Pressurised water system combined with foot pump?

[Redline452]

Current boat has a foot pump with a "y-valve" that selects between sea water, off, and ship's water - but the latter is tee'd off the pressurized cold water line at the sink, so if selected with the pressure pump on the water just runs through the pump nonstop. So we leave it on "sea" water and use that for rinsing dishes etc. It's meant for a case where the electric pump fails at sea, so you can still access your fresh water supply.


Previous boat had IIRC 4 spouts at the sink: pressure hot/cold, manual foot pump from (I think) fresh supply, a small spout from an under-sink manual pump to drain the icebox, and a pressurized sea water faucet (the washdown pump was located on the opposite side of that bulkhead, so it was simple to add - and one of the most used.


The icebox drain pump was also great for pre-chilling cans before restocking the fridge - plug sink, add a layer of cans, pump the icebox meltwater into the sink over the cans, wait a bit. I miss that.

[sailcrazy]

Our boat is plumbed with a water manifold under the sole. Each of our water tanks feeds a shut-off valve, then to the manifold. A fitting off the end feeds water (from the selected tank(s) to our pressurized water pump and system. I tapped off the other end, and added a fresh water foot pump, with separate supply faucet, for the galley sink. And then I added a salt water foot pump and faucet on the other side of the sink. Neither foot pump interferes with the pressurized system, and provides a great backup and/or way to conserve water. Except for the (non-pressurized) manifold, all are totally independent.

[Martkimwat]

The Whale Gusher Mk3 is a double acting Footpump that allows water to pass through it from a pressurised system but still works as a foot pump when required. The bigger issue is the electric pump itself, does it allow water to be drawn through it? some do, some don't. Another concern with foot pumps if they are double acting, is that the upstroke is normally a spring to raise the lever, if there is a lot of resistance by the electric pump, this can take ages for the pump to return to the 'up' position.A single action pump maybe better but it depends on whether the pump stroke is also the prime stroke or not.

[Oohla]

One could take a T off the hose proximal to the electric pump, run new (bypass) hose to check valve and then on to intake of Whale Gusher with foot pedel, put check valve on the hose from output of gusher to 2nd T distal to pump and proximal to faucet. Then open faucet and start pumping. With two check valve the gusher is isolated from the pressurised syztem

I've finished to project in my head. In reality it is still on works list.

Why would I do this? I've replaced 3 other Jabsco pumps elsewhere in the past year.

Why haven't I done this yet? Did I mention that I just replaced 3 other Jabsco pumps?

[ggray]

Originally Posted by Bambooboat

That sounds promising ggray. It would be great if you could take a look at your system and fill in the blanks if you have a chance! Many thanks for your reply regardless.

The line for the hand pump is indeed pressurized, therefore a shut off valve was installed just before the pump.

It would not have been difficult in this installation to have tapped into the pump supply line...only an extra 4 feet of tubing, which is less expensive than the valve. So not sure why it was done this way.