Freshwater pump recommendations

[jetzi]

Our water supply abruptly stopped on Saturday, just two weeks after filling her up with her first tank of water. At first we assumed it was our Shurflo Trail King 7 pump, which is wrapped up in nappies due to a leak from the seal which I think is a busted diapraghm. The pump sounded like it was labouring so we turned it off. However when I stuck a dowel in to the tank to measure the water level, there was less than 10mm of wetness on the end.

There are just two of us living aboard and being moderately careful with the water, so we were a bit disappointed to see that it went down so quickly. We're going to buy a couple of 25 litre drums and try to be a bit more conservative. Our boat's last survey estimated her freshwater tank at 600 litres. I timed filling up a 5 litre bottle at 35 seconds (7 seconds per litre) and it took almost exactly an hour to fill the tank and three 5 litre bottles. 3600 seconds / 7 seconds/litre = 514 litres, so I think the tank must be a 500 litre tank.

Once the tank was full we tried to turn the pump back on, and couldn't get much out of it. It made a chug chug chug noise similar to what it used to, but much quieter. I figured we'd killed a (dying) pump by running it dry, although I see on the internet that they can handle a bit of dry running. Either way, the pump needs to be replaced, and so I'm shopping on Amazon to see what I can find.

 

@doratheexplorer commented in our boat intro thread that Shurflo are crap, and in my total experience of one pump, they leak after 3 years of use, possibly before.

On the other hand, it might be nice to buy the exact same pump so I can be sure that everything fits and it's just whip one out, chuck one in. And I can keep the old one for parts, if there are any usable parts inside it.

Does anyone have any opinions or particularly good or bad experiences with freshwater pumps? So far it's a choice between:

1. Jabsco 2.9 for 75 GBP
2. Jabsco 1.9 for 70 GBP
3. Another Shurflow Trail King 7 for 61 GBP

[doratheexplorer]

You can buy a Jabsco 1.9 for around £55.  Look harder.

[frahkn]

When we first bought the boat the Shureflo pumps each lasted an average of 9 months, We had 4 in total and the longest lived was 13 months.

 

Replaced with a Jabsco which is currently 18 months old and going well.

[Robbo]

Get two pumps, run them in parallel with isolation valves, if one buggers up you still have the other one running and then you can replace the faulty one at your leisure and easily due to the isolation valves.

[ditchcrawler]

I bought one similar to this and fitted it Christmas 2014 so its already outlasted the more expensive one it replaces https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Seaflo-12V-WATER-PRESSURE-DIAPHRAGM-PUMP-4-5GPM-17-L-MIN-40-PSI-Caravan-RV-T7P3/283114374105?_trkparms=aid%3D555017%26algo%3DPL.CASSINI%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20170907081254%26meid%3D97e781d482e34dadb4fb9165a1dd28e8%26pid%3D100281%26rk%3D4%26rkt%3D12%26%26itm%3D283114374105&_trksid=p2045573.c100281.m3567

 

[Boater Sam]

Jabsco Par 36950 series pump, not cheap, you will not need to buy another one though. Mine are 30 years old, had only the odd spare part fitted. Brilliant value.

Cleghorn Waring are stockists and have all spares available.

[Momac]

My flojet pump is original to the boat = 15 years........it was never a live aboard boat.

However  I  did have to replace some o rings in it when it sprang a leak about a year ago . A new one would have been  £130 !

 

The much cheaper orange Seaflo one shown above looks like a fair bet.

 

 

 

Edited November 5, 2018 by MartynG

[Rory_d]

I too am looking for a new pump for mine and from what I can see the jabsco ones seem quite good, mind you my one is leaking like mad but I gather from looking at it the thing is probably 20 years old at least. I’m going to stick with the jabsco as I’ve heard good things about them

[dor]

Jabsco Par Max 2.9.  Should last for years even as liveaboards.  As suggested above I have two in parallel (original plan was to have separate ones for H & C) and can swap them over in seconds.  Haven't needed to as yet after ten years averaging 3-4 nights a week on board.

[alan_fincher]

Yes.

These days Shurflo are crap - avoid.

 

Current boat came with Jabsco Par Max 2.9 about 4 yeras ago, an still working well.

We are not full time live-aboards, but do spend a lot of time on board.

[mrsmelly]

I use jabsco or whale, whichever is on hand. I always but always have a new one in a box onboard. Present pump is a Whale which is now three and a half years old and still faultless. I have in the box a jabsco as spare, they are all more or less interchangeable theses days. Never buy shurflo nowadays. I must point out that my water tank only contains GALLONS of water so not sure what service you will get if your water is in litres? whatever they are. 

[frangar]

I used to swear by jabsco ParMax 4 but having recently replaced one that was getting noisy with a ParMax 4 plus I’m less than impressed...it’s noisy...the difference in pressure between cut in and cut out isn’t much and I’ve already had one replacement after a pressure switch died in two weeks.

 

I will be fitting a square D external pressure switch soon but it’s a bit disappointing that one is needed on such an expensive pump.