Leaking Water Connections

I have had many problems with these. What I do is remove the collar with a cut off tool and then put hose clamps on them.

 

I had those on my 340. You could look at them and they would start to leak. I found new cone washers for them. Let me see if I have the link anywhere...

 

Bennet - I love it when I can actually find something from 10 years ago...

https://www.freshwatersystems.com/p-1812-seatech-cone-seal-12-nps.aspx

These worked for me on my '05 340...

 

I've replaced some of mine with new cone washers..... better, but still drip. Plan B is to try some sealant as well. Plan C is to go to a completely different fitting.

 

Our boat is 1989 and uses a brass equivalent to this fitting. I have had some brass leak at washer and were able to buy elbows and strait connections at Lowes and Home Depot. I have some "T"s I got a few years ago but can not find them any more. They are by PEX so far they do not leak.
https://www.lowes.ca/pex-compressio...-fitting_g1568263.html?searchTerm=pex-fitting

 

Bennett - it's been a while, but new cone washers worked for me - I recall that you don't want to overtighten the fittings...You will probably find that your current cone washers are crushed...There was not another washer in mine - just the cone washers...

 

You bet Bennett. I hope they work for you as well. An incredibly cheap fix.

I hate water anywhere as well...in fact my joke on the dock when it rains is: "I hate it when the boat gets wet"!!

 

#me2 and thank you Carter & Bennett. (probably did that wrong as I don't know anything about twitter).

I just developed a couple of leaks on Unleashed. Probably due to over tightening during recent freshwater pump replacement.

Glad to see somebody else has already found a solution. Only needed 2 but just ordered 20 at $0.58 ea. I'm sure I'll need the others sooner or later.

 

Timely - I just completed chlorination of the water system and just about every one of those Uniflex hose ends started dripping; I noticed the pump cycling on and off. I ordered 50 of those cone seals.....
I counted 48 needed on the 52DB; I have no idea on how to get to the ones behind walls in the heads......

So, I've tried tighter and looser on the fittings but no change to the drip.
How tight should the fittings be on the new cone seals? Assume hand tight but don't know exactly; can't find on the manufacturer's web site....

 

They make all kind of fittings to adapt to pex in the sea tech as you call them or shark-bite as they are called around here ( connector with the teeth and o-ring inside ) so you can eliminate the cone washers fittings. Or you can get regular pex fitting and crimp them together and never have to worry. They also make a release tool for the shark bite and or sea tech fittings so you can disassemble them any time you need too. Take a trip to your plumbing supply house or even home depot. When I get a leak I change them out done , fixed don't have to worry any more. It isn't as complex as people are making it out to be!

 

My assessment is the fittings are very sensitive to the hose alignment to the connection. So, if the hose or something else should put some side stress on the fitting and not be perfectly straight it seems to be more prone to leakage. I could easily get these things to leak with a little bit of side pressure on the hose assembly. In my boat every one of the hoses on all of the manifolds turn right out of the manifold consequently putting side load on the hose to manifold fitting. Loose / tight only changes the compression on the cone seal but does not correct the misalignment. My thoughts....

 

do all the connections you replace have enough "slack" to cut off the old connector and replace with a shark-bite connection?

p.s. i started with replacing the cone washers and they didn't really work. it's actually the design of the connection itself - where the captured "nut" mates up with the flat part of the connector that fails. i put some stretch seal tape on a few spots when i had the 260. seemed to work really well and it was a fraction of the cost and effort to remedy.

 

I see - thanks. A PEX or PEX like 15mm tube and the Seatech QD fittings would not work for me without an excessive amount of rework; It does not have the bend radius the Uniflex does and would not fit to the manifolds and around all of the corners in the 52. I suppose one could put a bunch of elbows on the tube but wow....
I really need to make the existing hose assemblies with the crimped fittings and cone seals work as they are.