City Water Inlet Leak

[CaspersCruiser]

My boat is a 2012 R27 Classic. Last year, the water pressure pump would cycle briefly every hour or so. The interval steadily decreased over the intervening year to the point that I kept the water pump turned off unless I was actively using the faucets. Yesterday, I went looking for the leak. Here it is:

This photo shows the Jabsco city water inlet that was installed on my boat when it was built. The spray is coming from a hairline crack in the body. The crack must have started out small last year and propagated. Fortunately, Tim McMillan (AKA Tugnuts “Boatdreamer”) told me there was enough water line slack inside the boat that the city water inlet and a short length of hose could be pulled outside the boat. That’s what you see in the photo. If there had not been enough slack in the water line, it would been a bitch to access from inside the boat.

My fix was to deactivate the city water inlet by removing the water line from it and plugging the water line fitting using a threaded plug and then capping the city water outlet using a threaded cap. Capping the city water outlet prevents flooding the boat in case someone in the future hooks up a hose to it. On my boat those fittings are 1/2” NPSM. If you ever take these measures, be sure to securely plug the water line because it receives pressurized water from the pump.

I decided to secure the water line that was removed from the inlet by using a long piece of stainless safety wire to pull it over to the back of the cabinet just forward of the sink. I drilled two holes in the back of the cabinet and threaded a tie-wrap through them to hold the water line in a vertical orientation. I left the safety wire on the water line and secured it in case I need it in the future to pull the water line around. The vertical orientation will allow water to drain from the line during winterization.

I reinstalled the city water inlet assembly on the side of the boat for now. I will try to fashion some type of cover plate for the hole and remove the inlet assembly. It may take a while to come up with an aesthetically pleasing solution. I am well-acquainted with a body shop that is owned by a boater and does a lot of work on boats and RVs. I may see if they are interested in fiberglassing over the hole and gel coat it.

Fluid Motion General Manager Andrew Custis has stated a couple times on this forum that the factory no longer installs city water inlets on the trailerable boats because of problems with them. I don’t know if the bigger boats have them. I never used mine.

 

[nzfisher]

My question is did you put a clamp on the hose and verify this is the actual site of the leak? Have you taken out the triangular piece in the base of the head cabinet and verified how much water has accumulated under the deck of the boat? There are multiple areas where your fresh water could be leaking. It would be good to verify that the city water intake is in fact the source. I have a leak as well and the city water valve is NOT the source just to let you know it might be elsewhere. Good luck.

PS it would be good to get a follow up regarding your leak source.

Swims with Tuna

 

[CaspersCruiser]

My question is did you put a clamp on the hose and verify this is the actual site of the leak?

I was not aware until I made this repair, but if your boat has one of these city water inlets, it receives pressurized water from the INSIDE the boat whenever the water pump is on. As I stated in the original post, I have never used the city water inlet to supply water to the boat.

If the photo in the original post is displaying correctly, a fine spray of water can be clearly seen coming from the body of the city water inlet I am holding in my hand. That is without question the source of the leak. The water line fitting seen in the photo is on a water line coming from INSIDE the boat. The spray is water coming from the boat’s pressurized cold water system as supplied from the water pump INSIDE the boat.

The water system schematic in the owner’s manual for my model is very poor. It is IMPOSSIBLE to tell how the pressurized cold water water system is plumbed and that the city water inlet receives pressurized water from the water tank inside the boat whenever the water pump is on.

 

[knotflying]

I had the same issue on mine and replaced it with a new city connection. It seems that Jabsco has improved the fitting. I never used it, but it lasted 9 years. I figured I should be good with the new one and eliminated a cover plate over the hole. The other option was to keep the hose plugged and plug the inlet back and avoid an accidental connection by someone not aware of the issue. The new unit required a little trimming of the existing hole in the hull.

 

[CaspersCruiser]

I had the same issue on mine and replaced it with a new city connection…….. I figured I should be good with the new one and eliminated a cover plate over the hole……

I have spoken with someone who has had the city water inlet leak TWICE. The first time, he replaced the inlet. The second time he deactivated it in a way similar to how I did it.

I put the capped deactivated city water inlet back on the boat to fill the hole. A cover plate will have to be done well to look right. As I mentioned earlier, I may see if a body shop with which I am acquainted can fill and gel coat the hole. They do a lot of boat and RV work and are really good at gel coat.

 

[CaspersCruiser]

To see what happens if the city water inlet is deactivated and not capped, watch this on YouTube. The relevant part starts at the 1:50 point on this 6:50 video. This guy just purchased the boat and was checking out the systems. He got a surprise.

https://youtu.be/wimKm-R6Xeo