Plumbing Update - Water & Electricity - a rant

[bigralph]

I think I understand now why pirates of yore used the expression "arghhh" all the time: they discovered modifications to their ships made by previous owners.

So, I posted about my 10g dilemma the other night because I wanted to test my hot water heater. Well, after replacing some piping I learned that my heater could really heat and heat and heat. In fact, before I went to bed, I noticed that the hot water seemed really hot and a couple of times in my sleep I noticed the sound of my bilge pump. As a friend pointed out tonight, I could be a current all state commercial. In that next morning, I realized the sound I hear a wee bit before my bilge pump was the pressure relief on my hot water heater. About an hour ago, as I was getting ready to replace the element, I noticed the wiring looked a little off. I compared the wiring diagram to the thermostat and element a few more times and realized, a PO jumpered out the thermostat. So, the tank was doing exactly as it was being told to, heating satan out of the water. The element was only $30, so I went ahead and replaced it, the old one didn't look as bad as I expected, but again at this point $30 is the least of my wasted money on this girl. I'm waiting around now to see if the thermostat works, water heats and if there are any issues as a result of the new element being so much shorter than the old one. Hopefully not.

Hopefully, the rest of my plumbing will keep until mid spring.

[Big D]

...a PO jumpered out the thermostat.....

That's just unbelievable to me, but not surprising. Yup, if it boils over, the heating element is fine. The t-stat is the problem. Now that the relief valve has been triggered, you should keep an eye on it for leaks. If they don't get tested every year as they should, they will leak after being tested or activated years later. The element issue really comes down to the specs. If anything, it may take a bit longer to recover back to temp.

[aaronbocknek]

i'm always amazed at the way some previous owners do things. amazed, but not surprised. i've tagged along with my mechanic john on a few jobs and i just shake my head at the horror shows i see from time to time. like the generator exhaust hose that was dry rotted. instead of replacing the 3' of hose, this guy wrapped standard duct tape around it, then spray painted it black. good lord. or the guy that used trash bag twist ties to hold together a wire bundle in the bilge. is it really that hard to get plastic zip wire ties from the hardware store? and my all time favorite, hose clamps. specifically, hose clamps that are WAY too big for the hose, the loose end bent and twisted to a smaller shape. as john always says, ''never try to figure out why something was done the way it was, just tackle it and correct it so it's done the right way.'' personally, doing it correctly the first time saves time and money. eventually i'll get the strength to tackle the hornets nest of speaker wire behind the salon stereo. i knew it was bad when phil called me last year and said, ''uhhhh, you're gonna want to come down here and see this for yourself.'' splice city does not even begin to describe what i found.

[yorklyn]

Bigralph,
I feel for you man! Been undoing alot of PO "works of art" on my boat too! Hang in there and keep up the good work!

[RWS]

not always the P O, sometimes it's the P O 's mechanic.

I found wire nuts on the bilge pump switch wires in the engine compartment!

Here's another - In this case it was the selling dealer: solid romex style wire to the wetbar 120 volt outlets.



RWS

[alexander38]

non-USCG gas line put in by P.O.'s Mech. and not found by surveyor

[prowlersfish]

On boats you get owners that would never work on the own cars or do wiring or pluming at home ,but will turn around and do a lot of work on their boats .

[alexander38]

[quote="prowlersfish"]On boats you get owners that would never work on the own cars or do wiring or pluming at home ,but will turn around and do a lot of work on their boats .[/quote]


that's a peeve

[Diverted Income]

Just this past week I pulled speaker wires out and thought what were they thinking when they did this??? Stereo on the bridge wired to speakers in the salon. Ok they seem to work but wait it is only the left channel hitting both speakers. What the??? Back up top to investigate. Pull the stereo out of the pod (which is just sitting in there) and look at the connections. Looking at the the sticker on the stereo for the print, it shows separate grounds for each of the channels (typical) then it clearly states "Do not connect channel grounds together" Guess what - not only are they tied together but they are tied to ground as well!!!!!!! Hmmm no wonder it felt warm even though it had not been on long. PO also had multiple speakers in series. Guess he just twisted wires together till he got sound. Wow. Also removed white and black solid THHN wire supplying power to the mess directly from the battery with no protection. I have only begun....

[alexander38]

Be brave..

[Commissionpoint]

THHN. Thats ok for around water. You can bury it too so the next guy has fun removing it..........

[bigralph]

AWWWKKKK!!!! Dammit!!!! I know people here know the immediate PO of my boat and I don't. No disrespect, he may not have been the one that did this as some things in his survey are surfacing as the problem.

So, it was as a simple idea. I wanted my stereo installed. I needed to scope out the best place to install my 4AWG for the amp and wanted to understand how my boat was wired. I apologize to folks as this will offend, but yes, I'm an electrical engineer. To my credit, I started life as an electrician's mate in the Navy. Now, I'll repeat, because I've made an idiot of myself, I don't really know a damn thing about DC, but my "not a damn thing" might be a little different than the PO of this boat.

Existing stereo didn't work, because it had been FRIED. It had 2 sources of +12VDC power going to it and yes, one was lugged directly to the supply side of the DC breaker in the panel box, oh yeah, with a green AC jacketed conductor from the marine-rated version of romex that is used throughout the boat for AC. The second 12VDC supply to the standard marine stereo was a white jacketed conductor. The back of the DC side of the panel is a snakes nest. This PO ran 3 sets of the AC 3 conductor 14AWG into the DC panel, but meanwhile, there were three spared manufacturer's orange conductors that went to the terminal board directly underneath the stereo. I get that not everyone has an electrical background that works on a boat. Heck, I didn't take the time to correctly identify the 3 conductor 14AWG used for AC wiring in wet rating, but you know what, I now where to look and how to size it. Conductor coloring is important, it's a standard. Green means chasis ground. White means return. Black is an AC source or a DC return, not that hard. However, using 2 sources of power to the stereo? What the heck. And lugging a stereo directly to the supply? Wonder how long the battery lasted for him.

[Big D]

....Conductor coloring is important, it's a standard. Green means chasis ground. White means return. Black is an AC source or a DC return, not that hard......

What, no yellow?? Need to bring her up to new standards!