Adding another ballast puppy

[bobbysky]

I already have 3 ballast puppies installed using a single 1-1/4 mushroom thru-hull to 3 way junction going to all three pumps. Right now I've plumbed a valve system to the front pump with one valve going to the front u-shape sac. The other valve going to a quick disconnect under the helm, which I attach a piece of hose so I can fill a sac or two in the boat, generally one down the walk way or on the side seats for surfing. Everything works excellent other then the fact it takes twice as long to fill up the two or three sacs using just the one front pump.

My question is will the 1-1/4 handle the extra pump, or am I going to need to drill another 1" thru-hull??? What about teeing off the main water intake, and running just the one pump???

[bobbysky]

anyone???

[NICKYPOO]

I would think the extra thru hull and running two pumps on each would be the way to go, however more labor intensive. If you ever needed to run an additional fill or two, you would have that option since you already know you can run three off of one thru hull.

[bobbysky]

But would my existing thru-hull work for 4 pumps. It's 1 1/4 I believe.

[kasey200]

i'm not sure of the water pressure on the hull of a boat but if you assume "average pressure" (20-100psi) a 1-1/4 pipe will flow roughly 3500gph. Jabsco says the ballast pump is good for 640 gph. Therefore 3500/640=5.47. You should have no problem running 4 pumps on a 1.25" thruhull.

(please don't tear this apart for it's not exact. Just a quick rough calc looking a a few tables and makeing a few assumptions)

[chpthril]

I see no issue running 4 puppies on a 1.25 manifold. Where to T it in might have more to do with the performance then the volume of the manifold.

[bobbysky]

well I originally made my three pump system pull from a manifold like this.



So what I'm thinking is just adding another T to the top and therefore I would have 4 instead of three? Do you think that would pull the water just fine? I really have had no problems with the 3 pump system. I'm just wanting to fill sacs inside the boat faster so I can get my 3500lbs of ballast in less then 10 minutes.