Blue water pipe in engine bay.

[Boatname]

Bavaria 34 with calorifier off a Volvo 2020D

Any idea why there is a blue water pipe with a Whale WX1546B end fitting terminating in my engine bay?

The calorifier is gravity fed from my water tank. The pipe in question comes out of a cluster of t-pieces feeding the taps and transom shower but can't actually go anywhere as it sits in front of the engine.

Thanks

[Yngmar]

My calorifier is pressurized by the fresh water system with just such a blue whale pipe. Maybe it was for an option, or someone changed your calorifier to be gravity fed?

[MarkTheBike]

no idea what it's for but I've got a 34 with exactly the same pipe ending just in front of the engine under the steps.

[Nigel]

I had the same, removed it. Not a good idea to have dead-ends in water pipes.

[Salty]

no idea what it's for but I've got a 34 with exactly the same pipe ending just in front of the engine under the steps.

Yes, me too on my 36.

[Lyra]

I found several "loose ends" in my boat, both plumbing and electrical.
I think that some things are installed on the bare hull which is identical to all configurations, before installation of the internal structure mouldings that differentiate between models, even if later some of them are not used. For large scale production this makes manufacturing more cost effective.
For example - In the aft starboard cabin, under the seat, I found wire ends which seem to be exactly like those used for the shower basin pump. 3 cabins models (like mine) have a forward head, but 2 cabin models have the head at this location.

[pjl]

We have it too in our B38. In our boat its on the port side besides the engine at the bottom of the engine bay. I've seen a blog post where this was said to be there for draining the water out of the system.

I use the pipe to drain the water out of the system with my suction pump before winter. I also found out that the T-fittings besides the calorifier are quite easily loosened when playing around with the blue pipe.

[Mark_C]

I always assumed it was for draining down the freshwater system.  Lowest point. 

[Nigel]

I always assumed it was for draining down the freshwater system.  Lowest point. 

But you would still need a pump to get it out of the bilge.

Not only was my dead-end a potential source of contamination by stagnant water, it also required two extra elbows in the main feed.

[Boatname]

I too thought it might help the mass production process, my last car had a wiring loom that included connections for things not fitted.

But I do like the drain down idea as I still can't think what else it could be for.



My weird problem is that the boat basically has two states.

1. Winter, we drain the water tank using just the taps and turn off the power.

2. Summer we live on board for 6 months, power always on. Calorifier always on when we have shore power. Water stays hot even sailing x-channel.

The significance of that is we never have a tank with water in it AND the power to the pump off and there is always hot water in the calorifier

Until this year.

We had to rush home last month by ferry.

Tank nearly full, power off.

Came back to an empty tank and an engine bay and cabin bilges full of water.

Dried it all up, put water in the tank and turned the power on. We both heard a hiss but then nothing happened. No leak.

To cut a long story short, the end fitting on the pipe we are discussing had popped out to its first setting BUT bizarrely turning on the power caused the pump to burp, pressure to build up and it dragged the end fitting back to where it should be, closed.

I know this sounds crazy but I tried it probably 5 times.

Filled tank.

Power on.

Calorifier on.

All ok

Turned power off.

Overnight as the tank cooled water started to dribble from the end fitting. It took probably 12 hours for the dribble to start and that would have continued until the water tank was empty. The water tank gravity feeds into the calorifier.

I know that the hiss was the end fitting resealing as I actually managed to push it back on manually. It had definitely moved to the first position Whale describe in their fitting instructions.

So.

A bit odd.

My temporary fix has been to keep the power on as usual and raise the end of the pipe above the level of the calorifier by poking it behind pipes on the starboard side of the engine bay but I think an end of season job will be to either cut the pipe and fit a new end piece or remove it totally as per Nigel.

[Odysseus]

Like central heating, water leaks when cold, all the time the system in on and working , no problem.

As soon as it goes cold you get leaks, its a builders nightmare.

Odysseus.

[Jackho]

Its there to drain the clarifier "say to winterise" as it is below the installed height of same.  At least that was mine is for.