City water inlet

[pease]

We, luckily, never use it, BUT while having lunch while docked (i.e. everything nice and quiet but with the water pressure switch on) we heard a 'pop' from somewhere behind the sink followed by the noise of squirting water. Turing off the WP switch stopped the squirting. Found, with the help of a flashlight and an industrial strength dental mirror, that the source of the squirt was the interior fixture for the city water inlet (on the side of the hull). Had we been connected to the city (Marina) water we could have run up a large water bill (and had other more serious problems). Patty at Farallone Yachts offered to have the fixture replaced but then it turned out that Ranger has ,wisely, discontinued having this unit and I indicated I didn't want it either. And neither do you.

 

[Levitation]

And which unit is that?

 

[captain's cat]

Sounds like the hull fitting that a city water hose is connected to the pressurized the boat water system. Should have been installed with a check valve. However, if it was, and it broke on the boat side of the valve, it may have been installed with not enough slack in the hose, putting strain on the fitting. Probably plastic.

Good thing you were on board!

 

[conniemarie]

We recently came down to our boat and turned on the WP to hear spraying behind the sink. After some investigation we found the source was the city water unit that had a huge split on the boat side. We have never used it and had only launched our new 2012 27 two months prior.

Our lesson as new boaters was to never ignore strange sounds!

Port Boathouse in Alberni replaced it just a week ago for us.

 

[trailertrawlerkismet]

The rule of thumb we follow (most of time) is to turn the water pressure off while not on the boat to avoid the problem of emptying our water tank into our hull if something gives way. For most of this will never happen but as we've read it does occur. Although we never hook our water hose up for full time dock side water if we did the advice I've read is to always turn the dockside water valve off when you leave the boat.....for the same reason....you never know and in this case the water would just keep on coming, if it was not turned off at dockside.

Jim F

 

[baz]

Jim: That is very good advice... thanks. 🙂

For me, I rarely hook up to water line at the dock. I normally fill the fresh water tank before a cruise. We use the fresh water for our sink use, fresh water electric toilet I installed and minimal showering. We use bottled water for drinking.

The city/dock water line can sometimes have high pressure that could put a great deal of strain on the boat's plumbing and especially so if there's any weakness in the boat's water line plumbing and/or fixtures.

 

[Nellie Too]

Barry,
Its still beyond me why anyone wants to use their fresh water to flush their head, its a limited asset when one is out in the boat and I would prefer to take showers.
Bob

 

[baz]

Bob:

It's a personal choice of ours... 🙂

So far we've not had any issue exhausting our fresh water tank (we have a water level gauge) and I do ensure whenever we have the chance to top the tank up when docked. 🙂

I researched things when I installed the electric toilet and discovered that fresh water rinsing was the proper approach for us. Fresh water not being as hard on the plastic plumbing & seals as salt water is was one of the items that influenced our choice. Static salt water in the plumbing lines can also lead to unwanted smells etc -- I'm thinking when boat left unused for extended times.

A bucket of sea water can always be used to flush the toilet.

Anyhows -- I've configured the toilet plumbing to easily switch from using fresh water to using sea water if and when it becomes necessary.

 

[Nellie Too]

Hi Barry,
I did not mean to challenge your chose but was trying to figure out why you did it. We have always had salt water flushing so the fresh water thing was a big question for me. We had our first Ranger, a R-25, that did not have a fresh water gauge and after talking to Dave he started putting them on because water was so critical to us. I think it makes sense to be able to have a choice of salt or fresh water flushing. The odor thing has never been an issue for us.
Thanks for the response,
Bob

 

[baz]

Bob:

No problem... I know you well enough to know you weren't challenging me... 😉 You're not the first person to ask why I chose fresh water flushing. 🙂

 

[Levitation]

I use fresh water for flushing... Would use sea or lake water in a pinch...
We have not done anchoring out for more than overnight... If we do we may need to preserve the tank water..

 

[Bruce Moore]

We just returned from the Points North cruise where we spent as many as 5 days (4 nights) on the hook. We used our freshwater tank to flush, shower (inside and swim step), and cook. The gauge (who knows how accurate it is) read slightly under 1/4 tank at our next refill.

Cheers,

Bruce

 

[RProffer]

As anyone who has used an RV may know, the water pressure at an RV park/marina may be too high for the plastic water lines in your RV/boat. It is a good idea to get a pressure reducer to put on the end of your hose to keep the pressure manageable. Also, I put a 90 degree fitting on my hose as a strain relief. You can get both of these at Walmart in the RV section, RV stores, and some marine stores.

 

[Sine Wave]

My fitting was leaking whenever the water pump was turned on causing the pump to cycle. When removed, I found that where the hose was connected on the inside there was a crack in the fitting. I believe that the load imposed on the fitting by the hose when going through heavy seas cracked it. I have since disconnected the hose, plugged it off and now my fresh water tank lasts twice as long as it did before. The water pump no longer cycles when turned on. We never did use the city water connection so it is not missed.
Sine Wave
R25
N. Ft. myers, FL

 

[#4 on Bucket List]

Having the same issue but only after flushing the head. Turning off the water pump for a few minutes, then turning it back on seems to solve the problem until the next flush. No apparent leaking anywhere except the screw in city water fitting. Anyone have any thoughts?

 

[knotflying]

I would disconnect the hose from the city connection, plug it and clamp it and avoid an issue at an inconvenient time.

 

[captstu]

After owning a few boats with salt water flush, the R-25 is the first with fresh water flush. Before I adopted her, I considered converting to salt water - now, I believe the most important usage of scarce fresh water is for flushing.

Fresh water stops the stink!
Fresh water keeps the head working for years beyond the best maintained salt water head.
It doesn't use much fresh water - I willing carry in a few bottles of drinking water so we can flush with fresh tank water.

I suppose there are lots of reasonable choices - but after 10 years as a live aboard on previous boats, fresh water is my choice.