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Mountain Plumbing Products has a sink strainer assembly that is stainless steel on the top half and what appears to be a Marelon type plastic on the bottom half (anyway, it's white). Should eliminate the dreaded sink drain failure caused by the bottom half of the sink strainer assembly corroding away. The model number is CBSW-SS and I found it at Expo (Home Depot's design center). About $19.
I was worrying about how to deal with a deep enough sink in the Triton when Pete's post a while back reminded me of the float valve. It seems to me like this is probably some thing that a person could come up with at a plumbing supplier, perhaps? Anyone know, or know what the thing would be called as a plumbing part? All else failing, has anyone opened one up? Couldn't be too hard to make something from scratch with a hollow ball and some PVC if all else fails, could it?
While I am on the Commander sink stuff, it is just exactly the perfect sink as far as I am concerned. Bar sinks from the pluming supplier were pretty flimsy, and I remember the Commander sink as rather nice...anybody got one they don't want by chance? Never hurts to ask!
Thanks,
Dave
I bought my sink strainer at Ace Hardware five years ago for a buck or two and have had no problem with it. The sink drain opening is standard size. And I believe the Ace version is stainless.
I decided to replace the hoses from the cockpit drains and the sink today that attach to the molded in through hulls. I found a $2.50 plastic check valve spliced into the hose between the sink drain and the scupper pipe. Makes no sense to me that one would splice a low pressure, home use piece of plastic into a piece of high pressure heater hose intended to save my boat's bacon if the the water in it ever froze. I'll replace it with a single length of hose, no check valve.
I thought I'd offer this as yet another reminder to never assume the previous owner of the boat got anything right. I should have found this a few years ago but the part of the hose I could see and the clamps appeared to be in excellent shape so I hadn't looked further down until today.
Found a really neat deep rounded single bowl Kindred sink. It came with the domestic 4.5" flange drain with the lift-out basket. And a 1 1/2" tailpiece. The tailpiece is the weak link in the system. A PVC bowl might be OK - but the constantly immersed thin brass or pvc tailpiece in saltwater is going to get stressed and tired.
Found various versions of this strainer (usually with s.s. flange) & tail piece' in polypropylene, pvc, abs and who-knows-what-all, with unknown cast metal slipnuts that look corrodable. Don't need basket strainers, which lowers the drain and tailpiece in the Ariel to where saltwater will always be in contact, since it will always be in the drain hose. Even with the seacock closed!
Good thing about having a 'slip-nut' tailpiece: it means that with just a few turns of the nut the heavy hose clamped to it will disengage from the strainer. Very convenient, makes it easy to dab a little lanocote on the plastic ball inside the Marelon valve while the boat's in the water. Watch it, there'll be water in the hose!
Scandvic has fittings in 304 and PVC.... why go there? Forespar, stupidly enough, has sink wastes of CHROMEPLATED PLASTIC (but WHY???) .....and one little acetal utility drain. Look into the Elkay catalog for 316. No deals there, tho.
But we want something that's not going to rust right away or corroede like a brass tailpiece and is stronger than plastic. Acetal is the only plastic exception. Strainer, housing and tailpiece made with that would be, imco, acceptable in a bluewater boat. Yes?
Marelon would be perfect for a saltwater sink strainer/tail piece, but nobody is smart enough out there to make a couple sets..
Found an Elkay strainer (LK372) with the 3.5" strainer and tailpiece made with 316 stainless. Smaller marine (bar sink) drain also availble in 316.
Housing locknut and slip nut of cast brass, who knows. The fitting has a flush strainer making the bottom of the sink flat. No lubberly basket.
Kindred bowl doesn't look 'crossover' anymore!
The perforated drain guard is a press-in flat s.s. disk that removes without a screw revealing a small hollow - that takes a '60s style tapered 1 5/8" rubber tub stopper.
Pretty shippy, I think. Expensive fitting. Installed with Tremco tape butyl instead of plumbers putty. [major crapola is the non-marine housing under the sink - which is used to clamp the strainer to the sink bottom - unknown steel electroplated/flashed with zinc. Sharp edges. Prone to immediate corrosion. Will use a brush-on lanoline product called Fluid Film, a non-drying preventative/lubicant for metal.]
The stopper plugs out of the way in the hollow of the strainer housing. Being the only sink in the joint, it gets used for everything.
It's the only work spot where there's standing room in the Ariel - under the c'way hatch. Short piece of 1 1/2" drain hose to an enormous Marelon seacock directly below the sink. Chose "oversize" because the valve is underwater - will have saltwater in it at all times. Argument can be made for 3/4", 1" drain hose and seacock...... redundancy is good.
