Freshwater Flushing Valve Setup

[BCboater]

I thought other members might be interested in the freshwater flushing setup I installed in my Albin 25. I used a 3-way valve between the raw water seacock and the raw water strainer. It enables me to attach a garden hose to the 3-way valve so I can flush out the heat exchanger with fresh water when laying the boat up. It also provides a means of running cooling water to the boat when running the engine with the boat out of the water.

When using the freshwater as a source of cooling water when running the engine with the boat out of the water I use a short piece of old garden hose which I run to a bucket. I then keep the bucket full by running a hose from a garden spigot into it. This avoids the possibility of over-pressure from the house water supply damaging the water pump, as the engine simply draws water as it normally would.

The attached photos show the system with the freshwater hose attached. When running the boat normally I just detach the hose a screw in a plug where it goes to keep the fitting clean. The three-way valve takes the place of an elbow in the system, so there is no difference in flow path from what it would be otherwise. It is, of course, important to have the valve in the correct position when running the engine in the water.

[RobS]

nice. and your hose in bucket method is perfect for winterizing

[Don from Mystic]

A reminder that one has to be extremely careful with alloys used in salt water - especially below the water line! "House plumbing" brass can leach the zinc leaving the copper. Much has been written about this - one good link is http://www.paulstevenssurveys.com/upload/Seacocks.pdf

[jcamill55]

Bc boater do you leave the bucket in the cockpit or on the ground when on a trailer? ,thank Jim

[DougSea]

BCBoater - I think you meant to say "Raw water strainer" and not "Fuel/Water separator" in your post...I didn't edit it since I wanted to be sure. The setup looks good!

And Don - Thanks for that link! I knew brass was "bad" but didn't know why. Learned a lot from the article.

[BCboater]

Regarding the valve material - the 3-way valve is a marine grade bronze valve purchased online from a reliable chandlery. No doubt that some alloys are unsafe below the waterline, or otherwise in a critical flow path.

The bucket for supplying the freshwater, or anti-freeze for winterization, can be placed in the cabin anywhere that is convenient. I have also had it sitting on the ground next to the boat & trailer but have decided not to rely on the water pump to lift the flushing water that high (although it seemed to work fine).

And, yes, I did mean the flushing valve is between the raw water intake seacock and the strainer, not the fuel/water separator - thanks for catching that, I'll see about correcting it. Happy boating, and glad if this is useful for the Albin community.

[eseyoung]

great, great idea. I will be doing this next fall when i winter.

[BCboater]

N.B.: When using this system do not leave the bucket and hose attached and in the "flushing" mode when the engine is not running; it can siphon into the engine and fill the cylinders with water (yes, I learned this the hard way). When you are not actively running water through the bucket-hose-flushing valve-engine the three-way valve should be switched to the "run" position, i.e. not connected to the hose and bucket.

[DesertAlbin736]

Hmmm....BCboater on Pender Island? Is this Mike with Pagerus?

If so Hi, if not then hi anyway. Hoping to make a return to Pender Island (N & S) and points north this summer, so perhaps we'll cross paths.

I do something similar but less sophisticated. Same bucket idea but the hose fitting comes out of the bottom of the bucket with a shut off ball valve inline. The business end of the hose has a plastic 5/8ths hose barb fitting attached. Except the hose from the bucket to the raw water strainer is a piece of water pump hose, not garden hose.

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My raw water strainer is this Vetus unit that feeds incoming water to the engine as well as inflow from the sea cock into and out of the bottom of the strainer housing & not the top.

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So what I do is set the 5 gallon bucket with hose rig on the bench seat which gives me about 2 feet of positive gravity "head" pressure, un-screw & remove the clear plastic strainer top and the white strainer basket & insert the hose from the bucket down into the red outflow hose fitting from above. Same deal, keeping the bucket filled from a garden hose spray nozzle. 5 gallons gives close to a minute's worth of engine running, so you have to pay attention to the bucket or have a helper man the garden hose. When the boat sits on the trailer for extended periods I like to start & warm up the engine every month or so. The bucket end of the house has a garden hose thread fitting, so when not in use is detached & stored in the bucket. We don't have freeze issues here. The past two winters we did not have even one night drop below freezing. The rig gets set up, the business end of the hose inserted into the raw water strainer outlet, the valve at the bucket shut off and the bucket filled with water & ready to go. When ready to go open the bucket valve & immediately start the engine. When ready to turn the engine off I allow the water in the bucket do run down until almost empty before pulling the stop cable on the engine & then close the valve on the bucket & dump out whatever water is left in the bucket. Easy peezy.

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Looks like you also have the same Fram canister primary fuel filter/water separator (filter cartridge element Fram #CS1136) as mine, except mine is mounted in front of tank under the floorboard in the space between the tank and the forward cabin door. In fact I recently serviced that filter & changed out the secondary fuel filter of the engine.