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lady's and Gents,
Seabird has leaky water tanks, it's not a huge deal but it's super annoying that I am loosing fresh water with every drip. Has anyone ever taken out a water tank on a DE32 or 38? I imagine they are the same. my guess is that I would have to remove a large portion of the floor but then what would I replace it with? it almost seems like the fiberglass floor rests on the water tanks. In other words, I cant imagine how I would frame up and build a floor after I cut the existing one away.
Has anyone out there tried something as crazy as making a new floor on a DE
Thanks for any advice
Travis
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Travis,
major major undertaking. If all it is is pinholes then the preferred repair so far is to paint the inside of the tank with a food grade epoxy. Jason rose of DE32 Bohdran did this with great success on his fuel tanks and his water tanks if I remember right.
He used a product from http://ppgamercoatus.ppgpmc.com/
However I don't think he used the recommended product so I am not listing it here. Give these guys a call and tell them you want to paint the inside of a water tank with a nsf water potable epoxy to repair pin holes etc.. If you have larger holes you can actually use some fiberglass cloth with this stuff to do structural repairs to the inside of tanks. I am doing this with one of their products rated for diesel fuel and if I ever have issues with my water tanks will repair them this way. when I spoke with them and asked for the product Jason used for his tank they told me they didn't recommend it for fuel tanks that it was more a water potable product and that they had new products out that were even better than it now. Given that, jason seems to have had excellent results even so with it as I think he repaired his fuel tank a decade ago or so and has had no issues since. I think a third party company that used their products recommended that product to him back when he did his project.
Your total cost will average around 200 for a 2 gallon kit of paint and what every it costs you to buy or fabricate access plates in the top of the water tanks so you can clean grind and paint inside them. You can actually purchase their products through your local Porter Paints store as Porter Paints is owned by PPG. It will be a special order for them as they mainly sell house paint products at most of their locations and the PPG products like this are considered industrial paints.
now all that said. Is it holes in your tanks or do you have issues in any of your lines or connections to the tank? I currently have issue with some of the supply side lines leaking when I fill the tanks. Every time I fill the tanks I have to pump about 5 gallons of water from the bilge. 🙁 It's on the mid term got to replace the fill hoses for both tanks list.
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This is jasons write up on repairing his fuel tank and he said he did the exact same thing to his water tanks later on.
/forums/general-forum/water-tank
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We do have tiny pinholes, I can see at least 2 of them. I'm sure Seabird has the original hoses and fittings so we are most likely loosing some water that way too. On our 3 month cruise to Prince Edward Island we averaged about 8 days per tank. we didn't conserve any by using salt water for anything. Has anyone else made a note of how long water lasts onboard? if you all say your tanks lasted a month each I will buy the epoxy paint today, if we are in the same ballpark I may just trudge thru until things get worse.
now to find someone with long enough arms to reach the bottom of the tank but small enough hands to get between them....
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It's been 8 years since I repaired Bodhran's tanks and they're still doing well despite some pretty hard use. It seems to me that the forward tank on the DE32 is 40 gallons and the aft is 60. I don't really keep track of which I'm using, but between the two of them I normally go 6-8 weeks between filling. Of course I'm by myself most of the time and use salt water for dishes, but still 8 days seems like it's pretty fast.
The job really wasn't all that big of a deal, it was just really hard getting up the gumption to cut through the floor and hull liner to get to the tanks. Still it's a heck of a lot better than taking enough of the liner out to replace the tanks.
Jason
DE32 Bodhran
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Wow thats a lot longer than we were able to go! Jason, I was looking over your post about installing the inspection ports, do you feel like cheaper ports would work well... aka the $25 ones from a place like West Marine or should I really save my pennies and get the ports you got? lastly where did you find the baffle(s) to be and would I need to throw a port on either side.
Travis
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I'm interested in the baffles answer 🙂
You might look for welding distortion areas on the outside of the tank. That would probably be where a baffle was welded to the inside of the tank.
With two 50 gallon tanks on valkyr a DE38 we suck the water down pretty quick but that is two people and a baby not really trying to conserve water. Lots of washing dishes etc ... We can use up the tanks in as fast as 14 days or so. Before moving on and doing as much cooking and washing of dishes we could go for a month or two on the two tanks. I think washing and rinsing in salt water and then just doing a quick fresh water rinse to rinse away the salt water would reduce our water consumtion by 2/3. Right now there is no way I would use the water in the marina to wash dishes with. Maybe out on the ocean or somewhere with cleaner water.
