Need help with ballast system ASAP

[Alpine331]

I have a 2004 SV211 TE. I just put it in the water three weeks ago and have used it a few times since. We usually moor our boat in the marina all summer. We've been gone all week and tonight we decided to go for a family cruise. After I started the boat I notice the starboard and port ballast tanks were showing full. I know I didn't fill the tanks last week so I though the gauges were wrong. Checked the tanks and they we're actually full. So I opened the valves and turned the pumps on to drain the tanks. The pumps ran fine and started pumping out water so I didn't think much of it. But after 10 mins of continuous pumping the tanks were still full! Normally 3-4 mins is all it takes to empty them. That coupled with the fact that I know I didn't fill them has me worried. Can water leak into the tanks on its own? IE without the pumps running? Any ideas?

[slob02]

Could it be siphoning? Were you sitting still when you emptied them? My 03 would fill on their own if I was moving. I had to turn off the ball valve where the water comes in from the bottom of the boat to prevent this. Just some thoughts.

[lucky7t]

Could it be siphoning? Were you sitting still when you emptied them? My 03 would fill on their own if I was moving. I had to turn off the ball valve where the water comes in from the bottom of the boat to prevent this. Just some thoughts.

Same with my 03. Had to turn manually off

[Alpine331]

Ok, I'll try that today. Just seems odd that only the rear tanks filled. Thanks for the advice!

[Mikeski]

They have scoops that prime the aerator pumps, they will fill by themselves at speed if the valves are open or don't work. The original flow rite valves were terrible, lots of information on them here. I replaced mine with the TH valves and those seized up after a year so I eventually replaced my fill pumps with impeller pumps and trashed the cable valves controlled from the helm. This was one of the best upgrades I ever did on the boat. Back in this era Jeff (Mr Planet Nautique) replaced his flow rite valves with solenoid valves. That also seemed to be a good solution. Neither are terribly cheap or easy to implement but both solutions work. I just left the drain pumps, they work fine and I like the fact that I don't need to worry about burning them up if I leave them on while heading back to the marina after boarding.

[dfoster]

They have scoops that prime the aerator pumps, they will fill by themselves at speed if the valves are open or don't work. The original flow rite valves were terrible, lots of information on them here.

+1 on the terrible valves. You can "adjust" the flow valves. Mine had frozen and the cables were bent... so they weren't fully closing. But that alone didn't seem to do it completely, so just kept closing both valves. I have to make sure that both cockpit valve and the ball valves are closed so they don't fill. I just got in the habit of doing all the valves when I fill to make sure. I would also tend to hit the drain pump if I was heading out for a slalom run to make sure I was empty.

I've been debating switching to impellers or solenoids... just need more money for the boat fund... it got drained this winter half-way into my NSS project, so manually switching the valves is the $0 solution until something completely breaks or my wife can't surf on a day I'm not there because she can't figure out the valves.

[Mikeski]

Tried to send you a PM but the system kept kicking me off so I will just post it here:

They should not siphon if you are sitting still but they will fill if they are below the waterline but they sit pretty high so I doubt that is the case. They scoops on the through hull fittings do cause them to fill at speed without the pumps running.

Changing out the pumps is somewhat of a PITA. The fill pumps are under the motor and difficult to access. I mounted my impeller pumps on the top aluminum cross member that holds the ski pylon (my 211 is equipped with the waterski pylon). I pulled the hose off the ball valves and pulled the pumps out (you will need to remove the side panels from the motor compartment and get partially inside the compartment to access the pumps, think gymnast in a box). I extended the hose from the existing pumps up to the new pumps and put new hose on the ball valves to the pumps. Impeller pumps also use about twice as much power as the aerator pumps so also added a relay board with #8 wire fed directly from the battery. The existing wires were just used to trigger the relays. If you are leaving the belly tank then you can probably get away with #10 wires if they are not too long. Fuse the main wire with a 30A or 35A fuse.

The belly tank will also fill but not as bad, it does not have a scoop but it does self fill sometimes if the valve is open. I have heard that you can add a 1/8 or 1/4" spacer under that through hull and it will stop the self filling but I just did a third impeller pump for the belly tank. That pump scavenges water from the cooling water line (I cheated). There are some risks associated with this shortcut so you might not want to do what I did.