Upgrading My Water System

[man7sell]

I have replaced most of the galley, including the faucet. Will be doing the same in the head. But before I go too far, my water pressure is weak (in fact fortnight (two week)) English humor.


The pressure also goes up and down as there is no accumulator tank.


So I have bought a tank, and an upgraded water pump from a 2 GPM, that is nowhere near that, to a 4 GPM pump. While I am at it, on my last sailboat I had a back deck shower. That shower burst one winter so I replaced it. First bought the wrong size but never returned that shower faucet. So now I have one for this boat.


Anything I'm missing?

 

[tiltrider1]

I think you have it covered. However, i have thought such things in the past and been wrong.

I just went through something similar with my boats raw water wash down system. I have two faucets on The system. One stern and one on the bow. The stern never worked, the bow was weak so I upgraded the pump to higher volume and replaced the rear faucet. Guess what nothing changed. I then started chasing the line looking for clogs. After chasing every inch of water line I had the stern working very well but the bow was still weak. I replaced the bow faucet and now the whole stem works correctly. Who would have guessed that the faucets were a weak link compounded by other issues.

 

[Altair38]

Yes. You do need to be able to winterize the system. See diagram below:

This diagram includes drains for the water tank and hot water tank. It also includes a bypass to allow the hot water tank to be removed from the system and antifreeze to be pumped from the water tank to all cold and hot water faucets. This configuration also allows water to enter through the hot water outlet to rinse the tank and flush everything out the drain. The filter is optional, but I recommend it. If you look at most professionally crewed yachts, they always have a filter on the water before it goes into their boat.

 

[man7sell]

Yes. You do need to be able to winterize the system.

Very good points. My boat stays in the water year round, and here in the PNW the sea water stays around 50 degrees so now freezing in the boat. However, the outside shower can freeze. So shutoffs and drains will the added to that part of the system when I get to install it. Also I always add shutoffs to any faucets, and of course the water heater.

 

[Snapdragon III]

Looks good. If you achieve great water pressure, you will go through your water tanks a lot faster.

 

[Lepke]

Put some shut off valves in the hot & cold lines so if you nave a leak you can isolate it w/o draining the whole system to fix.

 

[twistedtree]

Do NOT put a check valve in the cold water feed to the HW heater unless you also have an accumulator tank on that side. Otherwise water expansion as water is heated will have no place to go and you will likely get releases from the over pressure valve on the HW tank.

 

[man7sell]

Looks good. If you achieve great water pressure, you will go through your water tanks a lot faster.

l You are correct. However, you can always turn the water down if you have higher pressure, but you can't turn it up if you don't have enough pressure

 

[captmikem]

Who would have guessed that the faucets were a weak link compounded by other issues.

Often times a weak faucet is simply a clogged screen on the end of the faucet. They screw off easilly and are easy to clean. Good idea to clean them every six months or so.