Water Loss

[EllisTug]

Been a while since I posted here as we have been trying our best to fix up the 2013 Ranger Tug 29 we bought a few years back ... but there's been a new mystery pop up and I am hoping someone might be about point me in the right direction. We recently replaced our main water pressure pump and at first use on a weekend, everything worked fine. So in total since replacement, we took two short day trips and had something strange happen to our water. On the first trip, we had a full water tank, and only turned on the pump when we used something (toilet, sink, etc...) - we were still checking things out - and everything appeared fine. We left the boat with just a little under full according to the gauge (that we remember). Came to the boat for trip two and the water gauge read empty. Hmmmm .... not sure what happened - was it full last time? Well, we think so .... and so begins the inner monologue. In any case, we filled the tank up to half (according to the gauge), given the 4-5 hours we thought we needed for the trip and turned on the water pressure pump to prime the system and use it as we needed to. Two hours later, when we anchor - all the water is gone. What happened?

Checked around the bilge and the pump ... no leak detected, normal amount of water in bilge. Checked the aft cockpit - again - no extra water. Are we missing something? Does the primer pump just dump water if left on?

Any assistance would be helpful from the noob crew 🙂

Brian

 

[trailertrawlerkismet]

Usually the pump will cycle on if you have a leak in the water line, have you heard the water pump cycle on when you have not turned a faucet on?

Jim F

 

[BB marine]

Realistically there should be no water in the forward section of the bilge. The water should drain to the aft bilge engine compartment. When the water drains to this section of the bilge there is an automatic bilge pump that will pump the water out when it reaches the switch level. If you filled the water tank and have a leak upstream of the water pump the pump will not come on but the water will leak out into the bilge and make its way to the aft bilge pump and be pumped out maintaining a normal water level in the bilge. My guess is that you have a water leak between the tank and the pump or a water tank that has crack in it or a fitting . My guess is look upstream of the pump not down stream of the pump.

 

[EllisTug]

Good ideas from both of you. Having the engine on made it a little heard to hear some of the bilge cycling. We’ll keep the engine off next time and listen. I want to say I heard the pressure pump cycling with nothing on, so the leak may indeed be upstream. I thought the water is inaccessible - any thoughts on how to find the leak if it does turn out to be between the tank and the pump?

Brian

 

[knotflying]

As I always say, usually the last thing you did was the culprit. Check all your connections related to the new pump. Loosing that much water in a short period of time would require the pump to cycle quite often. Does you boat have the street water connection? If so, that has been the culprit at times. They can develop a leak from behind and it is quite often a fine spray that you can't even see.

 

[GarryH]

We have a 2021 R-29CB. Twice we have had the same condition: empty water tank. First time the dealer found a very small leak behind the panel for the stern exterior shower head. The Pex tubing elbow had a fine crack and was spraying water into the bilge. The second time was a crimped hot water faucet supply hose gasket. Factory installer crimped the gasket during installation. Originally thought it was condensation on the bottom of the sink. Not the case. Dealer replaced gasket from Home Depot.

 

[BB marine]

The easy way to determine if leak is on the pressure side ( down stream of the pump ) leave the pump off when not using it. A leak large enough to empty a tank on the pressure side would cause the pump to cycle often. If you leave the pump on while you are not on board or when the engine is running you will not know if it is cycling. If you leave the pump off and find that the tank water level is maintaining then you probably have a leak on the pressure side pump to plumbing fixtures, hose connections or split water line. if you leave the pump off and the water level still drops or the tank empties then you most likely have a leak on the low pressure side. Water tank, water tank fittings, water line going to the pump and pump fittings.

There is one other thing to look at. When you fill the water tank do you see water coming out of the hull through hull vent. Is the tank full when the gauge is reading full? I bring this question up because of a conversation I had with a 29' Ranger Tug owner at the SWF rendezvous this winter. He commented on when he fills his water tank the gauge reads full but the tank just keeps on taking on water and he never see's water come out of the vent and it never comes out of the fill fitting on the deck. My response was the water has to be going somewhere !!! If the tank is full but water is not coming out of the vent and deck fitting where is it going?? I suggested we fill his tank and check out the hoses to see where the water is coming from. We did, tank read full and we kept filling the tank. He wanted to start looking for the water but I put my ear up to the vent and I could hear air pushing out of the tank. The issue was the tank gauge was way off. It read full when there was only about a 1/4 of a tank of water. We let the water run for about 5 minutes longer. and then water started flowing out of the vent. The Tug owner said he didn't think he had ever had the tank full before. It never took that long to fill his tank. He always used the gauge when filling the tank. The tank in his boat is advertised as 45 gallons. Water flowing through a 1/2" garden hose at 40 psi is about 9 gallons a minute average. Many marinas have hundreds of feet of hose running under the docks. By the time the water gets to the slip pedestal spigot the 9 gallons a minute can be 4 or 5 gpm. It can take 10 to 12 minutes to fill a 45 gallon tank.

Just another thought, Check all the boxes when troubleshooting !