leaking bilge check valve

[ualpow]

Spent the night one saturday and woke up to hear youngest son saying "wow, look at all that water!"
The cabin had about 5" of water in it. I had turned off the bilge pump late that night because the switch lamp was too bright.
Glad i did because I found out the problem in the slip and not anchored out. The PO has the thru-hull just above the waterline but with us 5 and our gear it must just go under water. No vented loop, just a straight shot to the check valve then pump. I pulled the check valve and the spring inside was cocked and the ball couldn't seat properly allowing water to seep past. If the pump was on it would just quietly pump it out every time it leaked enough and I wouldn't know about the check valve problem. It's been on my list of things to put the vented loop in and next week it will have one with no restrictive check valve in the way.

[Wayne nicol]

oooh- close call!!
priority fix now- good heads up for all of us!

[Russ]

Wow! That is scary.

Yes, vented loop would help break a siphon. This is why you always put pump through hull exits way above the water line.
Glad it didn't turn out as a disaster.

--Russ

[ualpow]

Installed the vented loop and new bilge pump yesterday. Also installed new pump assy for my jabsco toilet. The service kit was $56.00 but instead I splurged and bought the whole upgraded twist and lock pump assy for $56.00.

[dlandersson]

Lets here it for the youngest son.

Spent the night one saturday and woke up to hear youngest son saying "wow, look at all that water!"
The cabin had about 5" of water in it. I had turned off the bilge pump late that night because the switch lamp was too bright.
Glad i did because I found out the problem in the slip and not anchored out. The PO has the thru-hull just above the waterline but with us 5 and our gear it must just go under water. No vented loop, just a straight shot to the check valve then pump. I pulled the check valve and the spring inside was cocked and the ball couldn't seat properly allowing water to seep past. If the pump was on it would just quietly pump it out every time it leaked enough and I wouldn't know about the check valve problem. It's been on my list of things to put the vented loop in and next week it will have one with no restrictive check valve in the way.

[Catigale]

Check valves basically suck.

They reduce the bilge pump performance
They provide two more connectors on the hose to fail
They fail with any kind of debris in the bilge water, which is harder to eliminate then you think. In any kind of a holing situation, there is always debris in the water.

No check valves anywhere on my boat. My through hulls are all above water, and have double clamps, 5200, and shutoff valves inspected annually

[ualpow]

Agreed Cat, I should have removed it when I first saw it. Two years ago!

[Highlander]

my bilge pump out is way above the water line just make sure the bilge pump is capable of pumping out as high as ur outlet don't assume it can some of the cheap bilge pumps r good for only 6" above mounted height
http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee20 ... 0072-1.jpg

now if u mounted one of these puppies total cost was about 50.$ for this Bilge Water Alarm u'd have no worries
http://i844.photobucket.com/albums/ab1/ ... 428e30.jpg

I also installed a fume alert this yr
http://s844.photobucket.com/user/TheHig ... d.mp4.html

J