silly raw water intake valve idea

[scottyt]

i am kind of anal about opening and shutting of my cooling water intake when the engine is not running. i have thought about installing an electric valve and a flow sensor on the intake. basicly it would open the valve when the alt starts charging and if the flow sensor did not open an alarm would go off. this way i would not need to worry about pulling the steps out every time i start and stop the engine. i would still use the manual valve when i would not be sailing. i already installed a flow glass where the water goes from the engine to the exhaust so i can see flow.

btw its a 1gm yanmar

[sww914]

It sounds like a good idea to me so long as you can easily revert the system back to manual if something fails while you're underway, or if the valve fails to the open position and you can close it manually. I'm sure some curmudgeons will crawl out of the bilge to say everything that's wrong with it because it's a new idea.

[sailingdog]

Why would you want to add that kind of complexity to the system. If the flow sensor fails, you might end up running your engine without cooling long enough to damage it before you realized what was going on. Is the minor inconvenience of opening and closing the seacocks manually really worth that kind of risk. Just put the opening and closing of the seacocks in to your SOP and make it a part of the routine.

[billangiep]

A very interesting idea, I like it, but I have the mindset of keeping it simple. It's another system that will fail, the question is when?
Bill,

[lynger1]

Wow!
Using electric solenoid valve with status sense Will cost you around $600
and wont last long Anny sand or small debris will seize this valve
Its simple use your common sense
I only close sea **** when i leave boat
Why at one stage late at night i had to start motor in hurry mooring line broke.after 5 min of running motor all hell broke loose
lucky i drop my anchor 30feet .
But seawater pump propeller was in bits and lots of work to clean out muter with this rubber
Thats why i close vale when leaving boat and open on return

[hellosailor]

I don't think a solenoid valve would cost that much--if you used one from a sprinkler system. I'm not sure I'd trust one, given that "stuff" always finds a way into the raw water intake. You'd probably have to install it downstream of the filter basket for it to keep working, and you need the valve on the hull--not the far side of the basket.

No offense, but I think most of us would call it somewhat excessive to open/close the raw water valve every time you ran/shut the engine. Securing the raw water intake when you dock or leave the boat should be more than enough, and more than most owners do. A bilge alarm will tell you quickly enough if that fitting--or anything else--opens up while you are on the boat.

[boatpoker]

Move your throughull and seacock to a readily accessible location like the builder should have done in the first place

[SEMIJim]

We only shut the raw water seacock off when the boat's in her home slip. We hang the ignition key on the seacock handle to avoid forgetting to turn it back on.

The problem with scottyt's idea, IMO, is the increased complexity and, thus, the increased opportunity for something breaking (like the solenoid or circuit that turns it on failing while you're under way).

But hey: Whatever floats yer boat, I say . Give it a go, scottyt, and let us all know how you did it, what it cost, how it worked out, etc.

Jim

[scottyt]

as for cost i can get a good quality valve for 60 bucks, and it will be stainless, for corrosive environments. i am not sure what the flow switch would cost but the ones i have delt with are pretty bullet proof. they dont clog and are easy to clean if needed. one reason i want to do this is my yanmar does not start on the first crank everytime, it takes 10 seconds or so if the engine is cold, i dont want to suck water into the motor. ( engine is a good shape original 83 )

i might do this in spring, i might even double the flow switch up for safty reasons

[hellosailor]

The stainless might be a galvanic problem. Parts designed for land use in fresh water systems, often just fall apart in salt water with a little stray current. Main problem being that you'd probably have to take it apart (or at least, remove the hoses) to inspect for that.