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One of these freak glitches…

Discussion in 'Watermakers' started by Pascal, Mar 21, 2023.

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  1. Pascal, Mar 21, 2023
    #1
    Pascal

    Pascal Senior Member

    Joined:
    Feb 29, 2008
    Messages:
    8,166
    Location:
    Miami, FL
    So yesterday I get a “midship bilge pump running” alarm on the lazzara 110 I run. Odd…. It shuts down and then comes back up again an hour later. After a few cycles we finally had time to get in there (we have a full house …)

    Turns out there was some water leaking out of an auxiliary diaphragm bilge pump outlet fitting. The boat has rule 3700 in each compartment (plus central electric and hydraulic pumps) plus small diaphragm pumps to suck the last couple of inches…That fitting was cracked and broke completely when we tried to pull the discharge hose resulting in full flow of water into the bilge. Salt water… very salty water.

    Why very salty? The water maker was running and somehow the brine discharge is back flowing into that pump. Real puzzle since the boat diagrams show a separate thru-hull for the midship bilge pumps, as it should be.

    I guess someone rerouted the brine and mid ship pump discharge into the same thruhull. No idea why the fitting on the pump suddenly cracked since we haven’t opened that hatch in months…. The hose was well supported.

    Now I have to trace the hoses to figure it out.

    Another fun day on the water !
  2. DOCKMASTER, Mar 21, 2023
    #2
    DOCKMASTER

    DOCKMASTER Senior Member

    Joined:
    Feb 26, 2012
    Messages:
    1,414
    Location:
    Ketchikan, Alaska
    Water maker’s are great when they work but I find they are a PITA to keep running properly. I couldn’t figure out why my potable system pump would kick on intermittently last year. Looked everywhere I could think of for a leak. Turned out to be the solenoid valve for fresh water flush on the water maker was leaking by slightly.
  3. Pascal, Mar 21, 2023
    #3
    Pascal

    Pascal Senior Member

    Joined:
    Feb 29, 2008
    Messages:
    8,166
    Location:
    Miami, FL
    Water maker is working great problem is the plumbing. I traced the hoses and indeed the brine discharge is tee’s into a TH in the ER with the diaphragm bilge pump discharge on the other side of the tee…. Since the pump is diaphragm pump, brine couldn’t back flow into bilge… until the fitting cracked.