The PO of my boat installed a 25 gallon portable water bladder. At first I wasn't sure I liked it. I thought I would rather have a hard water tank. I realized by using a bladder tank you can fit a higher capacity tank under the dinette seat by folding it up to fit through the small storage opening.
I did change the water supply connection, because I didn't like the fact the only way to fill the bladder was through the large red cap. The PO only had a long 3/4 pipe going to the shutoff valve and elbow fitting that runs to the faucets. I modified it by installing a garden hose thread fitting. I permanently installed a garden hose with a shutoff valve at both ends. I keep it coiled up and stowed in the storage compartment with the bladder.
To fill the tank I run the garden hose up and out the forward hatch to a hose bib. With the shut off valves at both ends, I can control the water flow from inside the boat, turning it off when full.
The bladder can be drained and sanitized easily by opening the shutoff valve at the outside end of the garden hose, utilizing the syphon action of the garden hose. It's easy to add some bleach to the tank for sanitation, drain and refill to rinse.
It would be nice to have a deck fill fitting, which I may add at some point, but the garden hose will always provide a way to drain the bladder for sanitizing.
It is installed under the forward dinette seat, a good location forward and on centerline, but not too far forward. There is still a huge amount of storage capacity under the v-berth.
The handles provide easy attachment points to secure the bladder, by simply tying some cordage to them and running through four holes drilled through the inner edge of the compartment opening.
Here you can see the bladder full, and the garden hose that is run up and out the forward hatch to the ground, while the boat is on its trailer.
The Par-Max 3.0 water pump is mounted to the bulkhead under the dinette seat and being rated for 50psi, provides plenty of pressure.
Here's the link to the Husky site. I couldn't find the 25 gallon bladder listed, but if you're interested you could contact them to see if it's still available.
http://www.huskyportable.com/view-all-portable-water-tanks_id127.html
http://hunter.sailboatowners.com/mods.php?task=article&mid=15&aid=100048&mn=26
I did change the water supply connection, because I didn't like the fact the only way to fill the bladder was through the large red cap. The PO only had a long 3/4 pipe going to the shutoff valve and elbow fitting that runs to the faucets. I modified it by installing a garden hose thread fitting. I permanently installed a garden hose with a shutoff valve at both ends. I keep it coiled up and stowed in the storage compartment with the bladder.
To fill the tank I run the garden hose up and out the forward hatch to a hose bib. With the shut off valves at both ends, I can control the water flow from inside the boat, turning it off when full.
The bladder can be drained and sanitized easily by opening the shutoff valve at the outside end of the garden hose, utilizing the syphon action of the garden hose. It's easy to add some bleach to the tank for sanitation, drain and refill to rinse.
It would be nice to have a deck fill fitting, which I may add at some point, but the garden hose will always provide a way to drain the bladder for sanitizing.
It is installed under the forward dinette seat, a good location forward and on centerline, but not too far forward. There is still a huge amount of storage capacity under the v-berth.
The handles provide easy attachment points to secure the bladder, by simply tying some cordage to them and running through four holes drilled through the inner edge of the compartment opening.
Here you can see the bladder full, and the garden hose that is run up and out the forward hatch to the ground, while the boat is on its trailer.
The Par-Max 3.0 water pump is mounted to the bulkhead under the dinette seat and being rated for 50psi, provides plenty of pressure.
Here's the link to the Husky site. I couldn't find the 25 gallon bladder listed, but if you're interested you could contact them to see if it's still available.
http://www.huskyportable.com/view-all-portable-water-tanks_id127.html
http://hunter.sailboatowners.com/mods.php?task=article&mid=15&aid=100048&mn=26
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