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Possible water tank leak - easy to fix?


fishee

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I possibly have a leaky water tank.  Will investigate fully when I have time this weekend but just wanted to know if anyone has replaced an integral water tank under the well deck with a moulded plastic or bladder type one and if so, how difficult and expensive was it?

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In principle it is quite simple to replace with a 'bladder' tank - but - it depends on the lay-out and access for YOUR particular boat.

eg : do you have a large hatch access to get the bladder in the 'tank', can you get access to run the outlet pipe from the bladder into the existing pipework (thru any bulkheads, side of existing tank etc) ?

Edited by Alan de Enfield
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Unless the tank has rusted through I suggest its much better to get the tank repaired. Integral tanks have gone out of fashion of late with stainless now much more popular for some reason, but integral tanks have many advantages.

If you use a bladder then you should remove any rough rust that might puncture the bladder, and ideally de-rust and paint the entire tank to protect it from any condensation that will form behind the bladder. Much better to take the integral tank back to bare metal and paint it in epoxy and forget the bladder.

...........Dave

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Hmmm.  I asked about this when our boat was zinc plated a couple of years ago.  The view at the time was that it would be impossible to prepare the inside of the tank ie remove all the rust and coat the inside with something, without stripping away most of the well deck.  Stainless or plastic tanks, both are expensive as usually have to be made to measure.  I went off the idea.

As an aside, I met a liveaboard recently with a lovely old Colecraft, 1983 I think, and she said when the boat was repainted they hacked off the rusted in lid of the integral tank and it was absolutely pristine inside, though it had never been treated with a rust resistant coating.  OTOH I have heard of tanks rusting through but usually to the outside ie not into the cabin.

 

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On 28/03/2017 at 19:29, Canal321 said:

My dad fiber-glassed the water tank in our house 30+ years ago. Still perfect to this day..

If access is good; clear out any rust, then a few good coats of glass mat and resin. Gel coat on top, will last longer than the boat!!

Are you sure that the resin and gel coats are water potable? It's ok if you're not drinking it I suppose, but my guess is that most GRP resins will have plastics migration properties (movement of material from container to content) well above those considered safe for human consumption.

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4 minutes ago, blackrose said:

Are you sure that the resin and gel coats are water potable? It's ok if you're not drinking it I suppose, but my guess is that most GRP resins will have plastics migration properties (movement of material from container to content) well above those considered safe for human consumption.

It is a valid point - but - 'all' my tanks (Potable water <600 litre>, Grey water, Black Water and diesel <2700 litre>) are GRP and are 'built in' along the keel.

 

You can just about make out the Top of the diesel tank beneath the 'duck-boards' (Red valve)

 

 

Versatility-35-42.jpg

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2 hours ago, blackrose said:

Are you sure that the resin and gel coats are water potable? It's ok if you're not drinking it I suppose, but my guess is that most GRP resins will have plastics migration properties (movement of material from container to content) well above those considered safe for human consumption.

I think that's a fair point.  Don't know about plastic migration but cracks, micropores and osmosis make it unsuitable for drinking water IMHO.  Interesting though, I didn't realise some grp boats had integral tanks.  

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5 hours ago, Alan de Enfield said:

It is a valid point - but - 'all' my tanks (Potable water <600 litre>, Grey water, Black Water and diesel <2700 litre>) are GRP and are 'built in' along the keel.

The grey and black water tanks are of no consequence. Your GRP "potable" water tank may be that in name, but possibly not in water quality.

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