Best way to find water leaks?

Hate to break it to you Dave but, I guarantee your leak is not fixed. Yours is doing EXACTLY what mine does. When I went to get mine out of the water last week it had rained a day or two earlier. First thing I did was check the carpet & shower bilge, it was bone dry. Put it on the trailer and drove home and the carpet's wet and 3/8's in shower bilge. Water has to be getting in somewhere forward of the shower bilge and holding under the floor until there is movement. This has happened to me multiple times too. Always dry after rain but trailer it and its wet. I always forget to look at it after getting it on plane and running it for a while to see if it does it then too. Then I would know for sure that its entering forward of the bilge and not coming from further back. I haven't looked into it too much but I think everything from the mid berth rearward drains to the engine bilge?? I need to check into that soon to eliminate other possibilities. SB
 
Newbie said:
Hate to break it to you Dave but, I guarantee your leak is not fixed. Yours is doing EXACTLY what mine does. When I went to get mine out of the water last week it had rained a day or two earlier. First thing I did was check the carpet & shower bilge, it was bone dry. Put it on the trailer and drove home and the carpet's wet and 3/8's in shower bilge. Water has to be getting in somewhere forward of the shower bilge and holding under the floor until there is movement. This has happened to me multiple times too. Always dry after rain but trailer it and its wet. I always forget to look at it after getting it on plane and running it for a while to see if it does it then too. Then I would know for sure that its entering forward of the bilge and not coming from further back. I haven't looked into it too much but I think everything from the mid berth rearward drains to the engine bilge?? I need to check into that soon to eliminate other possibilities. SB
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Maybe you should consider a call to the factory to find out where it might be getting trapped. They know how the boats are built and if there are some places that can trap water it sure would be nice to know where they might be and how to deal with it.

In the mean time, I'll have the Marina folks pick mine up again with a fork lift and tilt it back after our rain is over as well to see if any more water shows up.:smt021
 
Well my dealer thinks they have found my leak. Mine never appeared right after rainfall, just after driving the boat around some or trailering it. Sitting here thinking about it, its kind of funny because each and every time we used the boat, it happened to rain. But no leaks were found anywhere. They determined that the emergency bilge pump behind the shower sump was letting backflow through it when underway so they installed a one way valve. Bad part is, I have to wait three months to find out if theyre right :smt089 SB
 
Newbie said:
Well my dealer thinks they have found my leak. Mine never appeared right after rainfall, just after driving the boat around some or trailering it. Sitting here thinking about it, its kind of funny because each and every time we used the boat, it happened to rain. But no leaks were found anywhere. They determined that the emergency bilge pump behind the shower sump was letting backflow through it when underway so they installed a one way valve. Bad part is, I have to wait three months to find out if theyre right :smt089 SB
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Where does the bilge pump hose exit the boat? Is it at the rear or in the center?
 
The mid bilge pump (the one behind the sump pump) should drain via the common drain which is on s/board side amidships. I find it hard to believe that water is flowing backwards via this hose when underway.

Esteban
 
estebanj said:
The mid bilge pump (the one behind the sump pump) should drain via the common drain which is on s/board side amidships. I find it hard to believe that water is flowing backwards via this hose when underway.

Esteban
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I agree if it is in the midship area. On the other hand if it is part of the aft drain pipes then it is entirely possible because of what I experienced with water in the main bilge when I have a bunch of people on board which tends to put the lower thru hulls too close to the water line. A one way valve solved my problem as well but it only affected the main bilge area.
 
I do tend to boat in fairly rough conditions so maybe its possible? Hate that I have to wait so long to find out if its fixed. I'm kinda with you guys on this one, I dont really think thats the whole prob, just have to wait to see. SB
 
Newbie said:
I do tend to boat in fairly rough conditions so maybe its possible? Hate that I have to wait so long to find out if its fixed. I'm kinda with you guys on this one, I dont really think thats the whole prob, just have to wait to see. SB
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One possible way to check out their assumption (when you relaunch) is to have someone look at the shower sump when underway because if the water is truly backfeeding like that thru the common outlet (for the sink drain, the shower sump, and the emergency sump) then you might see water back feed into the shower sump also.

The only other thing I will mention is that my comon drain sometimes doesn't empty all the way on mine because if my boat gets moved around by wakes when we are anchored, I see water come out the drain for seemingly no reason. Also my sink will drain slowly from time to time also. So depending on the setup they have for that drain (I have never seen it since it is buried behind some panels), I suppose it might also be possible to get water backfeeding to the emergency sump from one or both of the other two sources too.
 
