Identify water hose fittings help

[estame6]

1988 30 foot Sea Ray. Need to replace water connection between a cold water tee to the hot water heater. Approx 12 inches long with fittings no one can identifiy including our local Sea ay dealer. All other similar Sea Rays in the club has same fittings. Is there a supplier anywhere that I can check with? Thanks.

 

[Sun Chaser]

Are they Sea Tech?

Glenn

 

[estame6]

Thanks Glenn, There is nothing written on the fitting to I tell if there Sea Tech or not.
I know that they are very hard to come by.
I thought with the number of 30 foot Sea Ray's around that were built
in the 80's someone would know of a supply. To start replacing all my
fittings because I can't find one compression fitting seems futile.

Maybe someone reading this and had froze a pipe or two has a suggestion.

Thanks again...

 

[rondds]

i'm not sure i understand - are you looking to replace a 12" length of tubing that comes off a "T" and heads towards your HWH? my (1989 Searay) water lines are grey, slightly flexible plastic tubing. the diameter is standard (i think 1/2"??). they sell similar stuff in boating supply stores - may not be the same color, but should work as a direct replacement.

 

[Asureyez]

Pictures really help to get you the correct answers.

That said, the fittings are likley to be compression fittings that assemble and disassemble by hand.

The connection is nmade by the hose held in place by a sliding collar that when pushed in towards the seat will allow the pipe to be pulled from the fitting. These work like something like a Chinese Finger trap and escape is by pushing in not pulling out.

SR uses a 15MM fitting and these can be obtained from many serious marine supply houses. You may see similar items of more modern make in plumbing sections for home/RV use. These 1/2 inch fittings will not replace your SR ones unless you replace the hose and all the fittings from end to end. Better to just get the 15MM ones and move on.

 

[wkearney99]

The water heater should have regular, threaded plumbing fittings. The tubing is probably 1/2". I'd go with a compression fitting on the tubing (two brands are Whale and SeaTech) with a 1/2" threaded plumbing adapter. Then use a regular braided water supply hose like the type you'd use on a residential washing machine.

What would probably help the most would be for you to post a picture of the Tee fitting and the connection it makes on the hot water heater.

 

[Mike HHH]

Tried to post this a moment ago and not sure where it went - sorry if this is a repeat.

I broke the same hose on a 1987 270 a few years ago and it was a major pain to repair. None of the marinas I contacted wanted to be bothered with a small job (for them) like that and tracking down the correct fittings and hose turned out to be much more of a project than I anticipated.

The SeaTech fittings did not work for me. They all leaked - and when I tried to use some SeaTech hose then the original fittings leaked. I finally determined (by a lot of trial and error) that the Whale fittings were the correct ones. One big headache is that very few stores carry the Whale fittings. I found the correct item (water heater connection hose) on the Whale website but I never found it for sale anywhere. I ended up using a piece of more slightly more flexible hose and hose clamps at the water heater and then used an adapter to connect the flexible hose to a short piece of the original plastic hose (that way I could still use the original tee fitting). I ended up replacing several portions of the original hose and related fittings and even though I sold the boat this spring I know I still have an assortment of Whale (and SeaTech) fittings and a couple of pieces of their replacement hose stashed away somewhere. If you can let me know what fittings you need I will look and see if I have them and if so I'd be happy to mail them to you. Mike H

 

[wkearney99]

FWIW, the only shop I've seen on the Chesapeake that had a GOOD selection of water fittings (15mm and 1/2") was Tidewater Marina up in Havre de Grace. Everyone else has been hit and miss. Port Annapolis (on Back Creek) has a relatively decent selection. West Marine is horrible. They've got hanging hooks for the various parts but their stock is almost completely depleted. Same thing for Fawcett's.

The fittings are cheap compared to the hassle of not having them handy when you're doing the work (arms deep in the engine compartment). You almost always need "just one more" fitting.

One nice thing about the compression fitting is they have stackable ones. So if you're pulling a Tee off an existing line you can put it into an existing connection instead of cutting the line. Or if you've got tight quarters you can stack things to save space.