We have a few things on the “must complete” list before we shove off for Catalina Island later this summer. At the top of the list is having adequate water pressure. It’s been less than desirable for quite some time (and is driving Tim crazy).
About a year and a half ago, we installed a new faucet in the galley and that seemed to help the situation–sort of. And, we failed to recognize that we needed to have a faucet that swivels–AFTER it was installed (oops). But it was such a pain in the neck to get back behind the sink, we opted to leave it as is.
The issues escalated and had to be addressed. When we flipped the water pump breaker it would run and run and the water would be but a trickle. Bad for the pump and bad for the dirty dishes.
Tim, being a seasoned engineer, abides by the notion that you need to start with the simplest thing when troubleshooting and anytime we forget that, Felicità is happy to remind us! We were imagining the issue was with the pump and that we’d either need to take it apart to fix or replace it. The former would be a major job just getting the pump out of its small space in the engine compartment and the latter comes with a $250 price tag.
So, in the spirit of simplicity, first we removed the filter (which was basically clean) and reattached. Then we removed the screens in the faucets… which were pretty darned clogged.
Eureka! Problem solved. There was an air lock in the lines, preventing the pump from being able to build up pressure. And the gunk in the faucets was blocking the water… even though we fixed the pressure situation. And, while we could clean out the faucets, we opted to just bite the bullet and replace the galley and the forward head faucets with new, marine grade hardware (that swivels!). Problem. Solved.
No Comments