Pressure pump...

I'm wondering if the folks that live aboard turn off their pressure pump when leaving the boat for a few hours or more. I had a hose come off my deck shower and empty the tank. Fortunately I was on board and figured out what had happened before the water pump burned up. I thought of just turning off the DC master switch, but then if I lost commercial power the fridge would not come on. The only way I can do it is to constantly turn off the pressure pump breaker switch every time I leave. So I'm wondering what it is that other folks do?
Thanks

I turn pump off when not on boat. If on marina water, turn it off at dock if gone for more than a few hours.

Usually live off city water..so the pump is only on when underway/anchor/marina with no water.

Turn off the city water when leaving the boat for more than a couple hours.

Used one for years...have a spare that I may go back to using...a water timer that works on gallons...not time. Set it for 200 or so gallons and you don't have to worry as much from the city water sinking your boat.

Every month I try to draw down the tanks to keep them fresh...as long as I know the water supply is good and available.

I don't ever leave the city water on, only use it to fill the water tank and live off that (except for drinking) that way my tanks get refreshed constantly and I don't worry about sinking the boat if a hose comes undone. I'm just concerned with not burning up my water pump or water heater if the tank runs out of water. I guess I'll just make a habit of turning off the pump when I'm not here. Save me worrying about it and will only cost a new breaker switch if it wears out.

If you have decent bilge pumps...it takes awhile to sink a boat from a hose.

While I agree that fresh water should be turned over regularly...fearng city water is just not rational.

5 times in the last several years I have had a hot water hose break with nearly 100 psi dock pressure (that's why the hoses were breaking along with that it was spare but cheaper hose). The 1000gph bilge pump always maintained the bilge level so low that the second bilge pump never came on and sounded the alarm....even on overnight hose breaks and maybe longer.

While being careful is important, fear comes from a boating community with little real world experience....and it gets passed along as urban legend by mouth and internet now.

After 11 years in the towing/salvage business....I'll bet I have worked on at least 200 at the dock sinkings...not one of them was from a dock hose left on that filled the boat.

Good points psneeld, and well taken. Thankyou. Although now that you mention it, I just realized that there is no connection on this boat to hook up to dockside water if I wanted too. Never really realized that before now. Always just made sure the tank wasn't empty. I'm glad I asked the question & I appreciate your input. Unfortunately the option to take advantage of your suggestion doesn't exist at this time, unless I pressurized the system from an outside faucet...not sure about that though... Wonder why the boat never had one..is that typical?

The only time we've turned off the pump is when we're gone for vacation. We fill and use the tanks vice a hose connection to city water- worst case is that a connection/hose breaks, 400 gallons go into the bilge and are pumped overboard, and I have to possibly replace a heater element in the water heater (plus repair the break).

Been doing this as full time liveaboards the last 4 years without incident.

I turn off the pump's electrical circuit when leaving the boat at the marina. I turn off everything except the bilge pumps, 110AC inlet, charger, and refrigerator.

most of the time the hot water heater is fine unless the break is somehow below the element and it siphons out...in all my fresh water system failures...never has the water heater element burned out ..just once on my boat and once in my RV when the system was turned on with no water in the system.

if gone for a long time...then I guess the water could evaporate and expose the element.

markpierce said:

I turn off the pump's electrical circuit when leaving the boat at the marina. I turn off everything except the bilge pumps, 110AC inlet, charger, and refrigerator.

Click to expand...

Me to

"I turn off the pump's electrical circuit when leaving the boat at the marina. I turn off everything except the bilge pumps, 110AC inlet, charger, and refrigerator."

Me to.
But i work with two pumps, 12 Volt waterpress pump for underway and 110 Volt houspump ( st. steel) for the marine.
_________
Norbert

I used to leave my water pump on. Then all of sudden, thankfully I was on the boat, one of the hoses failed and pulled off of the faucet. Water was dumping everywhere in my cabinets. I can only imagine the damage if I hadn't caught it. So, we do turn off the breaker when leaving the boat.

turn this to "off" and I suppose most everything shuts down.

markpierce said:

turn this to "off" and I suppose most everything shuts down.

Click to expand...

And the bilge pumps too?
__________
Norbert

That's my presumption. Never yet (2.5 years) had the need to turn that switch to "off."

Pau Hana said:

... worst case is that a connection/hose breaks, 400 gallons go into the bilge and are pumped overboard....

Click to expand...

Exactly what happened to us, cruising offshore. I could not hear water pressure pump,or bilge pump running, over the engines etc, until we entered harbour. Lost a lot of water,quite inconvenient. A while back posters disagreed with indicator lights for bilge pump running,it would have helped in this case. Now, I leave the pump off at the breaker; easily turned on when/if needed while cruising. I turn it, and everything except bilge pumps off, on leaving the boat for extended time.

