Do you really need pressure water?

[Michigan_Eric]

Originally Posted by Shrew

That is not my take-at all. I would hardly call pressurized water as a significant source of headaches. IT is an extremely simple system to troubleshoot and work on. It is a fairly inexpensive system as well. The pump is the most expensive, however you go years between needing to replace them typically.

It's not 'land bound' comfort. It is simply comfort and convenience. Taking a shower or washing dishes has nothing to do with being on land. OR are you trekking out the outhouse or well when you're on land??

On land, pressurized water is provided by infrastructure built and maintained by your city or whatever municipality you live in, and you really don't have to do much except mind your own plumbing. On a boat, you have to take care of it all yourself.

I admit to some degree of laziness here, but also to being a minimalist. It may shock some here to know that my boat doesn't have refrigeration either, and I have no intention of installing it. I can buy a lot of ice for what that would cost. So I guess I'm cheap, too!

[Foswick]

Originally Posted by Michigan_Eric

On land, pressurized water is provided by infrastructure built and maintained by your city or whatever municipality you live in, and you really don't have to do much except mind your own plumbing. On a boat, you have to take care of it all yourself.

Not me, I run a hose from my house to my boat. Works pretty well until someone drives over the hose, though I can only sail about 50 feet.

[Thomas1985]

No. Sailors were crossing oceans for thousands of years without pressure water systems.

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by Michigan_Eric

True, it's not that hard, but it's a complete pain in the butt. And it isn't just about the pressure pump. There are the check valves, the accumulator tank, and, even on my simple boat, at least two dozen hose fittings that can leak (added complexity due to the aforementioned hot water tank which I am removing). Where I live, winterization means I have to disconnect it all and blow out the water (not going to use glycol "red pop", you can't get the taste out). And now I'm reconnecting it all in a space that makes it especially difficult to do so.

Again, I prefer manual, but a pressure water system doesn't have to be anywhere near as complex as you outline. A simple pressure pump (one with a pressure cutoff switch, built in), and a valved faucet is all that is required. Boats of smallish size don't need an accumulator tank, and unless you're trying to do something complicated, no check valves are needed.

I live where there is real winter. We always winterize our systems with "plumber's antifreeze." It does take a few flushes to get the taste out in the spring, but if you are judicious in its use, it's not a big deal.

Again, I like manual pumps. But the complexity argument isn't really very compelling.

[Bowdrie]

Originally Posted by Michigan_Eric

It may shock some here to know that my boat doesn't have refrigeration either, and I have no intention of installing it.

[Jim Cate]

It may shock some here to know that my boat doesn't have refrigeration either, and I have no intention of installing it. I can buy a lot of ice for what that would cost. So I guess I'm cheap, too!

I guess it depends upon whether you live aboard or not. Our previous boat did not have refrigeration for our first year of cruising, and whilst in Mexico, where ice was cheap and everywhere, it was no problema. But when we reached French Polynesia the situation was radically different, with block ice unavailable and cube ice deadly dear. Stuck it out, returned to live aboard in the SF area for a year replenishing the kitty. At the end of the year I totalled up the cost of ice for that year, and it was considerably more than the current cost of an Adlor-Barber DIY fridge. The result was adding insulation to the ice box and installing a "Cold Machine". What a difference in our life style! One of the best (and most cost effective) things I've ever done to a boat.

Jim

[ullar]

Interestingly no one has mentioned the noise of the electric water pumps. On my friends boat she was afraid to use toilet during the night when she had guests aboard. She was afraid that cutting in of the water pump when she washes her hands will wake them up.


My methodology on a boat is that if I don't like the system I rip it out. If I later decide I really need it i redesign and rebuild. I didn't like the water heater on my boat, so no hot water from a tap for us. I didn't like the pressurised water system, so foot pumps all around. We tried the camping bladder style of shower and didn't like it, an we installed a pressurized cocpit shower to rinse up after swimming.


I really think that everybody will find out eventually what's important for them. But, simplicity is a king.

[Mike OReilly]

I cruised for years on our previous boat without refrigeration. We used ice, but mainly we just put things against the hull to keep things cool. We were mostly sailing Lake Superior at the time, so the hull was always cool.

Our current boat came with a fridge. I learned to like it -- a lot. So much so that when the original one died, we replaced it with another similar version.

