Salt Water to Sink

[jstevens]

Re: How did I flush the seawater hose?

Yes, I removed the hose and flushed it with freshwater. I also replaced it every couple of years.

John

[NahanniV]

I would never install another Whale ”Tip Toe" Foot Pump.

A previous poster noted that pumps are dangerous for salt water below the waterline.
I would add that for fresh water they can potentially drain your tank if installed below the level of the top of your fresh water tanks.

The "Tip Toe" pumps are particularly prone to leaking as they are a piston pump and have a sliding shaft seal that wears out. The gusher pump is better in that it is a diaphragm pump, and would only leak if the diaphragm broke.

I went to a lot of trouble to install "TipToe" pumps for salt and fresh on my last boat, and they both started to leak after a few months of daily use. Rebuilding is easy, but they failed again in the same time-frame. After the third time I gave up.

[Lepke]

I have a salt water system, similar to my fresh water system, a shallow well pump. It supplies water for the watermaker and anchor washdown. If it sits with saltwater for longer periods, things grow in the pump. Also salt and other things in the water can build up inside the pump or wear the impeller. For that reason I filter the water before the pump and usually flush with fresh water after using.

[gjordan]

Probably the most important reason to have foot pumps in the galley is that it gives you a hand to hold on with during a passage. If you are trying to rinse something with salt or fresh and want to hold it and move the lever on a hand pump you will soon learn why foot pumps are popular with passage makers. Falling across a galley while trying to use both hands to do a task is a real hazard. ____Grant.

[Dave Isom]

Yes Instal a salt pump to the galley, you will save a lot of fresh water if you use salt for rinsing. On my first yacht, an H28 "Marloo" sailing to the Whitsundays 30 plus years ago I had only small water tanks and used a careful mix of salt and fresh water for cooking rice, vegetables etc, so it can be done. Also had salt pump on my current Adams 40 but fitted an Open Ocean Watermaker engine drive Watermaker which makes 70-100 LPH prior to a global circumnavigation so don't really need the salt water pump anymore. I reckon any pump will do, fit one !

[onavegador]

On my catamaran the designer was not sure if the Whale pump works in the Saloon Galley. So I fitted a small Shurflo Model 100 pump who worked w/o problems during two circumnavigations until I sold the catamaran after more than ten years. The amount of salt water delivered by the pump was enough to rinse the dishes and so I saved fresh water (no watermaker).

Good luck
James

[RaymondR]

I am fitting a deck wash pump for both washing off the anchor chain whilst I retrieve it and rinsing off in the galley. On my previous boat I had both fresh and sea water pumps but did not use them as pressure pumps. I used a foot switch to turn on either the fresh or salt water pumps as required and there were no shut off valves on the spigots.

On this boat I am using a single wash down pressure pump for both chain and sink wash down using two solenoid operated shut of valves. The pump and solenoid will be wired to the up foot switch on the anchor winch and a parallel switching circuit for the sink wash down solenoid and the pump with a galley foot switch.

As a deck wash down the pumps appears to be rated for salt water however the solenoid valves are not. The bodies are all plastic and the solenoid coils are completely encapsulated however the plunger inside appears to be iron or steel and may have corrosion problems. Time will tell and at $26 each from an irrigation store it is not an expensive experiment.

[roland stockham]

I have run a standard (Jabsco) pressure water pump running salt water tp a tap for both gally and washdown. Ran for 10years without problems so I would say no you do not need a special pump. These are also frequently sold as washdown pumps. I would suggest flushing the saltwater system with fresh water for winter lay ups. If you don't use it for a while you will get the usual rotten eggs smell but that soon clears.

[JPA Cate]

Hi, Cherp, we, too, have a bog standard galley pump that has run our salt water washdown pump for the past 12 yrs. or so. Not in daily use, just when we need it. We had salt water to our previous Insatiable galley sink, and I did like having it, used it for pre-wash, mostly. The intake teed off the engine intake, never caused a water supply problem. However, I do have a warning for you: If you have to remove your sink to get at whatever pump you choose, think carefully if it is worth the trouble. In our galley, I think we would have to remove the double sink to be able to install another faucet, and that would be a mega-hassle. One is usually on long passages for at most 3-4 weeks. If you limit your dishwashing to once a day (as we usually do), that's really not many buckets of water to fill and bring below. If you're interested, Latitude 38 had an article about the 10 knot bucket some years ago, you might be able to find it online. The core idea is that it has a hole in it so as to not rip your arm off, but then you have to put it in another bucket so it doesn't drip.

Ann

[Pelagic]

I have been thinking about a salt water line supply to Galley as I am plumbing a salt water tap to our stern for cleaning fish and just cooling down on a hot tropical windless day when motoring..

Decided against salt water anywhere near our new induction stove and we really don't use too much fresh water for prewash. Just a hot soapy rag and a quick dip in first sink

[Sailing Drummer]

+1 for the Whale Gusher. However, from personal experience, getting the same pump as your existing hand pump gives you a back up if needed. That happened to me while in the Bahamas. In my case it was the Whale foot pump. My fresh water pump failed so I was able to swap out the seawater pump (after thoroughly cleaning it) and use that for fresh water.

[roverhi]

I'd convert the pressure water pump to salt water and install a foot punp for the fresh water. One thing you've got tons of at sea is sea water, no need to conserve it. Pressure water systems are great water wasters. Always turned off the pressure water on a passage which cut our water consumption in 1/2 or more and used the foot pump. Actually turned off the pressure water when we left San Diego for FP and didn't turn it back on till we got to Hawaii a year later. Didn't miss it. The foot pump was so easy and convenient to use.

Hand pumps are the spawn of the devil. Really fun trying to wash almost anything with a hand pump. Like the sound of one hand clapping. Foot pumps are much more convenient freeing up both hands and put out plenty of water.

[KP44]

I installed a raw water wash-down system with an additional faucet at the galley sink. No problems with the pump or the system. Works as it should.

[mvmojo]

We tried it while in the Caribbean using the Whale foot pump - found that lots of utensils started to rust, even though we finalized dish washing with a fresh water rinse. Dish washing uses a lot of water, but we had a watermaker so we quit using salt water and went to all fresh water for washing. No more rust problems!

[krismatski]

ALL on foot pumps has been said. In the Baltic see the sea water was used since I sail (1965). When purchased UK boat I installed it immediately. I always use sea water for cooking too! This not only saves fresh water, but also adds up good kind of salt. Vegetables, pasta, rice and fish is boiled in the pure sea water, or mixed half/half.