Fresh water leak on a 445

[Alastair MacGregor]

QR_BBPOST Welcome to the forum.....the fresh water pump is cycling because there is a pressure drop in the system/leak somewhere. Your fresh water holding tank is not pressurized, the pump pulls from that tank and the tank is vented to allow that suction.
There are no easy answers to this, get down there and dry the bilge, put towels down to find what direction the water is coming from and check all the fittings you can with your dry hand and a very bright light. May take a little digging.....

Good luck and let us know what you find.

I will follow up. Thank you

[Alastair MacGregor]

QR_BBPOST Welcome to the forum.....the fresh water pump is cycling because there is a pressure drop in the system/leak somewhere. Your fresh water holding tank is not pressurized, the pump pulls from that tank and the tank is vented to allow that suction.
There are no easy answers to this, get down there and dry the bilge, put towels down to find what direction the water is coming from and check all the fittings you can with your dry hand and a very bright light. May take a little digging.....

Good luck and let us know what you find.

Will follow up. Thank you

[Alastair MacGregor]

QR_BBPOST Welcome to the forum.....the fresh water pump is cycling because there is a pressure drop in the system/leak somewhere. Your fresh water holding tank is not pressurized, the pump pulls from that tank and the tank is vented to allow that suction.
There are no easy answers to this, get down there and dry the bilge, put towels down to find what direction the water is coming from and check all the fittings you can with your dry hand and a very bright light. May take a little digging.....

Good luck and let us know what you find.

Will follow up.
Thank you

[Alastair MacGregor]

QR_BBPOST Find the water heater and make sure the the safety valve (the over temp/over pressure) valve is not leaking. That's a pretty common place for leaks to occur. Sometimes just cycling it a few times will clear it up, other times they need to be replaced.

Thank you

[Alastair MacGregor]

QR_BBPOST Welcome to the forum.....the fresh water pump is cycling because there is a pressure drop in the system/leak somewhere. Your fresh water holding tank is not pressurized, the pump pulls from that tank and the tank is vented to allow that suction.
There are no easy answers to this, get down there and dry the bilge, put towels down to find what direction the water is coming from and check all the fittings you can with your dry hand and a very bright light. May take a little digging.....

Good luck and let us know what you find.

Thank you

[kgarguilo]

If you have not found your leak, here are some things to check. I found a total of six leaks on my boat when I bought her over 2 yrs ago and have had a dry bilge ever since. The Limber holes allow water to traverse the under belly of the boat to split up the Bilges, very cool system actually but, I digress. Most issues like this come from someone never doing maintenance and or not paying someone to do maintenance in the absence of knowing what to maintain.
1) Look under the hot water heater, mine had a pin hole pissing out the bottom and could not see it except by camera video under the board it is mounted.
2) The diaphram in the pump itself was not holding the pressure. No leak, but caused the pump to cycle giving the illusion of a leak
3) Not the water system but while under way water was coming in through the anchor drain port and overflowing into the Limber hole channel and I was weeing water mid ship
4) Gray water sump for the front head had a bad check valve same as above while underway water was back feeding and overflowing into the bilge.
5) Rudder packing leaking - finding its way to under the Black water tank and staying there
6) Dock hose connection on my boat behind the rear head access. The fitting was dripping. Rather than mess around I just replaced the whole inlet valve.

Best of luck to you.

[Alastair MacGregor]

Thank you

[paulr]

I hope everyone does shut their dockside water off because you never know when something mat let loose.
A few years ago at my marina in Beach Haven NJ, the owner of a 60 ft plus Hatteras left his water on. One of the lines popped and leaked all night.
The bildge pumps for what ever reason didn't keep up and the boat sunk in 6 feet of water.
The boat was a total loss.

[KyleR]

And don't forget about turning off your potable water pump when away from the boat. If there's a leak, that pump will kick on and keep the water flowing, not to mention the drain on the batteries.

Kyle

[km1125]

QR_BBPOST And don't forget about turning off your potable water pump when away from the boat. If there's a leak, that pump will kick on and keep the water flowing, not to mention the drain on the batteries.

Kyle

But at least if it's drawing from the tank there won't be any additional displacement added to the boat. The water just moves from inside the tank to inside the bilge. The batteries will wear down though if the charger can't keep up.