Water pump running constantly

[Tom]

Whenever I use the water on my boat, the pump LOUDLY chug-chug-chugs the entire time. On my 280, I recall that it would only chug for a bit as if it was builind up pressure and then restart only if I used more than a few seconds of water. Seems like there must have been an intern=meidate "pressure holding tank" or some such thing. On the 320, no water comes out unless the pump is on. The downside to this is that it always draws power, provides water in a spurty fashion rather than nice continuous stream and requires that I really open the faucet wide to get the pump to turn on in the first place thus wasting water.Is a pressure tank an option that was somehow omitted on my boat? If it was something I could have paid for, I highly doubt that my dealer would have forgotten it

 

[Way]

You can add an accumulator

Tom,The new Hunter 320 and similar size new boats do not come with a water pressure tank so the pump runs whenever you turn on the faucet. It is a fairly simple project to add this pressure tank on the output of the water pump and it keeps the pump from cycling so often. I put a link to a 2 gal. Shur-Flo stainless tank at West Marine, it is $124 and would be great if you have room. There are also smaller plastic tanks for far less $$ that I installed in my h340. The tank has a bladder and you precharge it with about 15 lbs of air initially with a tire pump. It was a big improvement. Hope this helps. Take a look to see if you dont already have a small tank, it may just need to be pumped up with air. You install it after the water pump but before the hot water tank.Wayne Estabrooks, s/v Wind Drift h340

 

[Rick D]

Not Right

That should be a high-bypass pump designed for use without a regulator. It sounds as if something may be amiss with the pressure valve. Check to see what kind it is, and call the manufacturer. It's probably a Surflo (sp). Rick D.

 

[S. Sauer]

Pressure Water Problems

Some easy problem areas which you may not have considered:Unscrew the screen strainer(s) of your faucets and clean and replace them.Check the filter between the tank and the pump, as it may be blocked with accumulated debris from the tank.Refill the tank and note how easily the overflow flows. If that thru-hull 'spurts' instead of flows evenly when the tank is full the overflow line may be blocked and could be causing reduced flow from the tank to the pump. If you've got good gravity flow from the tank to the pump, then one of the pump diaphrams may be faulty and it just will not build up pressure. Seems like a good rainy day project - good luck.

 

[Doug Washburn]

Check for leaks in your lines or...

at the fixtures. Regarding the noise, we corrected a similar problem by putting a liberal amount of foam rubber between the pump and the panel to which it was mounted. The panel acted as a sounding board reverberating the pump noise throughout the boat.

 

[Terry]

Hi Tom, I had a low voltage problem on our...

P42, which caused the pump to run forever before it shut off. Since fixing the voltage problem the water pump works perfect.Terry