Water tank fill adapter?

Our freshwater tank holds 80 gallons and our dock hose produces almost 3 gallons per minute. 20-25 minutes is a typical fill time, but my knees can only handle about 10 minutes of kneeling at the fill port in our cockpit.

The tank fill shares the same threaded lid fitting as the fuel and holding tanks. Seems like this fitting is almost ubiquitous. Being almost a standard, it's hard to believe there isn't a few adapters that thread in or at least clip in to those threads to "hold" the hose in place while the water tank fills. What am I missing?

Many tanks will accept a 3ft section of std water hose if there is no metal on the end going into the tank.Stick a section on your fill hose

This still allows the air to escape as you fill the tank , which is safe and will make lots of overflow noise when the tank is filled .

No cost.

No cleat or railing nearby to wrap the hose around? That's what we do.

I'm not at the boat, so I don't have a picture, but I have just what you want. All my fill pipes are wall mounted instead of in the deck. So I took a garden hose female end to 1/2" hose barb and attached 2' of flexible vinyl tubing to it. I cut the output end on a long angle to facilitate insertion. Some of my fill pipes have sharp 90s. So having the hose cut to a point and being able to rotate it, allows for relatively easy insertion. Between the hose end and my fill hose, I have a quarter turn hose valve to regulate and shut off the flow. Some municipal water has much more pressure and thus flow than others.

I feel doing it this way is important as it allows air to vent up the fill pipe as well as out the tank vent. This keeps the tank from being pressurized from the city water system.

Ted

2 situations I find.

One is low to normal water pressure and the hose end just stays in the opening and I walk away and set the egg timer based on flow.

The second is nuclear pressure that rivals fire hoses and no way does the hose stay put. For those, I put a small weight over the end of the hose to keep it in the filler neck. Then I set the egg timer.

My last resort might be a small length of hose that goes deeper into the filler that is larger diameter to reduce exit velocity and cut it at a long angle might help too. But after many years and many boats I usually have found something to weight the hose down and go about business.

My fill is in the deck, so I just drape the hose over the aft rail and stick about 6 inches of it into the fill pipe. Even at docks with great water pressure I've never had the hose come out of place.

Mine was a deck fill, and I just made a short 2-foot section of hose that I screwed onto the dock hose and that stuck in the fill enough to stay.
I could always tell when the tank was just about full because it made and expansion clank or whatever you want to call that noise when the sides of the tank popped.
Then I'd go to the deck fill and wait for the overflow.

I use a 1-1/2" mpt x 3/4" fpt galvanized adapter and 3/4" mpt x hose thread adapter. Screw into the deck fitting to fill and remove after. Tank has a separate vent/overflow so no over pressure worry.

i use one of these. simple and cheap
https://www.campingworld.com/water-tank-filler-with-shut-off-valve-4674.html

I had found those clear extension items, but figured I was over thinking it. The short length of hose is a great idea. Thanks, folks!

I use three things, a Camco extension, an Orbit flow meter and a spring clamp. The Camco keeps the nozzle into the filler (but their metal bail is useless on our deck fill). The Orbit meter lets me keep tabs on how much is going in there. The in-line valve on the Camco lets me control it right there. I use the spring clamp as a way to keep the hose elevated in a straight line down toward the filler port. I could use a line, but the clamps are handy to have on-hand for various other things now and then.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08HBGD6Z3
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0187BOFD6
https://www.rockler.com/10-piece-woodworkers-spring-clamp-set

One upside to using the clear section is you remember this is for YOUR DRINKING WATER and take some care with it. Versus a cut off chunk of a regular hose that someone might mis-use for, say, washing off the deck after a pump out.

As for the threaded fitting, I'd caution AGAINST using it. Municipal water pressure is likely greater than the clamps on your internal hoses would withstand. Yes, there's an overflow/vent line in most tanks, but the opening is usually pretty small. You don't want the full force of the municipal water system's pressure pushing hard on your hoses, fittings and tank.

On a previous boat we had a poly tank, and even with just a hose into the deck fill it hand a tendency to seriously bulge out if I let it overfill. The overflow would spew, and the deck fill would back up but the tank itself would swell, nearly enough to be an issue for the metal hold-down straps keeping it in place.

Thus in the current boat I read what the system says I still have in the tanks and use my flow meter to keep an eye on how much is actually going in. I can manage to monitor the fill numbers on the hose meter and catch it just before it starts to back up the to the deck fill.

Great stuff. Thank you, Bill. Using clear tubing makes sense from a cleaning maintenance perspective and that water meter is a real deal.

I've been pleasantly surprised how much that little meter helps. Gauge on boat says "83 gallons to fill" and at around 82-ish gallons I cut it off. Gauge on boat says "100%". No overflow (and the risk of deck backwash into the tank).

FF said:

Many tanks will accept a 3ft section of std water hose if there is no metal on the end going into the tank.Stick a section on your fill hose

This still allows the air to escape as you fill the tank , which is safe and will make lots of overflow noise when the tank is filled .

No cost.

Click to expand...

Be careful if you do this with a hose with regular metal threads on the end. My wife did once and the hose threads got tangled with the chain holding the fill cap. Took a bit of work to free it. I recently switched to this type of nozzle that fits in the opening and generally stays put while tanks fill and I go do other things. You may or may not be able to fully open depending on the water pressure. Helps it you have a cleat or something nearby to wrap the hose around. Good cheap solution for me.

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Orbit-1-Pattern-Nozzle/1000168331

Camco nozzle and meter arrived yesterday. Looking forward to happier knees and easier filling, but will have to wait for Spring. Ugly at the lake this week.

Camco nozzle and meter arrived yesterday. Looking forward to happier knees and easier filling, but will have to wait for Spring. Ugly at the lake this week.

HeadedToTexas said:

Camco nozzle and meter arrived yesterday. Looking forward to happier knees and easier filling, but will have to wait for Spring. Ugly at the lake this week.

Click to expand...

That's some pretty sporty conditions there!