| Author | Message | ||
     Mike Bergmann Unregistered guest Rating: N/A |
Hi Deborah Thanks for the advice. I have had similar problems in the past making sanitary hose connections, and I have generally heated some water and dunked the end just before making up the connection. This works fine, but it is really difficult to remove the conneciton later (especially in cold weather.) I often have to pour more hot water on the end to get it loose. I had already decided to rip out all the tubing and start over, so I have already removed the fuel tank (also to check my repairs of last year - they have held up fine), the holding tank, and my new fresh water tank. With the tanks out, I can get at all of the plumbing. I was over in your neighborhood yesterday (West Marine in Stamford and Boat US in So. Norwalk) and picked up about 80 ft. of Sea Tech polyethylene tubing. This is the stuff that uses the "slip-on" connectors. It is a lot stiffer than the PVC tubing, but it is also cheaper. The slip-on connectors will make the job go faster. For anyone who is interested in this tubing, it is in the current West Marine catalog (they advertise Whale Systems, and sell Whale or Sea-Tech interchangeably). The manufacturers have web sites at http://www.whalepumps.com and http://www.seatechinc.com, and you can download catalogs and instructions. The prices on the fittings seem high, but when you compare them to the cost of a barbed end plus two clamps, they look a lot more reasonable. |