Imco the hose that is used in any boat that has HOSE BELOW THE WATERLINE are reinforced rubber exhaust type - Trident or similar. Hose should state ABYC standards, since we don't know where it's manufactured any more.
Drain (and cockpit drain) hose is a permanent part of the boat. Keeps the boat floating. Hose gets forgotten. Vulnerable hose attracts accidents. Get the best you can.
Steel helix wire reinforced rubber hose should be avoided as the metal can rust. There are hoses with spiral plastic reinforcement, maybe less stiff and less strong - but better choice.
Rubber water/hot water/chemical hoses with fabric reinforcement that are heavy enough not to collapse when bent. May be bent easier.
If you have short distance between two points, a pliable hose becomes absolutely necessary to get onto both fittings.
Plastic head hose should never be used. Got to use rubber for seawater hose. Plastic gets old & brittle, plastic can split, plastic can cut easy.
So far as I know, there are no hoses manufactured specifically for cockpit drain, except perhaps Trident Flex Marine with plastic helix.
Bilge hose is not an alternative for a permanent hose that ALWAYS has water in it.
If you install seacocks (every underwater hole in the boat SHOULD have a seacock) you add another level of concern to the mix.
Seacocks are installed perpendicular to the hull, shortening hose length, and creating radical angles that substantial hose cannot bend to.
You can make it easier to slip drain hose on tailpieces and thruhulls using tube butyl - allowing a redundant positive seal and removal later.
Harbor Freight has simple cheap hose expanders that temporarily increase hose ID, maling it easy to slip on the flanges.
Hose clamps must be 100% (every piece) 316. (example: ABA, AWAB hose clamps, non-perforated band, rolled edges, pricey!)
Never seen a ball float valve, or a bulkhead flapper valve, that I liked. They never look serious enough.
They also constrict water flow, and make it impossible to clean the inside of the hose out.
It would be great if someone invented a flapper float valve that could be removed from the housing at the top of a thru fitting. Like in the cockpit sole for instance - for maintenance or replacement. Another plumbing fitting that would translate into Marelon.
The hinged flapper would float closed with incoming water, but unlike the caged floating ball valve, open to allow full volume drainage.
Inline check valves can't be used. Restict flow, stuff gets caught causing them to jam open or closed, corrode, get forgotten, etc. Untrustworthy. This is Opinion, so don't trust it either!.:D
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Bill's Mountain Plumbing Products TIP of a Marelon type housing for a 3.5" sinkstrainer.... is something called Xenoy plastic. Strainer has a substantially ribbed center post suspended across the drain opening into which you can lock in the basket. Xenoy is a glass fiber filled polybutylene terephthalate easy flow injection molded thermoplastic. It can be found in auto parts, electronics, electric plugs and sockets and chopsticks:D. It's a tough, wear resistant polyester family plastic related to polyethylene.
Polybutylene hose/tube was used for a while in new houses as a sub for copper plumbing, until it was discovered that it became degraded by chlorinated water delivered by municipal water companies..........So I'd wonder about sodium chloride water in this plastic.
Haven't a clue how to compare it with glass filled nylon (Marelon). Probably can't! It's oviously strong stuff. Quick search of MPP did not reveal if the all important tailpiece (what the hose is clamped to) is also PBT, or another plastic or metal. 1-888-222-9140. Their stainless is probably 304.
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WALK THE PLANK
The marine industry (Plastimo, Scankvik, Forespar (chrome plated plastic!) and Ambassador/Shurflo and major vendors like Defender) have failed boaters by not making available to watercraft a simple and safe sink to hose connection.
Imco the people whose business is marine safety equally share the blame. Don't know about ABYC, but marine surveyors, product testers, insurers, and perhaps even the coast guard should all be providing standards for manufacturers. Issues are: strength of plastic parts, galvanic mix of metals in seawater electrolyte, ease of maintenance - and intellegent design.
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I located a deep Kindred sink with the 'standard' 4.5" waste. It finally dawned that a lubberly strainer basket was completely unnecessary on a boat. Found a 316 ELKAY flat across no basket waste fitting with a stainless tailpipe and brass hollow nut AND flat press in strainer that makes the sink bottom level with the sink -- and can easily be pryed out. An old-fashioned 1 5/8" white rubber plug can be used in the neck beneath the strainer. The open cross grid in the neck just under the plug receptacle looks strong enuf for a mechanical plug that would screw into a 1/2" center ...if such a plug exists. It would be good to have a positive shut off in the sink drain. Bell shaped housing on this basketless waste is 1" deep. Much less than the basket waste and therefore, further above the waterline.
The original Ariel sink is low enough to have the sink waste fitting eaten by saltwater. Sink should go to its own seacock. Cockpit drains should each have their own seacock. Every underwater hole should have its own seacock.