TruDesign fittings

[CharmCityBoater]

Originally Posted by Pete7

Surface ice on say the ICW? 3 of our through hulls are just above the at rest waterline.

Pete

Pete,

great point. I know that the TruDesign stuff is temperature stable and is not impacted by extreme temperature shifts, meaning it does not make it more brittle. In fact, there is a video somewhere that shows them freezing a TruDesign fitting down to some crazy low temp and then they try to crack / shatter it. They were not able to.

[maine-cruiser]

My Catalina 355 came with the series 93 Forespar thru hulls. Possible because the boat sat for a couple of seasons before I bought it, they were pretty hard to open and close. I was particularly worried about the black water dump out valve. I replaced that one with a 1 1/2" Groco thru hull but had I known about the Tru Design at the time I would have gone with them. The Groco is huge and barely fits. No question, a great piece of hardware. Subsequently I replaced the other 6 thru hulls with the Tru Design ones with collars. Very happy with the results. I used 4200 to seal the threads. No issues at all over three seasons.

Bill

[sailingharry]

Originally Posted by GEMLUX

Hello,

I am Brian Ferrell with GEMLUX-- the US and Caribbean distributor for TruDesign products. This thread came across my inbox and I wanted to provide some insight on some of the questions posted above and see how we can further assist.

GEMLUX is the US and Caribbean distributor for TruDesign products and we strongly believe that this is the future of all marine plumbing systems.

In regards to NPT and NPS thread systems -- It is strongly advised to NEVER mix thread types. NPS -> NPS and NPT -> NPT is the only CORRECT way to plumb. GEMLUX supplies fittings in both thread types because we also manufacture NPT thru hulls in Stainless Steel, as this has been the industry standard for a long time. However, ALL TruDesign products are NPS or BSP (British Standard Pipe, commonly used in the European markets) We have began to manufacture stainless steel, NPS threaded thru hulls to pair with all of the TruDesign offerings.

TruDesign has a very thorough set of data sheets for all of their products, which can be found here: https://www.trudesign.nz/marine/questions These sheets will explain thread sealing, installation, recommended sealants for different applications and much much more.

And last-- on our website we have a section dedicated to all TruDesign components to help keep your NPS and NPT separated (https://gemlux.com/collections/trude...omposite-parts) If you have any doubt, give us a call.

We believe that the TruDesign product is the future of marine plumbing and you will notice some of the leading boat manufacturers in the industry have began making that transition.

We are here to help with any questions, concerns, comments you may have. If you have any questions at all in regards to the plumbing system in your boat, we're here to help. We have a very knowledgeable staff that can answer just about any question you have. Feel free to give us a call at 904-264-0173 or an email at sales@gemlux.com.

Best Regards,

Brian

Brian,


Thanks for adding to the conversation. It's always appreciated when vendors add solid input to conversations (without getting too pushy).


Your link to pull out all the Trudesign products is very helpful. It does highlight my frustration.


Take item 8845. No where on the product page does it state that this is a Trudesign product. I now know it because of your link to pull up just Trudesign.
https://gemlux.com/collections/trude.../products/8845


Then, look at a very similar product. 2954. 1.5" female by 1.5 barb. I (like most here on CF) are aware of the difference between straight and tapered fittings, so I zeroed in on "FNPT" to know it is not NPS and not Trudesign. But read the product page, and see if you can tell it is not Trudesign and not compatible with any product made by Trudesign. It sure LOOKS like Trudesign!
https://gemlux.com/collections/livew.../products/2954


It is fairly easy for a savvy customer to deduce what is and is not Trudesign (just open the downloadable drawing). But it would be nice if in the title or the first few sentences, it said so. Calling incompatible products by the same name (GemLux) is an invitation to mistakes.

[sailingharry]

Well, I got my TruDesign stuff in, and most of it installed. Nice quality product. One noteable point, compared to Marelon, the valves are HUGE (see pic).


Turns out I have a real dilemma.


I have a hose that was factory installed on a 1" thru hull with an integral 1" barb (classic Perko). I bought a 1" thru hull and a 1" female NPS-1" barb 90, to make a cleaner installation. It turns out, the hose is 3/4" and the factory somehow stretched that over the 1" barb! I want to do better, but I'm getting frustrated.

• I can't find a 1" NPS female to ¾" barb
  
• I can't find a 1" NPS male to ¾" barb, which would work if I added a 1" valve as an "adapter."
• I can't find a 1" NPS male or female to any size NPT male or female (as a 90 or straight) that I could then add a barb to.
• Gemlux sells a 1" NPT to ¾" barb (THA-100-075-90) (note that while it is on a page full of TruDesign, this is NOT TruDesign) – that is listed0 in the "works with TruDesign" page and called a Thru Hull Adpater, but unless there is a typo, it won't work with TruDesign, nor will it work with any thru hull fitting (they are all NPS). https://gemlux.com/products/2946
  
• I did try (desperation!) a 1" nylon NPT elbow, but barely get 1 full turn – not enough to call it "good enough."

Anybody have any suggestions?


I could use the 1"x1" that I bought, add a 4" piece of 1" hose and 4 hose clamps, then a 1"x3/4" connector and more hose clamps, but that's a kludgy cobble job (still better than the factory trick of stretching ¾" hose over a 1" barb!).


I also may just play with the nylon elbow. I have a lathe that I could put that in, and 1" is large enough that getting a cutter inside is possible. I could conceivably re-tool the NPT to NPS! While probably a fun thing to try, it's not how I like to build my critical plumbing fittings.....