Ballasts taking on water, pretty much all the time...?

[MIDOdin]

I've been working on a 2005 Air nautique 210. As we run it the ballasts (factory) gradually take on water. We had the boat in for a tuneup a couple months ago, and the dealer told us the helm controls were crap and to just use the brass ball valves under the engine cover to turn off the water flow. (We don't need much ballast at this point in our riding.) It doesn't seem to matter as we've had the ball valves in the closed position to no avail.

Now, last last year we did find a "shallow spot" aka sand bar when wakeboarding, could sand from the mishap have gotten into the seals of the ball valves?

Since it's not my boat, but I'm the mechanical one in the group, I've been trying to figure it out without putting the boat up for a month while I take out all the valves/pumps/tanks etc to figure out the deal.. The pumps seem to work as they will fill and empty the tanks, but the tanks still fill when we don't want them too.

[SkiTundra]

How do you know the tanks are filling? You're sure that you're not just seeing leftover water from previous fill? Are all tanks filling or just one?

In my experience it's extremely unusual for a 1/4 turn brass ball valve to leak, though it does happen. Can you disconnect the hose from the pump/tank side of the ball valves and watch to see if they really are leaking?

[NautiqueJeff]

All you could ever want to read about this issue is here:

http://www.planetnautique.com/vb3/sh...Ballast-Valves

Save yourself some trouble and install the Asco Red Hat valves.

[MIDOdin]

Thanks Jeff, I saw and read that one earlier.. (long read.. lol)

We normally do not fill the tanks at all. (we tend to just get more people..) And oddly enough the port side tank normally will fill with a fair amount of water. The belly and starboard sides normally have very little or none at all.

I normally notice they are filling when the wake on that side of the boat starts to get huge compared to the other side when wakeboarding.. Tell the driver to hit the button and sure enough it starts spitting water like a fountain.

I haven't tried taking out/disconnect the hose at the tank. Honestly, I haven't wanted to really start tearing apart the boat. Definitely since I'm in Houston and it's now 100 degrees.. : (

[Flipside]

Mine does the same thing. When I don't fill my ballast, the port side tank will take on 2-3" of water IF THE SEACOCK IS NOT CLOSED. When you are taking boat out of the water, open the seacock to drain the tanks and then make sure it's closed when emptied. When the seacock is closed, mine will not take on water next time on the water putting around.