Inspection/clean out ports in water tank

[Della and Dave]

I was getting tired of gross water and not being able to get to all the inside surfaces of the tank, so I installed two new 6" clean out deck plates with o ring seals in the port water tank.  It made it possible to get to all the inside corners of the tank.  After much cleaning and quality time with my arm inside the tank, the water runs clean now. 

[SVJourney]

The previous owner did the exact same thing to Journey with the exact same deck plates.  They leak like a sieve!  I replaced the O-rings but they just won't deal with the pressure from filling the tanks from the deck ports.  They also leak while healed.

If you can get them to work without leaking I would love to know how you did it.  What sealant did you use, etc.  Do I just need to completely replace the deck plates?

Bur yeah, its awesome to be able to visually inspect the tanks through the ports.   

Wayne

[Della and Dave]

Hmm.....  I haven't challenged them yet, the sealant was still setting up when I left the boat.  I'll leak check it this weekend and let you know how it's working one way or another.  The instructions on the deck plate were very specific, only silicon base caulk, which I don't really like in most applications.  Don't know why, but they said something about damage to the plastic in the instructions.  By biggest challenge was finding a spot that was flat enough, that's why it isn't centered.  The top of the tank was wavy.  I had to sand quite a bit.  I was prepared to add a layer of glass with a barbell weight to make a flat surface, but it looked flat enough to be able to pull it off, we'll see. 

[slokat]

This may sound weird, but I thought the inspection ports were installed by the factory.

Did you add second ports?

Or are my ports in all three tanks atypical (or added by PO) none of them leak, always open on each tank to watch progress and occasionally skim random floating objects while filling tank.

[Jim Cozy]

When we bought Talaria 8 yrs. ago, all tanks had 2 access plates per tank, as pictured above. They have always worked perfectly, never leaked. I periodically lube the o-rings with silicon grease.  Jim

[Della and Dave]

Our port tank only had one 4 inch port, close to the stern end of the tank, and it looks original.  There are two baffles in the tank internally to minimize sloshing of water.  That meant that I couldn't clean anything forward of the baffle, leaving 2/3 of the tank inaccessible.  I added two 6 inch ports, one forward of the aft baffle and the other forward of the forward baffle.  I should be able to leak check them tomorrow........

P.s. If anyone follows suite, be careful not to drop tools between the tank wall and the settee wall, they are hard to get out, not that I would do that;-).  A rolled up towel would have been a good precaution, especially with tools that roll.

[Della and Dave]

So, leak check resulted in bad words said.  The seal job to the tank was fine, but the O ring on the lid leaked.  I got out the calipers and looked closely, and the issue was that it was out of round, probably because it was too tight a fit into the hole and the hole in the top of the tank was out of round.  The other thing I noticed was that as the tank pressurized from the head pressure to the fill port, the flat top of the tank balloons up noticeably.  About three feet of head pressure is actually quite a bit of force acting on that area. 

I worked on the lid so if fit properly and lubricated the threads and the O ring with Vaseline.  The Vaseline did two things.  It makes it easier to thread the lid on by a bunch, really lowers friction so you can get it in tight.  It also let's me see how the O ring is seating and probably helps with the seal. Really getting close and looking at what was going on was really key to finding where and how it was leaking. 

If anyone is going to do this on their boat, I have a couple of recommendations.

1). Leave the hole in the top of the tank just a little big so that the port fits easily.  It's a flange seal so that doesn't hurt. 
2) Consider if you can get by with the smaller 4 inch ports/deck plates.  Lots of stuff gets easier, like finding a flat enough spot, but harder to clean in there. 

[dutchie]

I have one remark on this and that is never use Vaseline on plastic moulded parts due to plastics and oil products especial abs lexan and so on are made of oil and they do not like each other and cause what we call in the plastics industry stress crack. You schould use silicone based lubricant without the olie thing. They also use it for lubricating the seals of the water lubricated propeller shaft a good alternative is silicone plumber grease it wont contaminate your drinking water and won't harm your plastics 

[jpendoley]

Well, I'm glad my policy of leaving no question un-asked has stimulated good discussion. I installed a new six inch port and sealed it with 4200 and 10x:2 bolts. I'd like to say it did not leak, but when pressurized the adjacent six inch port which had been there for a long time leaked like mad and the water went everywhere which made it impossible to see if the port I installed was holding or not. the older port only had two bolts or so where it was supposed to have six so.... Might remove and reseat. Love the tip about silicone grease!

[Della and Dave]

Thanks for the tip.  I looked up the campatability of Vaseline with ABS, which it apears these are made out of an in the rating system, it seem to rate "B" on an A-D scale.  Which means "Slight attack by absorption. Some swelling and a small reduction in mechanical likely". They had a note on the package that clearly said silicone sealant only.  I think I'll switch to silicon grease.  

[Della and Dave]

Just an update, second year, and the new ports seem to be holding with no leakage. Haven't had the chance to really challenge them in heavy seas though.  It's nice to be able to get in there and really clean the tanks on the spring de-winterization.  (Actually did a few months ago)  The 6 inch ports are a little harder to get to seal, but they do allow for more room for your arm when clean over the 4 inch one that was original to the boat.   Still haven't actually gone to silicon grease, mainly because I didn't have any on hand, but the vaseline doesn't seem to have attacked anything appreciably so far.  Still thinking that a few extra plies on the tank top before the installation of the deck plate would have been a good idea and letting the hole be just a little bigger. 

[#23]

For what it's worth, I bought a set of flex-handle dryer vent lint brushes to scour out the watertanks



They fit through the 4" inspection ports and their coiled metal "wands" offer just enough stiffness to reach the far corners without flopping around.

~ Chris