Salt water galley for pump plumbing question

[Mg451]

Adding a salt water whale foot pump. My thru hull is below the water line my faucet is slightly above the water line. I will run 3/4 hose loop up above the heed waterline then down to foot pump then to faucet. Do I need to rn the pump outlet back above heeled waterline and add a siphon break? Feel like this is the best way rather then thru hull to pump then pump out let ran high to siphon break in case the pump housing was to leak? I'd have it after a loop but w/o a siphon break does that matter? Trying to eliminate the pump housing as a potential fail point?

[Bellinghamster]

If you add a siphon break before the pump it'll allow air into the line when you pump. Might be slow enough to still get water, but might not, but the line filling with air will mean you have to "prime" the pump (pump all the air out of the line, even as more is coming in) each time you use it.
If you don't have a siphon break, there really is no reason to loop the hose above the waterline as it'll just siphon over the hump. Save the hose and keep things simple!
If you're really concerned about potentially sinking your boat because of a leaking galley foot pump, insert a restriction in the hose near the thru-hull to limit flow to what could be easily handled by the bilge pump but still allow enough flow to meet your need in the galley (i.e. a "plug" with a ~1/4" diameter hole), and/or close the thru-hull when you're not on the boat.

[Mg451]

How do we nusally plumb the salt water foot pump right to the pump then to the faucet?

[tkeithlu]

Mg451 your follow up question is a bit garbled. Could you try rewording it?

[Mg451]

What's the typical way to plump the foot pump ( which is below the water line) in a salt water wash? Thru hull right to pump to faucet? I'll use due diligence and close the seacock while away. ( its a pain to get to). Just wondering if it's safe having a foot pump below the waterline?

[Mg451]

Plumb*

[Bellinghamster]

Yes, as long as the galley spigot (outlet) is above the waterline so it can't simply siphon into the boat and overfill your sink, plumb straight from water intake seacock to foot pump to sink. You could add an inline shut-off in the line under the sink or somewhere easy to get to if you're sharing the seacock with other things that need water when you're away and want the galley pump turned off (i.e. water cooled condenser for fridge/freezer), but that's another potential failure point. You can easily drive yourself crazy

[Mg451]

Haha yea that's what I'm doing it seems. I know my lazy self won't always close the seacock it's way down there. Not to concerned with the hose I use wet exhaust hose for all below the water line. Just the pump worries me. I think I'll run from seacock to a shut off valve easy to acess before the pump just to easily eliminate the pump when it's not in use. And dig for the seacock when I'm away or extended periods when I won't be using the pump.

[wholybee]

The only thing is you need to use the correct hose that is appropriate for below the waterline. Typical water system plumbing on a boat (PEX etc.) is not.

And make sure the though-hull is always closed when not on the boat/not needed. I had a whale foot pump fail and leak and fill my bilge while under passage.

[Marathon1150]

The thru hull that feeds out Whale saltwater footpump is also the "output" for the fridge drain - the footpump forces the condensation coming from the fridge drain out through the thru hull. The seacock on the thru hull is two way - in one position it is connected to the fridge drain and in the other, it feeds sea water to the foot pump. We normally keep the seacock in the "fridge" position except on passages when we use sea water a lot to rinse dishes and for cooking water.

Having rebuilt the seawater footpump and seeing how they work, I am not worried about it as a possible source of sea water ingress. And we have two automatic bilge pumps installed just in case something happens when we are not on the boat.