Fresh Water Use in a Marina Tank or Hose?

[Dulcesuenos]

Just curious the pros and cons of filling your water tanks and using them vs just hooking up the hose to your water valve ( our boat has one like an RV) and just using the Pressurized dock water,
pros vs cons I can think of is
Tanks, Pros (Water stays fresh) vs going stagnant could be argued that we could leave em empty?

Cons - 12v pump is noisey , have to refill every week or two (not that big a deal)

Hose Pros- less hassel, good pressure,
Hose- Cons may get hot or chafed and burst mid summer, could also leak and cause bilges to run or worse?
Whats the consensus ?
Hey at least its not a gun or anchor question

[Sailmonkey]

Tank, Keeps the tank clean, keeps the pump working, won't sink the boat if a hose bursts.

[Stu Jackson]

Almost like guns & anchors!

If the prv breaks, your boat sinks.

What's the option?

[rebel heart]

I had never heard of using the municipal water pressure but I know at my old marina in the US boats weren't allowed to have their fresh water hoses attached permanently like that.

[Hudson Force]

I fill my tanks and draw from them,- then fill again about two to three weeks later.

[jstevens]

Like the other posters, when living onboard at a marina I just fill the tanks. However, there are many live-aboards at my current marina that are hooked directly to the dock water.
I have resisted going that way myself for the reasons cited by the other posters. That concern can be eliminated by just turning off the dock water when leaving the boat. Of course, it is too easy to not do that knowing you will be off the boat for a short time - a short time that might end up being hours.
However some friends appear to have overcome that issue with a timer on the water input. This is a lawn/garden watering timer that can be purchased at any home improvement store. When they need pressure water they just turn the timer on for an hour. It saves on pump cycles and allows them to clean their tanks when wintering in a marina.

I've purchased the necessary plumbing to implement that solution on my boat, but I just haven't generated enough motivation to do the installation. Filling the a tank every 2 weeks just isn't that inconvenient.

John

[rebel heart]

It also seems to be the kind of thing that you'd find less on a sailing vessel and more on a harbor queen. Not that there's anything wrong with people just living on a boat, but if you have plans to do anything else I'd vote for investing in a solution that works well at anchor and underway.

[ReMetau]

I prefer to use my tanks for the same reasons as mentioned above although we have gone through a few water pumps. Just to note, we do shower on board all the time also.

[Dulcesuenos]

Tanks it is,
Tanks everyone!,!

[Rakuflames]

Originally Posted by rebel heart

I had never heard of using the municipal water pressure but I know at my old marina in the US boats weren't allowed to have their fresh water hoses attached permanently like that.

I don't know if it's wise or not, but I know it's done all the time at my marina.

[kthoennes]

Well, of course almost every boat's shore water inlet has a pressure reduction valve built in. When we're on the boat at dock we have a quick connect to the shore water and we leave it connected and on. When we leave the boat for a short time (like going to dinner) we turn off the water. Any longer than that we disconnect the water line entirely because I don't trust our dock neighbors to not turn on our water supply by accident at the supply manifold. Our tank water seems okay, seems clean and not smelly, but I'm more confident about the cleanliness of the city water supply than I am the tanks.

[ranger58sb]

We use the onboard tanks 99% of the time; only use dockside water at a few transient marinas, and only very occasionally.

We filter water as we fill the tanks (two filters in line, end result down to .5 micron) and constant use tends to keep the water fresh. (We also use a filter pitcher for drinking/coffee water.... partly to use fewer plastic bottles.)

Our freshwater pump isn't noisy, and we have slightly higher pressure from the pump (40 psi) than from the dockside inlet (35-psi pressure regulation).

A dockside water hose at our home slip would be a trip hazard unless I did some odd rerouting, and the First Mutt doesn't need that kind of hassle

-Chris

[jaxfishgyd]

I use the dock water.....
I also have a pressure reducer on the dock faucet (Our Hatteras has one 'built in' but I added one for extra safety)
I also installed a water limiter (limits the amount of water before it turns off) and we look at it every time we get on/off the boat. ... I set it at 100 gals and we simply reset it when it gets close to turning off (Ace Hardware has them).
We also turn the water off on the dock when we're gone for more than 8 hrs.
We get a lot more pressure (great for showers) and should something go wrong, it will never be that much water inside (I have 9 bilge pumps, as I fully believe in 'over kill' when it comes to safety)
We're away from the dock so often that keeping the water fresh in the tank isn't a problem

[bstreep]

We have both. I'd never use the hose system. Using the tanks keeps the tanks clean AND a broken hose can/will sink a boat.

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by Sailmonkey

Tank, , won't sink the boat if a hose bursts.

thats the real issue, since most boats that sink do so at the dock!!!!!