water system spits

[Glory Days]

I have a Hunter 40.5. When I turn one of the faucets on, Air spits out. Also, hot water comes out of the cold faucet.

Any ideas on what can cause this and any suggestion?

 

[sailingdog]

Have you removed and cleaned the aerator screens on your faucets. That can cause spitting.

BTW, how much pressure does the water come out with?? It could also be the pressure pump is failing. Have you checked your lines to see that they're clear?? Have you checked the pressure pump to see how much pressure it is generating?

As for the hot water coming out the cold faucet, it sounds like the check valve for your hot water heater might be shot. Hot water heaters are supposed to have a check valve that prevents hot water from exiting via the input line.

 

[Rick]

Fairly typical problem. Definately try the easy stuff first... clamps, screens, etc. Oh and make sure your one of your tanks isnt empty. On my boat, I have two spigots that control the port and starboard tanks. If they are both open and one emptys, bingo! A water spitter.

One fairly common symptom of an air leak, assuming you have pressurized water and not a foot pump is... well first I would recommend pouring yourself a good boat drink. Then locate your system pump. Now bleed the air out of the lines, turn everything off and sit down. If you have a leak, your pump should cycle on and off for just a second or two because it is trying to maintain pressure. You should hear it.

If that doesnt happen, then the leak may be upstream of the pump, specifically between the tank feed and the pump. Also if you can get a visual on the pump, turn on your water and make sure the diaphram on the pump isnt leaking.

The hot water, hmmmm. Any work done lately? Hooked up backwards? Check valve possibly. Good news is a replacement is barely a quarter to a half of a boat buck.

Good luck

 

[sailingdog]

Rick—

Good point about the multiple tanks...

 

[Glory Days]

I didn't know there was a check valve on the inlet side of the hw heater. Make sense. We will check that out. I will check to make sure only one tank is open at a time. I think we may have a leak at the pump on the body or the inlet side. The pump doesn't cycle unless there is a faucet opened.

 

[sailingdog]

Glory Days-

Let us know what you find out.

 

[Rick D]

New Boat?

When we first got our 40.5, we would turn on another tank without turning off the old one(s). We would get the symptom you describe. Do all the other stuff too. As to the hot water out of the cold, I sure don't have a clue unless there is a check valve problem as had been mentioned before. Let us know what you find.

 

[windward54]

There may be a simple reason for the switch between the hot and cold water. When I was making a repair on my H40.5's plumbing system, I did not mark my hot or cold water lines. Why? Because all the waterlines were aready marked with either red or blue tape. Of course I made the assumption that the waterline with the blue tape would be cold water line and the line with the red tape would be hot. After all, doesn't it make sense? You guessed it, the waterlines were just the opposite. I went through the boat and found that when the boat was put together, somehow all the cold lines were marked with red tape and all the hot were marked with blue.

Perhaps the PO made a repair and the lines were marked the same as mine were. Only after the repair was made, the PO decided not to reverse the repair and do it right. If the repairs were anything like when I had to do mine, it was a royal PITA the first time and not any better the second time.

 

[KD3PC]

I went through this yesterday onmy new to me 42 Passage. What we found were that the manifold valves, although off were leaking...it was only after we filled the forward tank which put enough water on that valve that the spitting went away. At least we know what the problem is, solution will wait.

As previously mentioned turning things off, especially noisy things, will make the trouble shooting easier. The you can hear gurgles, subtle pump noise changes and if yo udid like I did manually blow through the lines, and have your wife listen for "bubbles" in the forepeak.

 

[Stu Jackson]

The West Marine Advisors have very good info in their catalogs and on line.

Try this, there's a picture showing the check valve placement, scroll down. This check valve is for the municipal water connection to avoid backflow into the tank on board. Sailing Dog mentions another check valve for the hot water heater in his reply above.

http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/westadvisor/10001/-1/10001/FreshwaterSystems.htm

 

[Bill Roosa]

Hydro-dynamics 101

I own a 40.5 too.
Try this:
Fill all the tanks, turn on all the manifold valves and see if the spurting continues. Keep a faucet on for a minute or two to purge the air from the lines. After which there should be a smooth delivery.
Once you have the lines purged keep the following in mind:
The starboard and port tanks are below the pump while the bow and stern are above it. You can leave all the manifold valves open till the bow and stern tanks are empty, then close those and live off the starboard and port tanks.
I cycle my tanks. Leaving only one "on" at a time. Once I get that "tiny bubbles in the water" syndrome I know the tank needs to be changed and to refill the old tank.