Thru Hull Age/ Maintenance

[Flyingriki]

Assuming 17 years old, is the potential for needing replacement based on maintenance or its lack? Read somewhere that replacement and hoses can get pretty pricey?

[flyingfin]

How old is boat? What is it worth? Is it OK if it sinks?
Nothing lasts forever, so you need to decide if you pursue replace before or replace after failure. On my bicycle, I run tyres until they fail. On passenger jets, we usually replace tyres based on MTBF

[maxingout]

When we were in Mooloolaba, Australia, I was working in the starboard bilge, and a marlon through hull sheared off when I bumped it with my hand. The same thing had happened in Whangarei, New Zealand.

That was the last straw for me and I decided to replace all the through hulls on a single day while the boat was still in the water. I no longer trusted the marlon through hulls.

I purchased eleven new bronze through hulls north of Brisbane, and we did the job in the water.

I got a bunch of wooden bungs to place in the new through hall fittings so that water would not come in when we jammed the new through hulls in place under water.

A friend on the inside of the hull (who also had spare bungs to put in the hole if required) removed the nut on the marlon through hull fitting and put his hand over the hole to limit ingress of water while I jammed a new bronze through hull through the hole. I slathered 5200 on the new through hull flange before pushing it through the hole in the boat.

In half a day, we did eleven through hulls without any problem. We had all the tools and fittings and bungs ready to go before we started.

It wasn't necessarily for the faint of heart, but it wasn't all that bad either.

[Captsteve53]

If the vessel is 17 years old then it would definitely be worth pulling them out and checking the thru hulls and valves, If you are into composite valves then a recently new series of vales and skin fittings are available through (Trudesign)
as ( Marine | TRUDESIGN) So far they have a very good name with exhaustive testing sheets for reference,

If not then Bronze valves/thru hulls are the way to go, just be sure they are bronze and not brass!

[four winds]

Originally Posted by Flyingriki

Assuming 17 years old, is the potential for needing replacement based on maintenance or its lack? Read somewhere that replacement and hoses can get pretty pricey?

My forty year old boat has the original bronze thru-hulls and seacocks. And also all original tankage. No problems with any of these items that I'm aware of.

So, I think the choice's the manufacturer made when new may be an important factor toward longevity. What you got?

Careful inspection and function check should lead you to making a determination as to how to proceed.

[Flyingriki]

Thank you very much for the positive advice!!
Will ignore the finsnark....never found snark very useful.