I think if we went into away from the dock mode that we could do a lot better than that though 🙂 We have a leak in the supply hoses to the tanks but I don't think we have any leaks otherwise. Just sitting at the dock our bilges stay pretty dry.
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I would get good ports. I don't think west marine sells anything that would make a good inspection port in a water or fuel tank. You can make ports out of thick acrylic that bolt down and they allow you to see inside the tank without unbolting them. So you could see if your turning green and need to scrub the tank out before you unbolt them. I would make my ports and drill the holes. Then use that as a template to mark the tank. Drill the tank and then tap the holes. Screw bolts from the inside up to come up through a gasket and the acrylic and then nuts and washers to hold it on. I would seal the threads of the bolts as they come up though the tank by painting them with the epoxy you use to seal the tank. once in place they should never move again and will be water proof. 🙂
Scott
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http://www.westmarine.com/weba.....sNum=50690
this is a screw in inspection port 8" hole that that (I found by searching deck plate) you could bolt on then the cover screws off. the add says its water tight but I'm wondering if 40-50 gals of sloshing water would somehow break them, thoughts?
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My water usage definitely goes up when I'm in a marina or in dirty water and can't use my raw water pump. Ever since I set up my water catcher to go into a deck fill, I've been using more and more fresh water. I even have a cockpit shower for fresh water rinses after swimming. We haven't got any rain down here in Fiji in 2 weeks, but I'm still on my first 60 gallon tank and haven't filled up with water since Sept 18th.
The baffles run from port to starboard about half way down the tank. You can tap on the top of the tank to find them. My forward tank had a plastic inspection port in it when I bought Bodhran. It leaked like a sieve around the edges. The tank top was distorted and would flex whenever you filled it too fast or too full. The Seabuilt ports have more structure than the tank itself and have held up great. I wouldn't hesitate to use them again, though you might be able to build your own for less $.
For the forward tank, I have one inspection port in the access hatch area and one more under the forward dinette seat. If you don't have the dinette layout, you probably don't have access to the top of the tank there. For the aft tank, I cut a new access hatch in the floor. I cut a large rectangular hole in the top of the tank spanning the baffle with access to each side. To seal it up, I used a rectangular SS plate that I thru bolted to the tank. I installed another Seabuilt port in the hatch to be able to tighten the bolts from inside the tank. The tanks is too thin to tap, but you might be able epoxy some bolts from the inside out and save some money on the extra inspection port.
Here's a pic of the aft inspection port:
Hope that helps,
Jason
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That port that you linked to from West Marine was just like the one I used to have that I could never get to seal properly. But if your tank is perfectly flat on top and doesn't flex, it might work.
Jason
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yep, Ive head the front tank pop and bang while filling. go figure that the cheap ports are cheap
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both of our tanks flex and pop on filling and as they are pumped out. It is a lot of fun to see a guests face when it happens to them the first time. I'm sure it was hilarious the first time it happened with me on board. What a shockingly loud noise!
That plastic port is a waste of money for anything involving being truly waterproof or secure. I have those installed from the factory on a kayak I have, and it jams easily going in and out. Seizes up sometimes and leaks. I think if you hit a wave hard with a 2/3 full tank it would blow that hatch cover right out of the tank if the moving water hit it just right. I have used them inside boats to access areas
If you were local I have some 1/2 inch thick acrylic window material I could give you that would make a great port and it could be bolted down properly. If you can source some scraps or cheap off cuts of thick acrylic then I would do that to make your ports. Or pick up some stainless plate to fabricate your access ports with at a scrap yard.
I wanted to buy the ports that Jason got but at 300+ dollars each for the size I wanted it was just to much money. They appear to be very well built and thought out though.
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Regarding the location of the water tank ports on DE32. There are 2 places where the tops of the tanks are accessible which are not under teak floorboards: port side aft & fwd, under settee's lockers, around the salon table. There is at least ~16" of the edge of each tank under a single(?) layer of fiberglass at the bottom of the locker (aft tank under aft settee, and vice versa). So the question: would installing an inspection port in this area work? This location would not require cutting into the teak floor.
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