Chasing impeller vanes

[jsalley]

Oh yea, I'm on my 5th season using the PO's impeller and it looks fine. I've not had one loose a vane yet in 10 years of sailing.

I didn't, either - until I did. Ya feelin lucky?

 

[Bill Roosa]

Well jsalley lucky is just somebody who does the correct amount of maintenance. I check them every year and have had to replace an impeller upon purchase of the boat when it did not check out.

 

[thinwater]

Which is why I change my impeller after after I comission in the spring. You confirmed my thoughts that the antifreeze might/ does affect the impeller.

What have you found about the joker valves, although that doesnt sit in the antifreeze solution like an impeller would. Are you looking at the fresh water systems we use and also the pumps. Some people use impeller type pumps for their fresh water and some use diaphram pumps. Most of us flush with PG to winterize.

Dave

A number of thoughts:
* Many joker valves do sit in the solution. It depends on the practice. They stiffen and may be more leak prone. But this is not as critical or difficult an application as a flexible impellor.
* Nitrile is not affected, so the subject does not apply to Raritan or Groco heads... though nitrile is more suseptable to urine, though that is a different topic.
* Yeah, this does point to a problem with fresh water systems. I've had PG ruin strainers and Bill Rossa has good points. But I have also had pipes burst on complex systems that were blown out; a few ounces found there way to a cast fitting at a low point. The notion that pipes can freeze and not burst is about 95% true; fittings burst much more easily and brass valves often don't take much at all (water can get trapped behind the ball).

My current practice is to circulate PG (takes only a few minutes with the valves I added) and then blow out what I can and remove the strainer covers. I do NOT believe in taking pipes apart; I've spent too much time chasing leaks. I'm sure this last depends a great deal on the type of piping.

 

[Chef2sail]

Which is why I don't fill the raw water with anty but just drain it. Certainly easier to pull some hoses, take the back off the pump and walk away than playing with buckets and valves IMHO.
A little known fact about freezing pipes is that as long as there is some place for the ice to expand into (it does not all freeze at the same time) it will not "crack your pipes". so if you can get some aire space into each pipe or leave it open at one end it can freeze solid and not crack anything!!!! That is why they tell you to let your faucet drip during freezing weather in the south. It is not the warm water coming in from the ground that "keeps it from freezing" it is that the ice has somewhere to expand into at low pressure. I've seen fully frozen pipes that have not cracked using this method.

I think most know about ice expanduing. We have an added piece to our thru hull stop cock raw water intake whick makes it uber easy and we dont have to flood our engine compartment or use buckets as described. We simply screw a 4 ft flexible hose into the plugged outket and insert it into the antifreeze jugs.

This way i know the antifreeze gets through all the raw water pump also. Takes me all of 10 minutes to winterize and I dont have to run with a dry impeller.

http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wc...toreNum=50632&subdeptNum=50646&classNum=50649

I guess youve never had the pleasre or expense of fishing impeller parts out of the heater core since you havenet changed it in 5 years. To me its preventive maintainence.