Ballast Drains

[JWehrheim]

Appears my Ballast bags drain during surfing. I’ve heard they can siphon out. How do I prevent siphoning. I’m using factory pumps in my 2008 RZ2. Drain hoses drain in the rear. I have the vent hoses going to the front

[chpthril]

Please give some additional details about your 2008 RZ2. It would have have hard tanks across the transom for the OEM system. Vent a drain outlet Bow would have a soft sac, but the vents and drains outlets are too high for passive draining, so this leaves the fill plumbing. The rear tank vent and drain outlets are also too high for passive draining. Fill plumbing is the only place the OEM system can passively drain.

[sandm]

fwiw our old 22ve and z3 when listed would drain passively out the side that was listed. we would lose about 25% of our ballast if we didn't keep filling. when stopped I could see it trickling out the side. they both stopped when enough had drained that the bag level was below the thru-hull. I could stop surfing and see the stream coming out. never did figure out if it was vent or drain that was siphoning.
I do remember when installing the setup on our 22ve chp's directions were to crossvent but we never got around to it.

[JWehrheim]

chpthril - yes it has hard tanks in the transom. I removed the front bags for now due to leaks so I used those factory fill pumps to fill the bags in the rear and side port lockers. For now I have two 400lb bags. They fill separately but are connected for venting which vent to the old front vent holes and 1 drain pump for both bags that are connected to the rear transom factory tank using a Y fitting. Let me know what else you need to know.

[freeheel4life]

If you vent is all the way up front they are likely not siphoning off thru the vents. Guessing you are getting passive draining thru fill pumps. Check valve the fill lines and go from there. Just my .02

[BCRider]

There's not a lot you can do to stop it I've found especially on these larger bags. I've kept the lines as high as I can and crossed them so the left drains to the right side and vice versa. Once the bow is up at running speed or list the water is siphoning out no matter what. I find I get it out of the vent and drain lines. I've bought rubber corks that I push in the drain holes on the side of the boat to keep the water in. Other option would be inline shut off's on the drain and vent lines.