Good point to switch it off while underway. Never thought about doing that but makes sense. I can barely hear it my pump without the engines running..but then again I don't hear very well anyway. I think that is a very good idea while traveling.

We mounted the breaker panel for the water pump ,cabin lights and propane right in the galley.

No problem using the CB as a switch to enable what ever is required.

A pump on light is a great addition (bilge or FW) to any boat.

Fresh water from the tanks cannot sink the boat. I use a water timer if I am connected to shore supply in a marina. Water timers are cheap and work well. Just remember to reset it every week.

In 15 years I have had one hose come loose and dump my fresh water from my two tanks into the bilge. Now I use one of the two tanks at a time, alternating each week.

markpierce said:

I turn off everything except the bilge pumps, 110AC inlet, charger, and refrigerator.

Click to expand...

As do I and with one breaker switch.

MYMT said:

Good point to switch it off while underway. Never thought about doing that but makes sense. I can barely hear it my pump without the engines running..but then again I don't hear very well anyway. I think that is a very good idea while traveling.

Click to expand...

I think not so, i will wash my hand and face when y use the bathroom underway.
My installation:
A little panel with lamp for the 5 bilge pumps and all bilge pumps are connected with one alarm ( truckreverse) and a timer. When one bilge pump works more then 30 second the alarm goes on. The alarm is strong i heare this on the fly or on ather point in the boat.
____________
Norbert

I run a single engine trawler through some pretty tight situations for 4 months every winter...

If I'm that paranoid about my fresh water system and pump...I think I would go crazy applying the same logic to my engine!!!!

Bringing the boat home, we anchored out for one night. The next morning all three batteries, including the "dedicated" genset start battery, where dead. Turns out a plastic fitting at the water heater had broken during the night causing the pressure pump to dumping the fresh water into the bilge and then the bilge pump dumping it overboard. Never did hear the pumps running.

This experience also pointed out the problem of having only electric heads. Four people on board and Towboat four hours away.

Then genset start battery now is a "dedicated" battery.

Bob

wow! do you have one of those giant "Paragon" setups at 30-50 amp fusing? Regular old little fresh water pumps that most under 50' boats use draw less than 5 amps....guess that added to fridge and ???? ran down 3 batteries....

I'll be rethinking my battery setup for all these just in case deals.

markpierce said:

I turn off the pump's electrical circuit when leaving the boat at the marina. I turn off everything except the bilge pumps, 110AC inlet, charger, and refrigerator.

Click to expand...

That's what we do too

Other than all of the batteries being connected together, neither alternator was charging so that by the time we got to the anchorage the batteries were probably already half dead.

The next day we continued on after getting a jump start from Towboat and half way to out next destination the chartplotter and VHF quit due to low voltage. When we got to the marina we couldn't shut down the engines because there was not enough juice to operate the stop solenoids.

How the PO ever used this boat is a complete mystery.

Bob

I also turn off everything not to be used or needed. Why take a chance. Bilge pump, battery charger and ice box. the rest is off. I only turn hot water heater on when I know I am going to need it.

I turn our fresh water pump, and water heater off if leaving the boat overnight.

Dont want to come back to a empty tank, burned out pump, and or burned out water heater if a pipe has an issue, or something of the sorts.

Had a selonoid go out on a vaccuflush head once that flooded a head compartment. Fortunately is is a fiberglass sealed floor with a high lip so was no big deal, but if we hadnt caught it the cabin spaces floor could have gotten pretty wet.

Sitting here in the saloon, reading this thread, trying to decide if I disagree with Psneeld (just this once) or not. I hear a muffled "clunk" and then a low rumble like a pump. Jump up, no bilge pumps running on my boat, or the boats around me. Open the engine compartment hatch and the sound gets louder. Poke my head down and I can see water spewing from a popped connection just after the potable water pump.

Some stupid PO left me a bunch of odd-ball connections between different hose types. The one that let go was just a plastic hose slid over another plastic hose, held on with a clamp.

I just bought an accumulator tank that I plan to put in that exact spot, replacing the "connection" that gave way.

This is kinda spooky.

Speaking of idiot POs, Bob, I had a similar situation to yours. A smart PO had a professional do a total re-wire of the whole boat, including installing a battery combiner for all three banks. Very nice job. Some idiot PO since then had hard-wired the combiner to be always "on", connecting all three banks. Took me a while to find the offending misplaced connection.

My leaving-the-boat-at-the-marina settings:



The bilge pump switches are on the helmsman's engine panel, set to "automatic."