I'm installing a water maker on my Hunter 466 and want to fill all tanks with the fresh water without running new plumbing. Does anyone know how to set it up so that when the main tank is full, it will begin overflowing into the other smaller tanks or in reverse?
How to
- Thread starter realkoalat
- Start date
On my 460 the front three water tanks are connected. If the 466 is the same you can have the water maker fill any one of the front three tanks without any alterations. At least you can fill 3 out of the five tanks.
One of the coolest things I ever saw was the way Jeanneau takes care of this while I was a liveaboard charter captain on a fifty footer. That boat has a total of six water tanks which are all led to a collection of shut offs under the navigation table. You can turn individual tanks on and off from there.
Unfortunately, this doesn't address the question put forth here about filling them. I would imagine that if you were to connect a hose (something large like 1 1/2" head hose) between the top of tank "A" and the bottom of tank "B", that when tank "A" is full it would "overflow" into tank "B". You could then do the same thing from "B" to "C", etc. but don't forget the overflow hose for the last tank in your chain. It would also be important to make sure the relative height of the tanks gets lower as you go down the chain.
Unfortunately, this doesn't address the question put forth here about filling them. I would imagine that if you were to connect a hose (something large like 1 1/2" head hose) between the top of tank "A" and the bottom of tank "B", that when tank "A" is full it would "overflow" into tank "B". You could then do the same thing from "B" to "C", etc. but don't forget the overflow hose for the last tank in your chain. It would also be important to make sure the relative height of the tanks gets lower as you go down the chain.
Hunter does a much better job of plumbing
They also have tank manifolds for the larger boats.
Even back with my 40.5, each tank had an individual shut off.
Now, as far as filling.
You can tap into any part of the pipe which goes to the water pump inlet.
The tanks will start to fill, and basically find their own level.
Worst case scenario is that one tank fills quicker. The water will simply overflow through the vent.
Hunter has better plumbing than Jeanneau, or others in the large yacht segment. They actually have a full hot / cold manifold which will allow you to shut off any faucet, shower, etc.
They also have tank manifolds for the larger boats.
Even back with my 40.5, each tank had an individual shut off.
Now, as far as filling.
You can tap into any part of the pipe which goes to the water pump inlet.
The tanks will start to fill, and basically find their own level.
Worst case scenario is that one tank fills quicker. The water will simply overflow through the vent.
I think the respective tank vents may be higher than all the tanks and that might not happen, at least not without the tanks being mostly full. I would use a valve manifold for the supply and a pressure switch to stop the watermaker connected to the manifold.
Thanks everyone for your recommendations and comments. We discovered after posting this that if we first filled the largest tank, it automatically flowed to the next two tanks.
There is another really cool way to do this
What didn't make sense to me was why I had to fill my water tanks through deck fittings one at a time when I was plumbed into shore water with the stern water connection which was factory installed. There had to be an easier way for an inherently lazy person.
Well, on the 49, and a number if other large hunters there is a hot / cold water manifold. Really sweet piece of plumbing.
All of the manifold outputs (hot and cold ) have "T valves" , so you can just shut off that branch. Very cool.
So, there was a spare manifold output on the cold manifold side.
I took a pipe from there to the input of the fresh water pump, which is the output of all 3 water tanks.
So, when I'm attached to shore water, I can open this valve, and it then back-feeds through the manifold into the water tanks filling all 3 automatically.
You need to keep an eye on the water level gauges, so that you shut iffy the valve when the 3 are pretty well full. Worst case is tge water comes out of the vents
Ok, so it was just another project I felt like making for myself.
What didn't make sense to me was why I had to fill my water tanks through deck fittings one at a time when I was plumbed into shore water with the stern water connection which was factory installed. There had to be an easier way for an inherently lazy person.
Well, on the 49, and a number if other large hunters there is a hot / cold water manifold. Really sweet piece of plumbing.
All of the manifold outputs (hot and cold ) have "T valves" , so you can just shut off that branch. Very cool.
So, there was a spare manifold output on the cold manifold side.
I took a pipe from there to the input of the fresh water pump, which is the output of all 3 water tanks.
So, when I'm attached to shore water, I can open this valve, and it then back-feeds through the manifold into the water tanks filling all 3 automatically.
You need to keep an eye on the water level gauges, so that you shut iffy the valve when the 3 are pretty well full. Worst case is tge water comes out of the vents