Back flow from the sump exit line sounds plausible. Has anyone noticed this on a boat that could confirm this, i.e. salt water vs fresh?

In our case - identical condition, it has only happened when the boat was on stands and on dry land. That would rule out a back flow issue for us.

By the way I happened to visit another 280 DA before Thanksgiving that had water in the sump area as well. In that case it was a boat that had recently been purchased, and the new owner was not aware of the issue.

I wonder if that while it is a common problem for many of us, it is not the result of a common cause, but rather a common result to different causes. After all there is pretty much only one spot where water will show up from a leak in the front half of a SeaRay.....

Think on that, and to all a Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays.

Henry
 
I would like to see the hookup for that "common drain". It sounds like it could be a problem. Maybe I'll pull some panels to find it. If I do and can get pictures I'll post them back here.
 
I just wanted to add the picture I talked about a few months ago to complete this posting. Here is what that common drain area looks like on my 260DA.

DSC03748.jpg


Going from left to right, the hoses come from the following sources. The black hose barely visible on the left is the drain hose from the step down scupper in front of the cabin door. Moving to the top of that fitting, the first white hose on the left is the one coming from the sink in the head, The second white hose is the one coming from the shower sump and the last black hose is the emergency sump pump hose that is in the shower bilge area. There is a "Y" fitting between those two "T" fittings that also has a another hose (that you can see in this picture) that is connected to the hull side where the water exits the boat thru the large stainless drain fitting on the starboard side.

And for the record my boat sat outside for a long time after I had fixed all the leaks and it never leaked another drop of water despite many more rainstorms. Now it is back in the water in it's covered dock.:grin:
 
One other area that allows water in is the actual companionway door on the port side.

My baby and I were sleeping on the boat one night when a thunderstorm kicked up. We were tied up in a transient slip at the time. As the storm went on, I noticed water dropping down onto the carpet in the area the Dave describes. The wind was causing the rain to hit the flat surface on the left side of the companionway. As the small droplets merged together, they ran down the side into the stairwell. Most of the water went into the stairwell and down the scupper. SOME of the water ran straight down just forward of the stairwell, right onto the carpet in front of the stairs.

The door doesn't seal too tightly on the latch side. I didn't see an easy way to correct that short of adding additional weather stripping. I plan on investigating it further in the spring...

Mike
 
I would have your first mate sit inside and run a hose over the top. Our carpet at the bottom of the steps and the ceiling were getting wet. When we tried this trick we discovered that the door was letting water run along the ceiling and soaking the carpet. The door needed adjustment to fit tighter. Sea Ray won't admit it but this has been a repeated problem with the sliding doors. But it was pretty easy to adjust and now I can pour as much water as I want on it without leaks.
 
Close off the space by closing all doors and windows as tightly as possible. Introduce a large suction tube as from a heavy duty shop vac so as to cause a negative pressure in the space. Coat the boat exterior with soapy water. Bubbles will form where the leaks are inside the boat. You might add a little glycerine to the soap water to get it more bubbly. Sounds kindof stupid but it just could work.
 
When my cabin windows leaked it was clearly obvious. But it was nice of the dealer to come down and replace them after they started rusting. :smt021


If the subpump for the shower is under the steps check that. When they built mine they forgot to clean the line and fiberglass clogged the intake and I had 6 inches of water in the cabin. That was interesting. Lots of damp rid situated in our cabin.
 
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270SLX said:
Close off the space by closing all doors and windows as tightly as possible. Introduce a large suction tube as from a heavy duty shop vac so as to cause a negative pressure in the space. Coat the boat exterior with soapy water. Bubbles will form where the leaks are inside the boat. You might add a little glycerine to the soap water to get it more bubbly. Sounds kindof stupid but it just could work.
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270SLX, it sounds funny :lol:, but also interesting way of finding that leak. This always worked for car tires, so why not use the same approach on a boat? I'm with you, if there's no better solution on the radar. :thumbsup:

Alex.
 
I know this is a very old thread, but for the life of me I cannot find where to buy the famous "flipper dogs"-the little plastic piece that tightens against the inside of the porthole window to keep it sealed on the gasket. I also have a broken screw that holds the flipper dog on. Can you remove the inside chrome/stainless trim ring simply by removing the screws on the inside?

Thanks,
 
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