Water Pressure Pump

[ColdEH]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

I have a washdown pump in spares, which I never installed.

It's a Johnson WD 5.2, which does 20 liters/min or 5.2 gpm, a bit more than my Par Max. The pressure is higher -- shuts on at 54 psi and off at 70 (5 bars), compared to 40 psi for the Par Max.

I wonder if it would work, or whether it would blow my water system apart? It would be a drop in fit.

When I went up to 60 psi preasure I had a couple of explosive leaks , so yes moving pressure up does get fun . 70 pis is really high , I guess it depends on how your system is plumbed .

Regards

[Stu Jackson]

DH,

I have a Shurflo water pump. It is 30 years old and still running. Of course, it kept running as soon as I got my backup Shurflo replacement pump on sale! I had a water leak a few years ago, so thought, first: aha, the pump, so I bought the replacement. It turned out to be a leaking hose, so I replaced all the plumbing, still using the same pump.

The Jabsco pumps, while quite similar, just aren't as good. There are also better pumps than Shurflo. I avoided the variable flow pumps primarily because of reports from our sisterships the Catalina C355s, that the Jabsco variable were junk and had tons of issues.

I also decided against an accumulator, years and years ago.

One school of thought: KISS.

Another, mentioned earlier is an AC pump.

Others, of course, are the diaphragm pumps, just noisier and physically bigger.

Your boat, your choice.

Good luck, avoid Jabsco. But you already know that.

[a64pilot]

Yeah, I got curious and looked up the Headhunter pump, and noticed list price was over $1,200?
Plus I got a lot of grief over wanting the 5 GPM pump I got, I can't imaging needing 20 GPM?
Often bigger is better, and that pump seemed to be quite the ticket with a flow meter and all, but isn't it a bit of overkill?

[athene]

We have several Jabsco pumps - both diaphragm and impeller - on our sailing and motor boats. They all share the same characteristic: the seal between the pump housing and the motor housing is invariably inadequate (on occasion just a thin rubber gasket) and once water gets into the bearings - or still worse, the motor - it's goodbye pump.

I detach the pump housings at least once a season, check the gasket and give the motor housing a good dollop of silicone grease to forestall problems.

Rather than carrying duplicate spare pumps for everything (that's a total of ten!), we carry a couple of spare motors. We find they are interchangeable across most of the pumps on board. The pump housings are rarely a problem as long we carry spare impellers and valve assemblies.

GORDON KNIGHT

[a64pilot]

Stu, the one I have is a sort of variable pump, in that I believe it recirculates the water so it doesn't short cycle nearly as much on low flow, but the Seagull for example doesn't have enough flow to keep it on, then it does short cycle.
Its a Shurflo pump

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by typhoon

When I went up to 60 psi preasure I had a couple of explosive leaks , so yes moving pressure up does get fun . 70 pis is really high , I guess it depends on how your system is plumbed .

Regards

Bah, I don't know. My plumbing is very good, but I sure don't want any "explosive leaks".

My plumbing is done to good household standards using a proprietary plastic pipe system widely used in the UK.

I do see that normal household water pressure is considered to be 50 to 80 psi, so maybe 70 would not be explosively disastrous. Hmmm.

[savoir]

70 psi ? Good grief, mine is set at 30. The pump is 12 years old and gets a rebuild every 3rd year. I'm on board roughly 200 days/year.

Setting the pressure anywhere above 35 really gives the pump a workout on every cycle. You can hear it laboring through the last 10 seconds or so - bangabangabangabanga. Do that for a few years and the poor little pump wears out after a lifetime of hard labor. You can't blame it. The only downside is not getting a gushing shower. Big deal.

Whatever you decide the system certainly needs a fine gauge strainer on the inlet side. One of these will do.

[ColdEH]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

Yeah, I got curious and looked up the Headhunter pump, and noticed list price was over $1,200?
Plus I got a lot of grief over wanting the 5 GPM pump I got, I can't imaging needing 20 GPM?
Often bigger is better, and that pump seemed to be quite the ticket with a flow meter and all, but isn't it a bit of overkill?

You can get them on eBay for 500$ still in the box some time . I bought a back up for a hundred bucks and have it sitting on my bench here at work, just in case I needed parts. Someone painted it so it is a little ugly .

I have been knocking around in boats for over 40 years , just got fed up with crapy water pressure from little 12v pumps so when I found this headhunter stuff It was a no brainer , still have yet to take out the old Shurflo pump from the boat.

"No , I will never put on another life jacket "

Regards


Sent from my iPhone using Cruisers Sailing Forum

[a64pilot]

On the gushing shower.
Usually when you have the shower on, the water pressure pressure drops significantly, unless you have a high volume pump, so jacking up the pressure often just strains the plumbing and pump with little if any gain.
Now, one of those headhunter things, well I guess you could hire yourself out as a fireboat?