It is certainly possible to cruise without refrigeration. It just requires a different mind-set towards food & drink. We're so tied to refrigeration here in our rich societies that we forget that most of the world has no such luxury, and yet most people eat and drink just fine.

That said, I like my fridge. It keeps my beer cold .

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by Kettlewell

Everything breaks or requires maintenenace. The less equipment you have the less time and money you spend fixing stuff.

I had a plague of locusts with water system problems this year, my God. First the fresh water pump failed (after giving me a lot of trouble the previous year), then the very day I fixed that, one of my gray water pumps failed. THEN, the mixer failed in one of my showers, making it impossible to leave the system pressurized. Was a kerfuffle to get a replacement cartridge for it. So I wasted -- err, spent -- a lot of my spring boat repair time allotment on this nonsense.



So I'm ENTIRELY sympathetic to the OP. Can he live without pressure water? Only he can decide that, and if he thinks he can, then of course -- he can.



I, for one, however, CANNOT, or at least, would never want to. Daily hot showers, washing dishes in the sink and not out of a bucket, is something I would not give up. Not to mention my fresh water toilet and washing machine. But cruising can be done in all sorts of ways, so, more power to him.

[donradcliffe]

Old habits die hard. This morning I heated a pot of water for tea, and used the remainder to wash the dishes in the sink at the house. I figure I used one tenth the water and one fifth the gas it would have taken to use the automatic dishwasher and on demand gas water heater.

[Boatguy30]

Your wife eventually will has been my experience.

[J. Kavanaugh]

I lived aboard my Downeaster 32 for ~4 years on San Francisco Bay without pressure (or hot) water. This made me a member of the “4-SH Club” - in which you sh!t, shower, and shave on shore.

An electric teakettle served well for hot water needs, even if it wasn’t nearly as convenient as hot+pressure water would have been. I loved how frugal the footpump was with water stores. The boat had a second foot pump for salt water - a system I really liked.

That being said: I would have loved to have had pressurized hot water onboard, even if I’d probably shut all of that off for passages for conservation.

[Michigan_Eric]

Originally Posted by ullar

Interestingly no one has mentioned the noise of the electric water pumps. On my friends boat she was afraid to use toilet during the night when she had guests aboard. She was afraid that cutting in of the water pump when she washes her hands will wake them up.
.
I really think that everybody will find out eventually what's important for them. But, simplicity is a king.

Yes... the noise. I sleep in the quarterberth, and the pressure pump is about where my knees are. If it cycles during the night it will wake me up. But then one of the privileges of sleeping in the quarterberth is that I'm right behind the nav station so I can reach over and switch off the pressure water, and I know the position of the switch by feel.

So if I remove the pressure water I won't have the pleasure of control over it, but then the pump won't wake me up either... simplicity helps me sleep better too.

[Michigan_Eric]

Thanks again to everyone for your contributions here.

Since I still don't have the pressure water on, I was using the foot pump in the galley this morning and I found that I liked using it better than fumbling with the faucet, especially when my hands are goopy. So eliminating the pressure water already looks like it will have no downside, at least as far as my own sensibilities go.

I also had a minor revelation regarding drinking water. The galley sink on my boat is next to the companionway and is in a deep recess that goes a considerable way underneath the cockpit bench seat. I have a plastic water jug that I use for drinking water, and I discovered that I could build a rack that will hold the jug in that recess with the gravity spigot above the sink, especially once I remove the pressure water faucet.

Simplicity keeps getting better!

[Foswick]

Drinking water ... now that's a whole different deal, for me. I am fine without pressurized or heated water. I can even go for a while without oxygen. But, good drinking water ...

For me, tea is a religion. And, the #1 ingredient in tea is water. Tank water, no matter how fresh, just doesn't cut it. We filter all water going into the tank, but no matter what we do, the water coming out is ... suboptimal ... for tea.

On our current boat, this involves hand pumping water, filtering that water, then boiling the filtered water. There isn't really a lot of extra room to store pre-filtered water.

On our next boat, I am installing a separate faucet, like I have at home. We have a separate faucet that draws from an under-sink filter. So, we don't use the filter for washing, cooking, etc. - just for drinking.

All considerations, on our boat, start with how to make tea and work backward from there.