Posted by Ann Gregor (209.156.118.34) on May 08, 2000 at 17:46:18:
My husband's next project is installing a water pump with a hose in the anchor locker to wash down the anchor and the topsides. He plans on using the thru hull from the forward macerator pump (since it was removed due to Great Lakes rules) for the inlet. Anyone have any suggestions or input?Posted by Tony Williams (149.199.62.254) on May 09, 2000 at 12:10:58:
I installed an anchor spraydown pump in my 1999 two-cabin model (#678) and I made a couple of mistakes that you might like to know about in advance! You may not hit them since you're using the macerator thru-hull, but others might appreciate the ideas...
First, the real reason I installed the pump was because of the awful smell that was created whenever I flushed the forward head after a week or so of no use. The smell is due to the decay of living organisms that are trapped in the hose leading from the head thru-hull to the head hand-pump unit. When you flush the head, you send all that week-old smelly water into the bowl and stink up the entire boat!
So I fitted a T connection to the head seawater intake hose where it attaches to the head pump, ran the hose up the hull next to the vented-loop, above the shower compartment (where I installed a strainer) to the wash-down pump which I fitted to the forward side of the shower bulkhead. I put a flush fitting hose socket through the anchor locker wall and bought a 15' spiral hose with a pistol spray gun attachment.
I leave the spray-gun in the anchor locker in the locked-open position and when I return to the boat after any time away, I usually switch-on the wash-down pump for 10 seconds which sucks the smelly water out of the head intake hose and sprays it into the anchor locker where it drains overboard. No more smell!
Now... What went wrong with all this? Whenever I used the spray-down pump to wash-off the anchor I was always disappointed by the lack of pressure.
The reason, it turns-out, was because with the head flush lever in the 'empty-bowl' position (which is where it always gets left) the spray-down pump would suck air into its feed hose through the vented-loop. This reduced the pressure of the spray down pump dramatically and could be fixed either by switching the head flush lever to 'fill-bowl' (too much trouble) or by fitting a check valve between the T fitting and the head pump (which I did).
I also noticed that over time, about a month, a gentle 90 degree bend in the hose (where it came up the hull from the T to travel over the shower compartment) had become a kink that had pinched the hose closed. I replaced this with a 90 degree elbow, and it now all works great! -Tony.
Posted by Jerry Kiehne (63.26.235.43) on May 08, 2000 at 19:02:47:
If you already have a ready thru-hull the job is pretty easy. Select a good quality pump and install it on the forward bulkhead under the forward stateroom berth in the general vicinity of where the macerator is or was. Insure that you install a strainer for the pump and wire it correctly. Then run the hose through the forward head and terminate it at a hose connection that you install in the anchor locker. Having a washdown system can be very handy when cleaning a very dirty anchor like we get in the Chesapeake Bay. If you have any other questions or specific information that you may need don't hesitate to email me direct.