Fresh water access cap

[arkum]

Hi everyone,

The access cap for my forward freshwater tank is cracked and leaking. It's about 5 5/8" across and red with a giant Philips head shaped hand grip for tightening it. I've been searching for a few days but I can't seem to find a replacement anywhere online. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Thanks
Ryan

[unclemack]

Thermoplastics can be welded with heat. I used to use a dedicated temperature-controlled soldering iron - plastic needs to melt slowly and not bubble. Tip needs to be perfectly clean, ie no solder, to avoid inclusions.

Welding from inside would give a better chance of a watertight result.
Technique takes a little practice but you can do that on the outside at a place where the plastic is thick. A bit like stitching - push the iron 3/4 way into the crack, withdraw it & smooth the surface, repeat along the whole crack.

Avoid breathing the fumes.

Auto body shops weld plastic parts this way if you don't want to do it yourself.

Might be able to use polythene sheet, clingfilm or similar between the cap and the opening as a temporary fix, or maybe just clean inside the tank & permanently seal around the cap until you can replace the whole tank.

I couldn't find a picture of that pattern cap on Google either.

[Dsanduril]

Your profile doesn't tell us you boat type, which makes life harder. Where was the boat manufactured? 5 5/8" is awfully close to 140mm, which is a standard metric tank cap size. So, if a European built boat would start looking for 140mm caps that match.

[arkum]

Sorry it's a 2005 euro spec Beneteau 343. The tanks have the same cap. One is 100L and the one with the crack is 160L.

I've tried searching for marine water tank cap, water tank access cap, and several other variations with no luck. It keeps showing me the deck side caps.

Thanks for the replies!

[Dsanduril]

Beneteau had a known issue with inspection port covers cracking in that era (you can even find a couple of old threads here). They never did a recall, but used to replace the caps for free. Problem caps were red (as is yours), replacement caps are black. Might be worth contacting a Bene dealer to see if you can just get them to send you a cap.

[arkum]

Awesome thank you!

Any idea where I could find it online if not?