HELP! Water tank issues

T

terryp

Member
Sep 2, 2010
90
Medicine Hat, Alberta
Boat Info
2012 Sundancer 450
Engines
Twin Cummins 480 diesels
Joystick docking
We are in the process of doing the "Great Loop Journey" on our 2012 45' Sea Ray Sundancer. We are just over 1/3 of our way. Last week we had our 250 hour routine maintenance done in Iuka, MS at a highly reputable marina. They spent 2 1/2 days working on a host of items. The night before our maintenance, thank goodness we were staying at the marina when the vaccu-flush quit working on the head rendering it useless. Fortunately they fixed that first. Day 1 they fixed the head, drained oil in all engines, replaced filters, impellers, etc. The next day they just needed to add all of the new oils and finish.

Following the 1st day of service, that night we ran out of water! We had just filled the tank that day. Where did the water go?? So we brought that to the attention of the service team. They checked everything could not find a reason. We refilled the water and we watched it all day and nothing happened. Of course, when we resumed our journey last Thursday we start to have water issues. One minute no water comes out. Shut off the faucet, turn it back on on whalla....there is water. We get up this morning once again to NO water! Somehow it has drained itself again. Does anyone have any suggestions on how or what is happening here? Thanks in advance for any help or advice! ~Pam & Terry~
 
Pam and Terry, have you been able to visibly verify that the water tank is physically empty and/or see water colllecting somewhere? There's other possibilities that can explain your situation but first it would be good to make sure we're going down the right path.

How about the pump... when there's no water coming out of a faucet, is the pump still running?
 
We just discovered water running from the side of the boat here. We turned off the water pump and it stopped. Still weeding through manuals here........any ideas?
 
terryp said:
We just discovered water running from the side of the boat here. We turned off the water pump and it stopped. Still weeding through manuals here........any ideas?
Click to expand...
drains.JPG

A common problem with your symptoms is a bad pressure relief valve on the hot water heater. Which through hull fitting is your water coming out of?
 
From the side of the boat sounds like the thru-hull for the hot water heater pressure relief valve. Look at your hot water heater and locate the fitting that has a little "flip lever". Make sure it is flipped - meaning not sticking straight out. This is often done during winterization and/or emptying/flushing the heater.

If it's closed and water is STILL leaking past, then replace it.
 
My guess is we need to hear back where the water is coming out.

It sounds like it could just be running into the one of the bilges and activating the bilge pumps.

A bad pump seal or cracked line could explain it. The other correlation is the maintenance performed on Day 1. Since the problem did not exist before Day 1 maintenance......it seems far more likely that the ER work of Day 1 may have inadvertently broke something.
 
It is coming out of the water heater discharge drain. Anyone able to give me a picture of the lever I’m looking for? I’m not technically inclined
 
Hi Woody, thanks for the picture. I did locate it with your picture, and no, it is not stuck open. Guess I’ll get a mechanic to change it out.
 
That valve should be very simple to change. It just unscrews from the heater, then replace with one that has the same size threads. Most hardware stores will carry them. If the pipe is a different size than what the HW store has you can add a simple adapter to change the size.
 
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