Dropped a plastic bottle cap into fresh water tank pipe. please suggest

[Panya]

Hi helpers,

 

Reckless as I was, I dropped a plastic cap of a water bottle into the pipe of the fresh water tank.

I used the endoscopic camera to locate the cap down the pipe. Not sure if I lucky that it didn't go all the way through the tank yet. (See attached picture)

 

The cap is sitting about 1.7meters down from the deck fill. 

 

Do you have any suggestion what would be the best course of action here?

 

Thank you very much in advance for your advices! 

 

Kind regards,

Panya

 

Edited March 27 by Panya
Added thank you in advance

[Jen-in-Wellies]

Welcome to the forum.

Are you sure about the 1.7m down bit? That's a long way, about as much as I am tall. Struggling to imagine a deck fill pipe that is that long on most boats, unless it is an oil tanker!

I'd try an old fashioned wire coat hanger, straightened out and a hook formed on the end to get in behind it and encourage the cap out. If you can get the endoscope down at the same time to see what's going on, all the better.

Or push it through in to the tank. Not a lot of harm it can do there. The chances of it blocking the outlet are minimal.

[mrsmelly]

Leave it.

[Tracy D'arth]

Vac? If you can get the hose down to close to the cap, turn it on first in case you nudge it further down.

Odd boat with a 1.7m long filler.

Will the cap float? Try a similar one in a bucket. If so you could try filling the tank with the overflow blocked until it comes floating back up.

Pray tell why you put it in there in the first place!

[Machpoint005]

3 minutes ago, mrsmelly said:

Leave it.

 

My thoughts exactly. It's doing no harm. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. 

[dmr]

If this is an integral tank then at some stage you will need to get in there and repaint it. At this time you will find that plastic cap and maybe a couple of other things, hosepipe fittings and the like. This is normal and don't worry about it. Frogs and fish etc are slightly more concerning.

[ditchcrawler]

15 minutes ago, mrsmelly said:

Leave it.

It may seriously restrict the flow of water into the tank. Thinking about it didnt we have a posting like that last week, the tank was empty but they couldnt fill it

 

Edited March 27 by ditchcrawler

[Panya]

Thank you all! 

For now, I will attach a small hook on the tip of the endoscope and try to hook it up. 

Will come back to report if it is successful 

Edited March 27 by Panya

[ditchcrawler]

37 minutes ago, Panya said:

Thank you all! 

For now, I will attach a small hook on the tip of the endoscope and try to hook it up. 

Will come back to report if it is successful 

Just don't come back and say you have lost the hook as well. Make sure its well attached.

[Peanut]

I lost a hose end fitting into my tank. I promise myself I will fish it out one day, but I just know, by sod law, the inspection hatch will give me far more trouble when I try and re seal it. Maybe one day.

[Paul C]

Maybe that's what this guy did:

 

Except the bottle cap eventually jammed, causing no water flow to the pump, taps etc.

 

[Tracy D'arth]

14 hours ago, ditchcrawler said:

It may seriously restrict the flow of water into the tank. Thinking about it didnt we have a posting like that last week, the tank was empty but they couldnt fill it

 

Is Panya and Porcupine the same person?

[Panya]

Just now, Tracy D'arth said:

Is Panya and Porcupine the same person?

Haha nope I just joined the forum 😁

[blackrose]

15 hours ago, Tracy D'arth said:

Vac? 

 

Yes try a wetvac first.

[Tony Brooks]

12 minutes ago, Tracy D'arth said:

Is Panya and Porcupine the same person?

 

I don't think so Panya gave us the info required, apart from a length mistake, while Porcupine still seems to be resisting telling us why they think the tank is empty, just sticking to their assertion that it is. Totally different posting styles.

[Jon57]

16 hours ago, Panya said:

Hi helpers,

 

Reckless as I was, I dropped a plastic cap of a water bottle into the pipe of the fresh water tank.

I used the endoscopic camera to locate the cap down the pipe. Not sure if I lucky that it didn't go all the way through the tank yet. (See attached picture)

 

The cap is sitting about 1.7meters down from the deck fill. 

 

Do you have any suggestion what would be the best course of action here?

 

Thank you very much in advance for your advices! 

 

Kind regards,

Panya

 

Attach the USB camera to a piece of plastic plumbing pipe. Attach plumbing pipe to a wet vacuum and suck it up. 😁👍

[Panya]

Thank you all for your advices!

Because I don't have wet vac available at hand at the moment, I tried fishing it out and it was a success!

 

I know it might sound like a bad idea as many of you warned me of the even worse consequences if I also dropped the hook in there. But I tested until I was confident that the attachment is strong enough but still thank you for all the heads-ups.

 

Regards,

Panya

[Jon57]

15 minutes ago, Panya said:

Thank you all for your advices!

Because I don't have wet vac available at hand at the moment, I tried fishing it out and it was a success!

 

I know it might sound like a bad idea as many of you warned me of the even worse consequences if I also dropped the hook in there. But I tested until I was confident that the attachment is strong enough but still thank you for all the heads-ups.

 

Regards,

Panya

👍

[ditchcrawler]

23 minutes ago, Panya said:

Thank you all for your advices!

Because I don't have wet vac available at hand at the moment, I tried fishing it out and it was a success!

 

I know it might sound like a bad idea as many of you warned me of the even worse consequences if I also dropped the hook in there. But I tested until I was confident that the attachment is strong enough but still thank you for all the heads-ups.

 

Regards,

Panya

Thanks for coming back and telling us how you got on, lots don't bother

[LadyG]

On 27/03/2024 at 17:57, Tracy D'arth said:

Vac? If you can get the hose down to close to the cap, turn it on first in case you nudge it further down.

Odd boat with a 1.7m long filler.

Will the cap float? Try a similar one in a bucket. If so you could try filling the tank with the overflow blocked until it comes floating back up.

Pray tell why you put it in there in the first place!

I decided to dip my tank once, and only once, my dpstick proved to be rather short, and its still there, floating on the top of the water.

I'm fairly short at the moment as was unable to top up at previous water point, but I took the opportunity to fill some bottles.

[Alan de Enfield]

48 minutes ago, LadyG said:

I'm fairly short at the moment .................

 

It happens as you get older - have you considered platform boots ?

[ditchcrawler]

3 hours ago, LadyG said:

I decided to dip my tank once, and only once, my dpstick proved to be rather short, and its still there, floating on the top of the water.

I'm fairly short at the moment as was unable to top up at previous water point, but I took the opportunity to fill some bottles.

If you could fill bottles why not fill the tank ?

[MtB]

7 hours ago, ditchcrawler said:

If you could fill bottles why not fill the tank ?

 

Tank already full perhaps?!

 

 

[TheBiscuits]

11 hours ago, LadyG said:

I'm fairly short at the moment

 

11 hours ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

It happens as you get older - have you considered platform boots ?

 

I was considering saying you weren't that tall to start with, but Alan beat me to it!

[LadyG]

8 hours ago, ditchcrawler said:

If you could fill bottles why not fill the tank ?

Err, well strong offshore wind for two days, i did try. Then as i was going to try again another boat came along, just as i was casting off!

I'd filled the bottlesthe previous day, just in case of such a rare event.

Edited March 29 by LadyG