Hi Anne and John,
I'm confused by your "grey water tank" alarms.  On SM 243 there is no grey water tank...the grey water flows directly into the bilge sump.  I'm guessing you are talking about the fresh water tank?

Once while on a passage in no wind we were motoring along and making water with the 24v 60 l/h watermaker, which can be powered by the alternator on the main engine.  I went to sleep while two shifts were covered by other crew.  I woke up hours later to find the watermaker still happily pumping water into the tank which was happily overflowing into the salon sole lockers.  I calculated that we had thoroughly washed the lockers with something like 350 liters of fresh water...I then scooped and pumped that 350l into the galley sink and thoroughly washed out the lines and bilge sump. Ooops! The bilge below the salon sole holds a LOT of water before it starts splashing up through the hatches.  I haven't put in an alarm, but part of my watch routine is now to open the salon floor hatch and have a look.  Otherwise have never had a drop of water down there.

I did take someone's advice and put an alarm in the bilge area by the forward head to alarm if water started leaking in from the bow thruster.  Since I last changed the seals on the thruster I've had no water leaking in, but the low battery alarm on the monitor really had me looking for the source of that annoying beep for a while.

Kent
SM 243 Kristy
Brunswick, GA, USA 


________________________________
From: Anne and John Hollamby <annejohnholl@...>
To: amelyachtowners@...
Sent: Tuesday, August 13, 2013 6:08 AM
Subject: Re: [Amel] Re: Marina mains water and fresh water pump



 
Hello Bill and Judy,
I quite agree which is why we would not leave the boat with mains water connected. My primary reason for making the connection is that we only put water maker water into out tanks. To make 900 ltrs at 160 ltrs ph takes six hours and thus about 18 ltrs of diesel at €1.70 per ltr.
We also have two alarms against the grey water tank overflowing.

Best wishes, Anne and John, Bali Hai, SM319, Sicily

From: Danny and Yvonne SIMMS
Sent: Tuesday, August 13, 2013 12:08 AM
To: amelyachtowners@...
Subject: Re: [Amel] Re: Marina mains water and fresh water pump

Hi all,
another thing to think of is the SM has a 1000 litre water tank. If you leave the boat with the fresh water pump turned on (but stopped because of the pressure switch) and a leak develops some where while you are away you will get 1000 litres of nice fresh water in the engine room.
Cheers
Danny
SM 299 Ocean Pearl

________________________________
From: Judy and Bill aboard SV BeBe <mailto:yahoogroups%40svbebe.com>
To: mailto:amelyachtowners%40yahoogroups.com
Sent: Tuesday, 13 August 2013 1:59 AM
Subject: [Amel] Re: Marina mains water and fresh water pump

John,

Water flow at 40psi through 3/4" hose/pipe is about 300 liters/minute.. How long would it take a burst hose or broken hose clamp in the watertight engine room to cause the filling the engine room, assuming that the automatic bilge pump will pump out at 75 liters/minute? I think my flow calculations are fairly accurate.

I have thought about this because I know some people connect directly to their water system, but decided that I would put a few more hours on my pump rather than risk filling the engine room.

I am not trying to be critical of your method, but since you put this out there, I wanted to say something about the downside. Some people might follow your method without thinking about the downside.

Bill
BeBe, SM2k, #387
Currently anchored near Fethiye, Turkey

--- In mailto:amelyachtowners%40yahoogroups.com, "Anne and John Hollamby " <annejohnholl@...> wrote:

Our freshwater pump is a 40 psi Jabsco which is fine. The plumbing is all on one circuit so the pressure tank behind the generator gets pressurised by the Jabsco. Mains water is normally much cheaper than watermaker water so we switch off the Jabsco and connect the hose in the cockpit locker to the mains hose which then supplies the boat without spoiling the water in our tank. If we want drinking water we turn off the stopcock in the cockpit locker, turn on the Jabsco and run off some water in the galley first. Not sure that this would be safe in the rare marina with very high pressure mains and at any event we turn off the mains before leaving the boat.

Anne and John, Bali Hai, SM 319, Marsala, Sicily

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