Persistent Fresh Water Leak

[RoyS]

Instead of wiggling hose connections, simply tighten all of them at least once a year. Purchase flexible screwdriver type clamp tightening tools for the sizes needed (usually only two). As Greg said above look at your stuffing box and check your rudder stuffing as well. Ice boxes and other water makers often empty into the bilge. It is a good idea to write the year on any hose you replace. Eventually you will replace them all. Next time you visit and note your counter readout, rock your boat from side to side to (hopefully) flush any hidden pockets of bilge water free. Good luck.

 

[Tim2022]

Have you ruled out the stuffing box as a source of water?

My O’Day 322 only has water in the bilge now when it rains(and I can’t find where it is coming in from) now that I went to a Volvo dripless stuffing box.

I would think your water tank would be empty pretty quickly if the bilge pump is cycling 6 times a day. Are you noticing it going down ?

Greg

The 6 per day is the extreme, and unusual. I it intermittent. And unpredictable, but only happens with water system pressurized so I don’t think it tank leakage.

 

[Tim2022]

The 6 per day is the extreme, and unusual. I it intermittent. And unpredictable, but only happens with water system pressurized so I don’t think it tank leakage.

ps, we have a dripless PSS shaft seal and it doesn’t leak.

 

[Tim2022]

I had a leak on my boat when I purchased it new in 2005. Water would accumulate only when the fresh water pump was on. The system would pressure up and the pump stop but water accumulate. Manufacture reps tried hard to find it and couldn't. One day I laid down in the aft cabin and watched the water accumulate. I then went in the starboard locker and climbed as far back as I could and found the leak, it was coming from the swim platform hand shower. The hose to the hand shower was loose and just needed to be tightened up. It stopped the leak. It was slow enough that it let the system pressure but large enough that water would accumulate. It was in a remote awkward position, to find it was difficult. Hope you find your leak. Please let us know when you solve it.

thank you. we have a stern shower and have checked it for leaks but it’s okay.

 

[Tim2022]

Do you have a heat / AC system installed? Our bilge pump would cycle a few times a day and it had me boggled. Turns out the condensate tray from the coils led to a hose which went down into the bilge. Just enough "intentional" water to cause the bilge to pump out a few times a day.

we do have ac, but are up in Canada and never use it.

 

[Tim2022]

Speaking of "hoses".... if you have any remaining hoses in the system(s) that are over 20 years old and are not yet cracking or swelling, replace them anyway. These products do have a design life.

Our boat and hoses are 22 years old. Having worked on them they seem to be fine. I don’t see any signs of swelling or cracking (see attached). There are hundreds of feet of hose and it would be a mammoth job to replace them all.

 

[Tim2022]

Our boat and hoses are 22 years old. Having worked on them they seem to be fine. I don’t see any signs of swelling or cracking (see attached). There are hundreds of feet of hose and it would be a mammoth job to replace them all.

 

[john2]

Hello , In our cat there were hose connectors in places you can't reach ... i ript it all out and found many leaks/lose clamps.
We had the issue that the waterpump turned on every 10 minutes. notice how bad and discolored the old hoses are!
we are going for all new and i'm moving the T connectors so they can easely be checked. Specially the ones around the heater.

 

[RoyS]

I have been replacing hoses on my boat for the last twenty years. I always write the year installed on each hose. Last year I realized that there were only two hoses left from the boat build date of 1980. Those were the fresh water fill and the fresh water vent hoses. I tackled those and successfully replaced them. Felt good for a moment until I realized I should start over as some of my hoses are now twenty years old.

 

[DaveJ]

I sometimes get water in the bilge when I overfill the water tank. I is supposed to have an overflow to the anchor locker, and it does, but if I overfill the bilge pump comes in. I’m just living with it.
cheers

 

[dlochner]

I sometimes get water in the bilge when I overfill the water tank. I is supposed to have an overflow to the anchor locker, and it does, but if I overfill the bilge pump comes in. I’m just living with it.
cheers

If there is an inspection port on the tank, it may be leaking when the tank is overfilled. There can be a fair amount of static pressure on the tank from the water sitting in the fill line and the vent line.

 

[JoeWhite]

I had a leak on my boat when I purchased it new in 2005. Water would accumulate only when the fresh water pump was on. The system would pressure up and the pump stop but water accumulate. Manufacture reps tried hard to find it and couldn't. One day I laid down in the aft cabin and watched the water accumulate. I then went in the starboard locker and climbed as far back as I could and found the leak, it was coming from the swim platform hand shower. The hose to the hand shower was loose and just needed to be tightened up. It stopped the leak. It was slow enough that it let the system pressure but large enough that water would accumulate. It was in a remote awkward position, to find it was difficult. Hope you find your leak. Please let us know when you solve it.

I had that same leak. It took one year to find it.

 

[dlochner]

Hello , In our cat there were hose connectors in places you can't reach ... i ript it all out and found many leaks/lose clamps.
We had the issue that the waterpump turned on every 10 minutes. notice how bad and discolored the old hoses are!
we are going for all new and i'm moving the T connectors so they can easely be checked. Specially the ones around the heater.

Last year I chased leaks all over the boat. The last leak I found was in a difficult to reach space. This year all the vinyl hoses are being replaced with PEX. This should last long after I'm gone. The new manifolds are below, white hose for unpressurized water from the tanks, blue for cold water and ⅜" red for the hot water. I'm using the smaller diameter for hot water to reduce the amount of water that must be drawn from the hose to get hot water at the sink.

 

[Terry Cox]

The 1991 original water system on our boat still does the job of delivering fresh water whenever we need it. Replaced the hot water heater a few years ago due to a faulty trouble shooting incident on my part, but I did get some money back for the old one, which helped. Wrote an article about one of our water leaks; the cause and the fix here. Hunter 42 Owner Modifications and Upgrades

Needless to say, the product in question, when installed correctly, will last the life of the boat. No necessary plan to replace it. Like I've said before, if ain't broke, don't fix it.

 

[Hello Below]

I sometimes get water in the bilge when I overfill the water tank. I is supposed to have an overflow to the anchor locker, and it does, but if I overfill the bilge pump comes in. I’m just living with it.
cheers

I chased a similar leak for several years on my new boat. I finally located a very lose hose clamp that secured the fill hose to the deckfill tail. If I didn’t fill the water tank to overflowing or if the fill rate didn’t exceed that which flowed out the air vent things were fine; otherwise, water ended up in the bilge.

 

[sailme88]

Heavy duty hose clamps have been known to crush hose barbs... Good place to check..