Hi, I would appreciate any possible solutions to my fresh water tank not filling up on my Parker 325. There appears to be an air lock or even an obstruction about 12" down from the deck fitting/pipe. Water from the hose simply overflows up the pipe. Nothing is going into the tank. I have bled the system and run the tank dry both to no avail. Any ideas of what is wrong and how to fix this problem please. Simon Quantrill Kerenza

If you keep your boat in a Marina or where others can get at it, I would suggest checking that someone with mischief in mind, hasn't put a ping pong ball or similar down your filler. Can you poke a stiff piece of wire down the filler, say an unwound metal coat hanger? If it was working before, it certainly should not suddenly get an airlock and the length of the run plus the diameter of pipe and the fall are most unlikely to cause any airlock. Have you disturbed the pipe run in any way? It may be kinked if it is made of the unreinforced type of hose. The final solution is to remove the pipe and check it throughout its length which I believe would not be that long. I moved my water tank from beneath the quarter berth to the forward locker under the quarter berth about three years back on my P27, with a new deck filler up forward, nonetheless, the pipe run is now about five feet with a ‘flat’ run below the port quarter berth before dropping into the tank. I have never had any issues with filling.

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Hi Martin, many thanks. I will explore further if there is a blockage. It is proving to be a challenge to find the fault!

If you keep your boat in a Marina or where others can get at it, I would suggest checking that someone with mischief in mind, hasn't put a ping pong ball or similar down your filler. Can you poke a stiff piece of wire down the filler, say an unwound metal coat hanger? If it was working before, it certainly should not suddenly get an airlock and the length of the run plus the diameter of pipe and the fall are most unlikely to cause any airlock. Have you disturbed the pipe run in any way? It may be kinked if it is made of the unreinforced type of hose. The final solution is to remove the pipe and check it throughout its length which I believe would not be that long. I moved my water tank from beneath the quarter berth to the forward locker under the quarter berth about three years back on my P27, with a new deck filler up forward, nonetheless, the pipe run is now about five feet with a ‘flat’ run below the port quarter berth before dropping into the tank. I have never had any issues with filling.

Hi Martin, I may have to remove/replace my pipe. How did you gain access to your pipe to replace/move it? I assume I will have to gain access from the deck and from the inside. Any photos or suggestions from you or a P325 would be great please.

Hi Simon

Another idea is to use the type of flexible wire drain clearing tool which has a spiral at the end to pick up hair etc. If you can get this down the obstruction you can at least work out if its a hard object or not. I have one, if you want to borrow it?

Bruce

Hi Bruce, thanks for the suggestion which I will try out tomorrow with my flexible drain rod. I will let you know what happens. BW Simon.

Hi Martin, I may have to remove/replace my pipe. How did you gain access to your pipe to replace/move it? I assume I will have to gain access from the deck and from the inside. Any photos or suggestions from you or a P325 would be great please.

Hi Simon

On my boat the water filler pipe is easy to access: it's behind the curtain in the heads in what is laughably referred to as the 'hanging locker'. I'd be surprised if they did it differently on different boats. If poking something long and bendy down the filler doesn't work, you should be able to remove the whole pipe by undoing the jubilee clips top and bottom.

Good luck
Peter

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Hi Martin, I may have to remove/replace my pipe. How did you gain access to your pipe to replace/move it? I assume I will have to gain access from the deck and from the inside. Any photos or suggestions from you or a P325 would be great please.

Hi Simon

On my boat the water filler pipe is easy to access: it's behind the curtain in the heads in what is laughably referred to as the 'hanging locker'. I'd be surprised if they did it differently on different boats. If poking something long and bendy down the filler doesn't work, you should be able to remove the whole pipe by undoing the jubilee clips top and bottom.

Good luck
Peter

Hi Peter,

Many thanks. I think you have found my solution. You have effectively confirmed the water pipe must be running behind my holding tank that is fitted in what was the wet locker. Could be fun removing it but this is my next step!

Regards, Simon

Based on your different setup, a holding tank in the wetlocker space, it may that the tank is somehow compressing the water inlet hose.
I have a small fiberscope from Aliexpress to look in all sorts of inaccessible spaces. Brilliant tool to have on a boat.
On my 335 the 36L holding tank has move to the forward part op the starboard couch.

Based on your different setup, a holding tank in the wetlocker space, it may that the tank is somehow compressing the water inlet hose.
I have a small fiberscope from Aliexpress to look in all sorts of inaccessible spaces. Brilliant tool to have on a boat.
On my 335 the 36L holding tank has move to the forward part op the starboard couch.

Hi, Thanks for the suggestion. Yesterday evening I was to access the water pipe which I found runs to the left hand side of my holding tank. I removed the jubilee clips and found the lower smaller diameter pipe completely blocked with a white substance. The 90 degree bend into the water tank was also blocked in the same way This could be calcium or more likely an accumulation of water treatment powder that did not dissolve (over the years?). Cleaning both out should solve the problem, finally.

Many thanks to everyone who contributed to solving this problem.

Regards, Simon Quantrill | Kerenza P325 | 19

Based on your different setup, a holding tank in the wetlocker space, it may that the tank is somehow compressing the water inlet hose.
I have a small fiberscope from Aliexpress to look in all sorts of inaccessible spaces. Brilliant tool to have on a boat.
On my 335 the 36L holding tank has move to the forward part op the starboard couch.

Hi, Thanks for the suggestion. Yesterday evening I was to access the water pipe which I found runs to the left hand side of my holding tank. I removed the jubilee clips and found the lower smaller diameter pipe completely blocked with a white substance. The 90 degree bend into the water tank was also blocked in the same way This could be calcium or more likely an accumulation of water treatment powder that did not dissolve (over the years?). Cleaning both out should solve the problem, finally.

Many thanks to everyone who contributed to solving this problem.

Regards, Simon Quantrill | Kerenza P325 | 19

Hi Peter,

Thanks again for your suggestion because as you will see from my last post I was able to access the water pipe even with my holding tank in place. The installation of it included two panels that once removed gave me full access to the water pipe work.

Regards,
Simon Quantrill

Glad you found out the problem Simon. You are probably right about the white powder being sterilizing powder. You can get a liquid version which obviously will not cause that issue, alternatively I understand that a weak Milton sterilizing solution can be used, which is what some sailing school boats use. It’s also a lot cheaper. I use the liquid sterilizer liquid but then I don’t need much as I also have a 1 micron filter system fitted. I have had various iterations of these starting with the Seagull IV system which was great until the filters became outrageously expensive (£180 each and you needed to change them every six months) I then changed to a UK water filters system which again started off quite cheap but then became expensive. The latest one, which is vey easy to fit and replace the filter, is the German made Waterdrop 10UA-UF 0-0.01um filter system for which the filters are presently £39 each and they will last a year. I have bought half a dozen filters just in case! you end up with water without any unpleasant taste or smell. the flow rate is about 4 l/min which is not brilliant but is really not a problem as it tends to help conserve water. I only have the filters on the drinking water tap, not on the toilet sink or hot water system.

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Hi Martin,
Thanks for the information on filters which I am going to explore further.
Regards,
Simon Quantrill

A fiberscope! What a brilliant idea. I’m off to check out Amazon and eBay!