Sailboats Fresh Water System?

1970Columbia34 · #1 (**permalink**) 02-19-2007

I was working on putting in new waterlines over the weekend since I am not sure the age of the current ones but they look pretty old and nasty.

I thought the water pump seemed loud so after further investigation its not what I expected to see. Its a Jacbson pump, but it has a motor with small rubber belt that drives a piston like arm up and down to pump a rubber diaphrame. I was expecting to see more of a RV style pump with a line in and out and 2 wires. The pump label says its 3 gpm. Should I swith the pump out for a simpler style RV?

Also the Line coming out of the bottom of the water tank goes to a manual foot pump 1st then to the electric pump what is the reason for this? And on the out line from the electric pump and is what looks like a inline check valve. reason for this?

camaraderie · #2 (**permalink**) 02-19-2007

Columbia..the Jacobsen belt driven pump is excellent as this type of pump can also be run dry. Just be sure you carry a spare belt. We use this type of design for bilge, water & washdown and they have given us better service life than the more typical flo-jet type pumps. You can always swap out but why spend $100+ bucks when you don't need to.
The t-off to your manual foot pump is typical and lets you still get water out of your tank when your electric pump fails. A better arrangment is to T-off a hose with shutoff valve in it and then run that hose to the foot pump.
The check valve you mention may be a pressure valve to hold line pressure and stop the pump from constantly running. Is there an accumulator tank in the system?

1970Columbia34 · #3 (**permalink**) 02-19-2007

The system is like this

There is no accumulator tank in the system. There is now water in the system now would be the reason for the pump sounding loud? The pump looks like it has a pressure switch on it. I was thinking the check valve was some kind of back flow preventer. I will take your recomendation in the hose setup with the foot pump.

camaraderie · #4 (**permalink**) 02-19-2007

The lack of water in the system can account for the additional pump noise. If, with water in the system you still get a lot of noise when pumping you may wish to fit an accumulator tank near the outlet of the electric pump. This should also eliminate the need for a check valve.
http://www.jabsconews.com/english/pr...tank_promo.htm