[ColdEH]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

On the gushing shower.
Usually when you have the shower on, the water pressure pressure drops significantly, unless you have a high volume pump, so jacking up the pressure often just strains the plumbing and pump with little if any gain.
Now, one of those headhunter things, well I guess you could hire yourself out as a fireboat?

I have been called apon occasionally 🚒

🤓

Regards



Sent from my iPhone using Cruisers Sailing Forum

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

On the gushing shower.
Usually when you have the shower on, the water pressure pressure drops significantly, unless you have a high volume pump, so jacking up the pressure often just strains the plumbing and pump with little if any gain.
Now, one of those headhunter things, well I guess you could hire yourself out as a fireboat?

I am completely happy with the water pressure and flow rate from my existing Jabsco 4 gallons per minute pump. My boat has two showers, and two people can take a satisfactory shower at the same time.

I really think that overkill here is wrong on a boat where you are often trying to save water to some extent or another. Very high pressure and very high flow rates make it quite a bit harder to save water.


I think what I'm going to do is keep the washdown pump in reserve, and order a new SurFlo pump, also 4 gpm, which a friend can bring to me on Saturday. The Jabsco is now pumping water but doesn't shut itself off for some strange reason. I will live with it until Saturday, and if it fails again, I'll try the washdown pump.

From now on, I'll keep a complete working spare on board -- something I have always known I need to do . The failure of such a device is a trivial bit of wrenching if you have the spare on board; but can ruin days of a cruise if you don't. How many times do I need to relearn this lesson?

For my sins, I'm going to order a spare Gulper for my gray water system at the same time. I have plenty of spare diaphragms for them (I have two separate gray water systems), and can swap one for the other in an emergency, but enough is enough where pumps are concerned -- complete working spare will be my mantra. I had a spares kit for the Jabsco Par Max also, but it didn't help me. The only guaranty is a complete spare pump.

[a64pilot]

With a little planning, you can get your pumps down to just a few types.
For instance I am using the same march pump for both AC's and the generator. It's more than needed for the gen and one AC, but one spare covers all three.
I have two spare Bilge pumps as far as I know, they aren't repairable, they are like light bulbs.
I don't yet have a spare alternator and starter, I'd like a spare raw water engine pump, but am on the line about a spare fresh water engine pump, maybe just put a new one on, and it should last a LONG time?

Best place to buy an overhauled Yanmar starter? How can you find a cross match as I doubt it is a Marine only part? My John Deere lawnmower was Yanmar powered, a three cylinder for instance.

[savoir]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

On the gushing shower.
Usually when you have the shower on, the water pressure pressure drops significantly, unless you have a high volume pump, so jacking up the pressure often just strains the plumbing and pump with little if any gain.
Now, one of those headhunter things, well I guess you could hire yourself out as a fireboat?

I don't know how many gpm = high volume but mine puts out 7 gpm. At 30 psi the shower is a little wimpy. Everything else is fine.

[Stu Jackson]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

Yeah, I got curious and looked up the Headhunter pump, and noticed list price was over $1,200?
Plus I got a lot of grief over wanting the 5 GPM pump I got, I can't imaging needing 20 GPM?
Often bigger is better, and that pump seemed to be quite the ticket with a flow meter and all, but isn't it a bit of overkill?

See reply #15 here:

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...er-169254.html

Dockhead's right. The gallons per minute and the pressures of various pumps are pretty much in line: i.e., the higher the gpm the higher the pressure. Just take a look at any catalog and you'll see. Even for boats as large as DH's compared to our "puny" little mid-30 footers, one, two or even three outlets (faucets) will only require 3 or 4 gpm with attendant pressures of 30 to 55 psi. 55 psi, IMHO, is really pushing it for recreational boating piping/hose systems.

Our Grohe shower stop works great because it is NOT a COMPLETE shutoff, but rather trickles a small amount of water thus keeping the system going (slightly) and keeping the temperature at the showerhead pretty constant, actually VERY constant. Even the "pulsing: of the water pump makes no difference, because the screen at faucets and the showerhead itself evens it out. Folks, it ain't a house , and the minimal difference is hardly detectable.

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by savoir

I don't know how many gpm = high volume but mine puts out 7 gpm. At 30 psi the shower is a little wimpy. Everything else is fine.

I think 7 GPM is high flow, most I believe are much less, mine is 5 GPM and I consider that high flow, others may think different of course.

Course I'd bet we are mostly sucking and pumping through .5" hose though so I wonder how much that cuts down flow?