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Electric water project
Posted: Sat Jan 29, 2011 7:32 pm
by Québec 1
I am presently adding a simple electric water system on my Mac.
This is whats happened up to now.
I glued an electrical outlet plate to the bottom of the faucet so as to cover the stock faucet hole. I will caulk around it in the spring.
I installed the motor under the galley directly underneath the faucet.

I bought a benzomatic butane combination welder, soldering iron and hot air jet for 15 bucks to install shrink tubes around my connections I am so impressed at the results and to have a portable welder, soldering iron and hot air jet tool on my boat .
Q1
Re: Electric water project
Posted: Sun Jan 30, 2011 8:51 pm
by vizwhiz
Admiral and I were just talking about this...watching to see what you do!

Re: Electric water project part 2
Posted: Sun Jan 30, 2011 10:23 pm
by Québec 1
This is a view of the faucet glued to the electrical outlet plaque.
This is a photo of the under the counter set up. In order to fasten the faucet to the galley top I used a round plastic plate I had left over from the gps antennae set up. Any thing with a hole in it should do, but this worked particularly well.
Tomorrow will be the wiring and attachment to the battery part.
Q1
Re: Electric water project
Posted: Mon Jan 31, 2011 7:58 pm
by Love MACs
Added Pressure water to the boat when I first got it, thru away those old pump faucets! One of the best mods I even made and one of the easiest
Allan
Re: Electric water project
Posted: Tue Feb 01, 2011 4:05 pm
by Russ
I did that at first. Switch on/Switch off. Simple.
But we wasted a lot of water because we couldn't control the flow. Now I have a faucet and pressure water. I can trickle or blast it to my needs.
I like the outlet cover idea. I cut a piece of plastic for the job, but yours is nicer.
--Russ
Re: Electric water project
Posted: Tue Feb 01, 2011 6:08 pm
by Québec 1
RussMT wrote:I did that at first. Switch on/Switch off. Simple.
But we wasted a lot of water because we couldn't control the flow. Now I have a faucet and pressure water. I can trickle or blast it to my needs.
I like the outlet cover idea. I cut a piece of plastic for the job, but yours is nicer.
--Russ
I was thinking of getting a plastic tub to put in the sink to save the water for hand washing etc. but will see how this works and if not satisfied will go your way with the faucet. But at the moment this is an under 100$ project

What do you use for your water container?
Q1
Re: Electric water project
Posted: Tue Feb 01, 2011 6:21 pm
by Québec 1
Latest step wiring
shrink tubed wiring to motor

shrink tubed wiring to 2 amp fuse and common positive pole
I tried it and the motor works...Yeah
Q1
Re: Electric water project
Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2011 8:12 am
by Russ
Can't beat the cheap projects. I bought a stainless sink/faucet from Lowes for $90. That part wasn't expensive, but then the drain was WAY too wide for the Mac drain hose, so creating an adapter became a challenge.
As for water container, the factory plastic camping bag was a joke. It sweated /leaked all the time. Plus, it bounced around under the sink taking up valuable storage space. So the next best mod I did was steal Duane Dunn's idea of two, 5gal plastic jugs.
They go under the V berth and I put a smaller diameter tube into the filler valve that dips down to the bottom of the jugs. Then a flexible rubber tube goes from my inlet to the pressure water pump to the V berth lockers where it connects to the hoses sticking out of the jugs (one at a time). I can switch between the two jugs and it worked very well last year. When one is empty, I know we are 1/2 remaining. They are easy to take out and refill. I didn't even use an air vent for the jugs as there is enough space for air to get back in when water is pumped out.
The best part of moving the water containers forward is we now have all that room under the sink for storage, plus our Mac is bow light, so it adds some extra weight up there. I considered a bladder tank under the aft berth, but that would do the opposite and make us more aft heavy.
--Russ
Re: Electric water project
Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2011 5:31 pm
by BNG
Where did you pick-up your 5 gal water jugs.
Re: Electric water project
Posted: Thu Feb 03, 2011 7:54 am
by Russ
BNG wrote:Where did you pick-up your 5 gal water jugs.
Amazon.com
I stole the idea from Duane Dunn in
THIS THREAD. You can see others have used portable jugs in more complex and fancy setups, but I find this works very well.
Jug with tube in the spout that I connect to the tube coming from the water pump intake. Works great and I don't even need to open the vent. Sure, I could install some fancy coupler, but the inside diameter of the hose from the water pump is exactly the same size as the outside diameter of the hose from the jug, so I just push one hose over the one coming out of the jug and it seals nicely. I stick the jugs in the V-Berth compartments and I have the extra weight where I want it.

Re: Electric water project
Posted: Thu Feb 03, 2011 7:57 am
by Divecoz
Menards ,Home Depot, Lowes.... grrrrrrrrr Walmart but I hate shopping / spending money there.. Most as I have seen use the Blue Plastic ( Diesel) containers..New clean rinse before using anyway.. OOppss lookie there Coleman makes blue containers for just this purpose .. storing potable water : )
BNG wrote:Where did you pick-up your 5 gal water jugs.
Re: Electric water project
Posted: Thu Feb 03, 2011 9:22 am
by Québec 1
Russ,
Thanks for the pic. A picture is worth a thousand words. I'm adopting your water containment and plumbing system cause I find that on a boat this size simplicity is King and It's really quite inexpensive! Now I have to decide where to put the primer bulb,
Q1
Re: Electric water project
Posted: Thu Feb 03, 2011 10:47 am
by Russ
Q1, just to be fair, I adopted this system from Duane, so it's not my idea, but still a simple solution which I also appreciate.
Primer bulb?
Hmm.... another mistake I made initially was to buy a non-self priming pump. Air bubble always got in there and the Admiral would call me down every time to "prime" the pump. With my new self priming pressurized pump, there is no priming. It will take out any air in the lines with joy.
After replacing the non-priming pump with a pressure pump I used an electric switch faucet like yours. It worked well, but I found I wasted a lot of water when all I needed was a little stream. Then I installed the faucet and now I can modulate the flow to the need. The pressure pump requires an additional switch to turn it off when dry or away.
At any rate, the cheap blue jugs are durable and we can bring our own water from home each time we use the boat. They never completely run dry so there is always a cup or so of "emergency" water at the bottom of the jug. When we get them home, we rinse them out so they are nice and clean each time.
--Russ
Re: Electric water project
Posted: Thu Feb 03, 2011 11:15 am
by Québec 1
RussMT wrote:Q1, just to be fair, I adopted this system from Duane, so it's not my idea, but still a simple solution which I also appreciate.
Primer bulb?
--Russ
Yeah but your picture gave me more info on the hose that goes in the water tank cover than Duane's thread, so you get the credit

.
Primer Bulb:
http://www.amazon.com/Moeller-Marine-Fu ... B000MTB7GK
Q1
Re: Electric water project
Posted: Thu Feb 03, 2011 11:56 pm
by Highlander
Ah !!
I see so you use the fuel priming bulb to pump gas through your water system turn on the tap use your butane torch at the outlet & Bingo Ya got instant hot water right !!!
J