[C320-list] water pump replacement

[Jeffrey Hare]

Hi Martin,

If you don't want to spend a couple hundred dollars on a new pump, there's a
solution to the noise using the stock pump.

Our solution is in two parts.

1) Unscrew the pump from the mounting board, and re-mount with some layers
of chunks of closed-cell pipe insulation below and above the pump feet to
remove all the direct connection between the pump and the mounting board.
This helps a lot.

Next part of the noise problem is due to the water hammer in the hard pipes
(not to mention that the pipes are clipped directly to the hull.

2) To solve this I installed a 1 gallon expansion tank from Home Depot
mounted right in the compartment with the pump..  This absorbs the water
hammer and quiets the whole system down a great deal.  

Another great benefit of this is that you have very steady water pressure
even at very low flow rates.  It's even more steady than you get with a vsd
pump.  You also have about a pint of water available without even turning on
the pump switch, which is great in the middle of the night.

The expansion tank was about $25-ish bucks, an extra Whale "T" fitting and a
threaded whale fitting for the end of the tank will add another $10-ish
bucks.  The result is a water system that is close to the sound volume of a
variable speed pump for under $50 bucks and an hour or so of time.

As a side note, I read a review or two that says the Shur-Flow Extreme Smart
Sensor pumps are more reliable and easier to service with replacement parts
than the Jabsco VSD.  The reviewer indicated that in a cruising environment
he went through two Jabsco pumps and a few service kits before switching to
the Shur-flo, which he never had to service.  For what that's worth.

We now have a Shur-Flow Extreme 4gpm pump (and still have the expansion tank
setup), but only because the Shurflo guys gave us one at a marine trade show
last year.  We were completely satisfied for 5 years with the previous pump
using the above modifications.  We were terribly annoyed with the stock
setup.

-Jeff

PS: We suggest you move the water tank valves out from under the aft cabin
bed.  It's a super simple project and is SOOOO convenient.


-----Original Message-----
From: Martin Raphael [mailto:mraphael at zhonka.net] 
Sent: Wednesday, May 30, 2007 9:26 PM
To: C320-List
Subject: [C320-list] water pump replacement

Hello -- I have grown annoyed with the noise made by the stock water pump in
my 1994 boat and am considering a replacement.  I was looking at models from
Jabsco and West Marine but wonder if any of you have replaced the pump with
something that has quieter operation.  Is the replacement fairly straight
forward or are there some tricks I should anticipate?  What capacity
(gallons per minute?) should I be aiming for?
Thanks,
Martin Raphael
Rhapsody #108