Manual foot pump in galley

[Eric C Lindstrom]

Here's a new one (I hope). Got our Hunter 30 last April and went to fill the water tank. Soon found out that the boat was fitted with two bladders on either side of the boat so the water needed to be filled in the cabin with the hose fitting. No big deal (this is acually unrelated to my actual question).When I turn on the par pump the manual pump constantly runs. In order to fix this, I clamped the hose with a vice grip, the pressure built up and the system works the way it's supposed to. This is good.But, then last weekend my wife was outside the boat and the bilge ran constantly. She went in to investigate and the cabin floor was covered in water and the bilge was trying hard to keep up. Thinking fast, she turned off the par pump and it soon stopped.Investigating the source of the problem, we determined the gasket in the foot pump (that we can't use anyway) let loose and the 12-gallons of fresh water was being let go in the boat. This is bad.I bi-passed the foot pump altogether and connected the two ends together. Still needing to builf pressure, I vice-gripped it on the other side of the hose and it works again.This weekend I put in a "new" foot pump. Turned on the pressure water and IT burst.Are these foot pumps supposed to stop the pressure? Is the pressure water supposed to be hooked straight into the pump? Am I supposed to have a valve somewhere earlier in the system? The hand pump AND pressure get along fine in the head.Any ideas?Eric

 

[Peggie Hall/Head Mistress]

Why would you need BOTH a foot pump and

an electric pump? What's happening is, the electric pump is pressurizing the system...when the pressure builds in the plumbing to more than the manual/foot pump is built to withstand, it "blows." It's prob'ly blowing out in the galley and not in the head because the galley is earlier in the plumbing. Why not just replace the foot pumps with plain ol' faucets?

 

[Eric C Lindstrom]

Good response ....

Yes. I figured the pressure was killing the manual pump. As in the head, it is nice to have a manual pump when away "on the hook" and we don't want to use valuable power to do dishes or brush our teeth.Does your reponse lead me to believe this should NEVER have worked? Can the two co-exist (since this is how the plumbing has been set up). Can the amount of pressure be reduced?Thanks, tho.

 

[Brian]

shouldn't be any pressure

The reason of a foot pump should be to bring water to without the aid of the electric pump. It should be connected to the 'non-pressurized' side of the system. If this is the case, then there shouldn't be any pressure from the electric pump to cause this problem. If it is on the pressurized side, I would look at relocating it to the other side of the pump.