Water in fuel question

[kjoverbeck]

2015 R27. Volvo Penta D3 200.
When the water in fuel alarm goes off, just how urgent is it to shut the motor down? Immediately, or after I get back to the dock in a couple of hours and then check it out? I guess what I am asking is how much cushion, if any, is built into the alarm.

 

[dclagett]

From my experience the water in fuel alarm will activate with no visible water in the filter. I faught this problem for 3 years until I cleaned the fuel tank which had only a couple of ounces of water. I also put a small clam shell cover over the fuel vent on the transom that I found would ingest water in a hard rain or washing the boat. After doing the above I have not had any water in fuel alarms for the last 3 years. It is hard to tell how much water is in the filter without draining the filter and I know you do not want to do it when the engine is hot or in rough conditions. One thing that I did once I got the water in fuel alarm is turn off the engine & ignition. This will reset the alarm. Then restart the engine and if the alarm comes back on, I then planned to drain the filter when the engine cooled down. In my experience the alarm would not come back on for sveral more hour of operation.

It semes to me that the couple of ounces of water in the fuel tank would every so often put enough moisture in the fuel system to trigger the alarm. The first 3 years of operating my boat was somewhat of a pain waiting for the alarm to go off.