Valves, Oh My!

Eolian's two valves which select which water tank the domestic supply is drawn from have been getting more and more difficult to turn over the years.  This spring, I decided that enough was enough...  before I broke something.  They were bronze valves, and were as old as the boat.

Here's the plumbing tree.  Water supply from the two tanks is at the top left and right.  Feed to the pressure pump is from the strainer at the very bottom.  The small pipe leading off to the left is the supply from the water maker, and the capped off grey pipe is the supply to the fresh water foot pump in the galley sink.

Before

 

 

So, in a fit of activity, I disassembled the valve tree and replaced the old valves with PVC/Teflon ball valves - they are only a little longer than the old ones and there is plenty of room for them.  Also, they open and close like a dream because the seats are Teflon.

And while I was at it, I added a valve in the galley foot pump supply and reconnected it.  (I capped this off back in 1997 because the foot pump flapper valves slowly leaked air back into the system, making the freshwater supply pump constantly cavitate.)  Now we can have the use of the foot pump by simply opening a valve.

After

 

 

Finally as a side note, I do not leave both tanks connected together because by keeping them separate, in the event of a leak the worst case scenario is that I would only lose half of my fresh water.  (I keep both diesel tanks separate for the same reason.)

Valves, Oh My!

No-no Will Be Corrected

 You probably can't tell from the photo, but that is a no-no.

You see, thru-hulls are threaded NPS (National Pipethread,Straight), so that seacocks can be threaded onto them tight against the hull, regardless of the hull thickness.  Normal pipe fittings are NPT (National Pipethread, Tapered) so the connection will bind up solidly when things are tightened up.

In the picture, you see a bronze NPT ball valve threaded onto a NPS thru hull.  This is not good, since the connection between the straight and tapered threads will only be one or two turns.  It could leak (it's not, thankfully) and it is mechanically very weak, meaning a small side thrust could disengage the threads.

This problem exists here because, tho there are 1/2" thru hulls, there are no 1/2" seacocks made - the smallest is 3/4".  So here, a normal 1/2" bronze NPT ball valve  was screwed on to the 1/2" thru hull to make up the connection.  A definite no-no.

I have thought about this off and on for years.  And recently a cosmic ray passed thru my brain and gave me the solution...

I have in my shop at home a set of pipe threading dies.  I could easily re-thread the top of the thru hull to be NPT using one of these...

So: next haul-out when the fitting is out of the water, I will bring the 1/2" NPT die to the boat and re-thread the end of the fitting to NPT, and reassemble properly.  

Problem solved!

No-no Will Be Corrected

Maintenance Spring

 No, not spring maintenance, maintenance spring.

It started back in November when one day, when we boarded the boat, the primary bilge pump was running.  Huh.  After a long afternoon of troubleshooting, I was unable to find anything wrong, so I put everything back together.  Weeks later it happened again.  I finally concluded that it had to be the float switch, even tho it seemed to check out OK.  I installed a spare that I had on board, and that took care of that.

Next, we found that the refrigeration system was not running.  Thankfully there was nothing important in either the refrigerator or the freezer.  Eolian's refrigeration uses a belt-driven compressor, powered by a 1/2 hp 12V motor.  That motor had given up the ghost.

Now, in 1978, the motor had quit similarly.  At that time, Eolian was moored at the south end of Lake Union, right in downtown Seattle.  Back then, before the huge influx of cash from Amazon et. al. gentrified the whole area, I pulled the motor and walked it to a rebuild shop that was conveniently located near the marina.  Now however, I had a great difficulty in finding a rebuild shop.  I finally settled on a local automotive parts store who claimed to have a "relationship" with a major rebuilder down in Seattle somewhere.  I dropped off the motor.  Weeks later, having heard nothing, I called and was told that it would cost more than $700 because "...there were several small things inside that were no longer available and would have to be constructed from scratch by skilled machinists."  This not being my first rodeo, I recognized bulls**t when I heard it, and asked for the motor to be returned.  When I finally got it (another long delay), I tore it down and found a badly scored commutator and completely worn out brushes.  The bearings were pristine.  I also noted that no-one had actually disassembled the motor, despite the diagnosis I had been given.

So I ordered some brushes off of eBay for $6 and built a jig to turn the commutator, using an electric drill and a file.  I don't believe that the scoring was the result of wearing out the brushes.  Instead I think it was from that original rebuild way back when.  

Home made commutator turning jig

Before and after

After reassembly and re-installation in the boat, it worked great!  But...

While checking out the installation, I discovered that the Freon charge in the system was awfully low.  Getting that next maintenance item rectified was the subject of a prior post.  Been counting?  This made the third major maintenance item.

Finally, while topping off the water in the batteries, I discovered that the exhaust hose leading from the generator to its water-lift muffler had a big bubble on it and was leaking.  So, a trip to West Marine to get hose and a tube of silicone (has anyone noticed that the silicone manufacturers seem to have colluded to stop producing resealable packaging for silicone??!?). 

Installing the hose will happen this coming weekend, presuming that something else doesn't fail before then...

And to think that I was seeing this spring as an easy one...

Maintenance Spring

Frostline Marine Refrigeration

 

It seems that we are always ready to complain when a business fails to meet our expectations in some way.  But then we are silent when things go perfectly...  well this is one of those perfect cases.

Over the years (23?...) since Eolian's last refrigeration service, things worked well...  until the last year or so, when the refrigeration compressor would start, run for a few seconds, shut off, and lather rinse repeat.  Eventually tho, it would come on and run until it reached the setpoint.  I guessed that the refrigerant level had become so low that when the compressor kicked on, it would rapidly pull the suction side of the system down to the cutout pressure, and that this would continue until the entire system became warm enough to raise the refrigerant temperature to the point where its vapor pressure was above the cutout pressure.  So, after all those years, it was time for a recharge.

I tried to find someone in the Anacortes area, but no one was willing to take on additional work.

Looking further afield, I contacted Frostline Marine Refrigeration in Bellingham.

What a pleasant surprise!

Mclean was courteous and scheduled an appointment at our convenience.

When he arrived, he was prompt, fully equipped, familiar with marine refrigeration systems (quite different from domestic or industrial systems - not least because marine systems are so often crammed into almost inaccessible spaces), working on boats (protect varnish surfaces!), and most importantly, knowledgeable of refrigeration in general (I have two degrees in Chemical Engineering - trust me, I know).

He pumped the system down, removing the remaining R-409a (which was the replacement for the old R-12 back 23 years ago) and refilled the system with the newest and greatest R-12 replacement: R-417c.  And he was gone in 45 minutes.

If you have marine refrigeration needs, I cannot recommend Mclean and Frostline highly enough.

Frostline Marine Refrigeration