have a tangential question:
When my water pressure switch is on, the pump cycles on for about 3 seconds every 15 minutes (without any tap open). I don't see any sign of a leak in the water system downstream of the pump.
Have you encountered such a behavior from your pump? Any suggestions for fixing it? (The noise is annoying. And I don't recall it happening the first few years I had the boat.)
Thank you,
Tony Benoit
Helen C
'89 #903
Mine does the same thing, but not every 15 mins, more like once or twice if I'm on the boat ALL day.
I don't know how your pump is set up, but this sounds to me like a dirty or faulty check valve. It would be between your pump and tank may be built into the pump at the inlet. It would look like a ball and spring.
Jim
You probably have a slight leak on the pressure side. It is probably so small or in multiple connections that you will not be able to see it, clear water on a clear line is tough to see. It is easier to run a piece of tissue paper around each fitting to find the leaking ones. Or since you have to check each one, I would just get my 1/4" drive socket and a screwdriver and tighten each clamp. The real hard ones feed the galley sink, they are buried behind the hot water heater. As a point of reference, mine cycles maybe once every 8-10 hours.
I think that once every 10-12 hours is probably normal, but I had the same problem a few years ago, my pump would cycle about every 5 minuted and and this was after we had done some extensive plumbing changes, new water heater, sink and faucet.After spending days trying to find a leak, it turned out to be a bad pressure switch in the pump. We got a new variable speed pump and it's been working good ever since. Just one more possibility.
Mike
The threaded plastic fittings on the water heater are another possibility. Mine had a very slight leak so I had to remove and reseal with teflon tape.
I had a similar problem. Turned out to be the hot water heater. Could not find it until it got worse this year.
DarBay had a similar problem. The pump would cycle every 30 minutes or so. I tighten all the clamps and now it just cycles every 4 hours or so. I think I can live with that. I am afraid of over tighting the clamps.
However
I do have an accumulator tank on our boat. It has a scharder (bicycle type value) Should I pump this up to a certain psi?
Guys : When the fresh water pump cycles as it has detected a difference in output pressure that can be caused by two things:
1. There is a slight leak in one of the numerous hot or cold water hose junctions / dripping faucet.
2. Junk in the tank (especially the shavings from cutting in the vents and exit ports) can and will get caught in the diaphragm of the fresh water pump. In the early 1990s I recommend that all C34 owners change to a finer fresh water strainer. The strainer that origionally came from the factory is the same course type as the raw water engine strainer. In the Mainsheet tech notes I gave the company tel #, the part # and cost for the finer strainer.
A few thoughts
I belong to the same club only my slight leak was in the cockpit shower lines
..... .out of sight and out of mind till the pump told me about it. It is worth a look.
Dear Forum Readers and Writers,
Here's an update on my pump problem (futile cycling).
History: About every 3 minutes, the pump comes on for about 2 seconds. The noise is annoying, sometimes even startling.
I had previously checked for leaks in the downstream tubing. I couldn't be absolutely sure, but I couldn't find any sign of leakage or water loss/accumulation in the bilge. I disconnected the pump outlet at the first T and blocked it off. (So, I had a 2 foot stretch of deadended pipe attached to the pump outlet). The pump cycled on for about a tenth of a second every few seconds. If I squeezed the blocked hose (ie, put back pressure on the pump), the pump would switch on immediately on release of the pressure. To me, these symptoms suggested that the pump is losing pressure backwards through itself.
Latest: I just spoke with Dave in Technical Support at ITT/Flojet. He confirmed that the problem sounds like a broken, dirty, or jammed check valve in the pumphead (NOT the separate check valve downstream in the plumbing system). A replacement check valve is included in the Pump Service Kit, part no. 21046-057. Defender has never heard of this part number, and Dave warned not to try something else: The pieces may or may not fit.
I found that part number at ABS Alaska of Washington state and ordered it. I had tried calling a distributor in New York state, but could not get through to anyone who could help me (kept going to hold).
I will let you all know how the rebuild goes.
Thanks,
Tony
================
Helen C
#903 '89
Tony,
I've noticed my fresh water pump to cycle every so often. I checked for leaks but never found any. I never found a solution, but came up with a theory as to why this was happening with my system. The end result is I've done nothing about it since it occurs infrequently and when the pump cylcles, it lasts about 2 seconds. Here is my logic and what I figured.....I need to clean my galley faucet airator often because it becomes clogged with mineral/calcium deposits that restrict flow. I also realized that my pump cycling never happens at the beginning of the season, but would start to happen into the middle of the season, like around July. It then occured to me that if the airator got clogged with deposits, then over time, the same thing would happen to the pump diaphram as the season went on. If the diaphram wasn't seated tightly, then a small amount of water would trickle through and cause it to cycle to keep the pressure up. I asked myself why would the diaphram be clean at the start of the season....well, I figured the commissioning that I do to the water system (Peggie Hall's method) of using bleach and letting it sit over night, then purging the tanks over and over again might clean the diaphram out.
So....I've never confirmed that this is the case with my cycling issue, but since there are no leaks, and this has now been the situation for almost 10 years, I've let it go....
Roc : Look at my previous post.
I believe that you need the finer strainer and that should solve your problems!! A thought
Hi All,
I called FLOJET's tech service and talked to Dave. He told me that the short-cycling sounds like a bad check valve in the pump head.
From ABS Alaskan in Washington state I got FLOJET Part No. 21046-057, a pump rebuild kit.
I rebuilt the pumphead, though after I got started I could see that I could have more easily just swapped out the check valves. In oldWithBadORing.jpg, you might be able to see the slight kink in the o-ring (topleft corner). OldAndNew.jpg shows the pumphead with the new check-valve in place. The old one is lying in front of it.
After I reassembled the pump, the short-cycling seems to have disappeared. Also, it used to be that when I flicked on the Water Pressure switch, the pump would run for about 3 seconds. Now it seems to hold pressure even when off.
If you rebuild your FLOJET, be sure to completely remove the pumphead from the motor before you start to disassemble it. There is a lock screw on the shaft (allen head) which you can access through a little slot on the pump housing. You may need to remove the mounting platform from the motor to get at the slot. If you don't take the pumphead off the motor, you will be tempted (as I was) to force some of the parts to disengage from each other. Turns out that they are screwed on but you can't see the screwheads until the pump is off.
Note: If you just want to swap out the check-valve, just remove just the top half of the pump. The old one can be easily popped out. You might even get away with just replacing the o-ring.
Enjoy,
Tony
======================
Helen C
'89 Standard/Wing #903
Quote from: Tony Benoit on July 02, 2010, 11:35:23 AMNow it seems to hold pressure even when off.
Tony,
Nice report, thanks, and glad you fixed the issue.
I suggest that you get in the habit of opening (then closing) a faucet after you turn the power off to the pump, especially when you leave the boat. No need to have the pressure stay in the system when you're not there.