Fresh water and LPG isolation

[blackrose]

I'm interested the behaviour of other boaters, in terms of whether they bother to switch off their water pumps and isolate tanks and LPG bottles when they leave their boat for a relatively short time.

 

I always switch off my water pump but wouldn't bother to isolate the tank unless I was away for at least a few days. I used to isolate the LPG inside the locker when going out to work for the day, but I stopped doing that recently because nobody else I knew did it.

Edited January 18, 2016 by blackrose

[tehmarks]

I switch off the pump if I remember - the switch is right beside the door, so there's very little reason not to. I don't bother with the gas.

[NB Lola]

Not usually for a short period, but you have me thinking now!

[ditchcrawler]

That's interesting, I represent over 9%

[AndrewIC]

Always switch the water pump and any other non essential supplies off by the door on the way out, word only turn the stop valve off if I was leaving the boat overnight. Hardly ever remember to turn the gas off at the bottle!

[alan_fincher]

If I turned the LPG off, the fridge would cease to work.

[nicknorman]

We have a house, when we go out or even away for 2 weeks we don't turn off the gas or water (well maybe water if it's the dead of winter). When we are on the boat we leave the gas and water on even if we are off the boat for a day or two. House plumbing is the same as boat plumbing in terms of its integrity - or should be - so I don't see the need to turn the water off on the boat. In fact the house has an unlimited supply of water whereas the boat has a fixed amount so loss of water into the biggest certainly won't cause it to sink. I only turn it off when we go home because of possible battery drain etc. Of course in winter it's a bit different as the boat's plumbing has to be protected against frost damage.

 

Gas on a boat is pretty dangerous so if you don't trust its gas-tightness enough to be left on whilst you are away for a bit, should you be using it at all? At least the gas tightness is checked every 4 years or less, it never gets checked in our house. Boat gas has been left on constantly for the past 4 years.

Edited January 18, 2016 by nicknorman

[MtB]

A better question might be...

 

"Who here has returned to their boat to find a disaster caused by them leaving the gas or water ON while they went away?"

[Dave_P]

I turn off the water pump if I'm going away in winter. Only ever isolated the tank when doing maintenance such as pump replacement. The stopcock is a bigger to get to. Never turned off my gas at the bottle - ditto what Nick said.

[blackrose]

A better question might be...

 

"Who here has returned to their boat to find a disaster caused by them leaving the gas or water ON while they went away?"

Who said anything about a disaster? I've seen a couple of neighbours boats flooded from their own water tanks. One was caused by a cat that sat on a tap and turned it on into a sink which was plugged (according to the owner). Neither floodings were disasters but the cleanup wasn't pleasant.

 

A gas leak could potentially be a disaster on an unattended boat. It shouldn't happen but things that shouldn't happen often do...

Edited January 19, 2016 by blackrose

[blackrose]

We have a house, when we go out or even away for 2 weeks we don't turn off the gas or water (well maybe water if it's the dead of winter). When we are on the boat we leave the gas and water on even if we are off the boat for a day or two. House plumbing is the same as boat plumbing in terms of its integrity - or should be - so I don't see the need to turn the water off on the boat. In fact the house has an unlimited supply of water whereas the boat has a fixed amount so loss of water into the biggest certainly won't cause it to sink. I only turn it off when we go home because of possible battery drain etc.

But if you're that confident about your systems on the boat then why would there be any battery drain? So why do you switch your punp off for longer periods?

 

Also it's not just about the water in the tank flooding (but not sinking) the boat. If a water leak did develop in one's absence, the pump would just run and run until it burned itself out possibly causing a fire.

 

Comparing boats to houses is reasonable. I've never owned a house, but I'm sure I've heard stories of people coming home from holidays to find their houses flooded, etc. So perhaps it's something they should think about too?

Edited January 19, 2016 by blackrose

[Dave Payne]

I turn my water pump off when i stay away from the boat a couple of nights per week, thing is though if you get a leak say on the water piper from the tank below the floor, will switching the pump off actually do anything, as with a full tank gravity would dictate the tank will empty anyway, your just not doing it as fast as with the pump on?

[blackrose]

I turn my water pump off when i stay away from the boat a couple of nights per week, thing is though if you get a leak say on the water piper from the tank below the floor, will switching the pump off actually do anything, as with a full tank gravity would dictate the tank will empty anyway, your just not doing it as fast as with the pump on?

Yes I think it can leak through the pump, but it would be much slower. For longer periods I isolate the tank as well.

[Dave Payne]

My pump is a long way from the tank, so if the pipe splits before the pump it matters not i guess, your screwed...

[dor]

And what about turning off inverters? I also isolate mine when leaving the boat for short periods. It seems to me that inverters are the second biggest cause of boat fires after SF stoves.

[Bunny]

Water pump off when going to bed and off the boat for a couple of hours or more . Isolate water tank aswell if away for longer. Gas off when away for longer that a couple of days . Also isolate bubble fuel supple . Reason for that is we have met someone who , whilst away had a fitting on the stove fail and he came back to a lot of diesel in his boat . Once forgot to turn the water pump off but isolated the tank .... came back to a vibrating pump , bit warm but after a bit of fiddling was fine, but that indicated that we had a slow leak , yep found it . Gas off , just in case there is a fire really . Maybe not even on our boat , but one close by , it may help if the gas is isolated . Bunny

[blackrose]

My pump is a long way from the tank, so if the pipe splits before the pump it matters not i guess, your screwed...

But presumably you can isolate the tank?

 

If you do isolate the tank then you have to switch the pump off too, otherwise any cycling of the pump will not stop.

[Dave Payne]

Yup can knock the tank off, but its under a cupboard, deeeep down so have to move everything, pain in the backside.

[nicknorman]

But if you're that confident about your systems on the boat then why would there be any battery drain? So why do you switch your punp off for longer periods?

Also it's not just about the water in the tank flooding (but not sinking) the boat. If a water leak did develop in one's absence, the pump would just run and run until it burned itself out possibly causing a fire.

Comparing boats to houses is reasonable. I've never owned a house, but I'm sure I've heard stories of people coming home from holidays to find their houses flooded, etc. So perhaps it's something they should think about too?

I seperated plumbing and electrics but you are merging them. I maintain that, in the absence of frost damage, domestic plumbing and boat plumbing should be equally robust. However a home water system doesn't have a pump, switch, pressure switch, powered from a big battery.

The boat has a master switch which turns everything off (except the Mikuni, GSM remote and bilge pump) including some "always on" things like the fuel and water gauge, keyfob remote etc. Of course this also includes the water pump. It's primarily a means of ensuring nothing is left on to drain power, it would seem silly not to include the water pump in this. Of course our boat has Empirbus which is always on, the "master switch" is a virtual switch and so in fact the only way the water pump is unpowered is because a microprocessor decides to remove the gate signal from the FET supplying the pump.

 

Anyway I don't think there is any "right answer", custom and practice is to leave one's house powered and watered when away, custom and practice is to leave the boat for long periods with electrics and water off.

 

When we first got the boat I used to switch the gas off, but then someone asked me why I did that and I didn't really have an answer so it's been left on ever since.