They work better then one might think.
Hello, I can only imagine in the late 1800s, how the conversation between the poor shipwright and some seafaring sailor went when he attempted to explain why the current block of wood that his shaft passed through from his steam engine, should be replaced by the newest and best boating part since sliced bread, the Stuffing Box. In the early 1900s, to only have the same conversation with regards to the newest piece of sliced bread, the Packing Gland. Things have evolved 100 fold in the boating industry over the past 40 years and one of those items is the shaft seal. In the mid 40s, debatable time, GE was asked to produce a seal, for the Navy, which would allow the new generation of submersibles to obtain depths never seen before, thus came the Shaft Seal. Most reluctance to the seal is simply that it is different from the currently acceptable Packing Gland. Mechanically we take a face seal, what a shaft seal really is, for granted virtually everyday of our lives. The seal, which allows your water pump on your car to seal, is a carbon face seal. The seal on the base of your washing machine is a carbon face seal. Most hydroelectric pumps and shafts use carbon face seals and the list goes on. In reality the boating industry is by far the slowest community of technology to accept a face seal. For sure the acceptance for the seals is and has been much greater in the powerboat community where the packing gland and seals get greater use. With powerboats we discuss 30 to 40 thousand hours of life use. In sailboats we talk about 10 years of time exposure life with maybe 1 thousand hours of use. Where a sailboat with very minimal use may only repack a packing gland every other year, a powerboat may repack and adjust multiple times a year. So to eliminate the repacking and the adjusting we think a seal is very much worth the time, effort and cost involved. Not to mention the elimination of water entering the vessel at the point the shaft breeches the hull. Many companies make claims of their products and add items that do not make much sense. In my opinion the simpler the item the less that can go wrong. As with any device, it has to be installed correctly in order to work correctly. Hope this helps. Kevin
