Bigger hose on RZ2 bags for quicker times?

[jdhart73]

Anyone ever put bigger hose on the RZ2 rear ballast tanks? With my extra sacs it takes damn near 15 minutes to fill and for some reason even longer to empty! I would kill to be able to fill these in under 7 minutes and drain in the same, just curious what kind of an undertaking it would be and if anyone had done it? I know you would have to increase the thru-hull sizes as well, and possibly the pumps.

[ragboy]

You would need bigger pumps also. I replaced our pumps with tsunamis, which made it a bit better, but you would have to do some real mods to get it down to 7.

We have a 10 minute ride from slip out of 5mph, and fill and empty in that space, and when we are out and decide to switch from one side to the other, we just go swimming for a bit. It has never bothered me.

[chpthril]

When I did some ballast pump flow testing awhile back, I did find a slight increase between using 3/4 hose and 1 inch hose. But the biggest gain was by stepping up from the 3/4" fitting to the 1" fitting, so it wasnt really the hose that yielded the greatest increase in flow. The bottleneck was the fittings at the sac, and I imagine that with the OEM tank, its 3/4" fittings are the same bottleneck. So you have to not only upgrade the hose, but also the fittings at the tank as well as the drain thru-hull. This may knock off a minute or so. To make a real difference, I think you would need to swap pump.

I think the easiest mod that might reduce the fill time, would be to reroute the fill hose so it fill into the sac first and then the water gravity fills the tank. This would relieve the pump of some head pressure.

[TRD]

When I did some ballast pump flow testing awhile back, I did find a slight increase between using 3/4 hose and 1 inch hose. But the biggest gain was by stepping up from the 3/4" fitting to the 1" fitting, so it wasnt really the hose that yielded the greatest increase in flow. The bottleneck was the fittings at the sac, and I imagine that with the OEM tank, its 3/4" fittings are the same bottleneck. So you have to not only upgrade the hose, but also the fittings at the tank as well as the drain thru-hull. This may knock off a minute or so. To make a real difference, I think you would need to swap pump.

I think the easiest mod that might reduce the fill time, would be to reroute the fill hose so it fill into the sac first and then the water gravity fills the tank. This would relieve the pump of some head pressure.

May I ask a dumb question, is there any reason you couldn't use one of these or something like it?
http://www.boaterswarehousestore.com...tm#m0c639p1169

[Ewok]

from your link:

Detects the absence of fluid then shuts-off pump before impeller is damaged. Sensor provides a 16 - 20 second run-dry period to allow initial priming of pump. Interrupting power supply to the macerator resets the Run-Dry Device. Flow rate to 12 gpm (451pm). Self-priming to 4ft. (1.2m) vertical lift.

The self priming up to 4' is great and it will chop up bits of seaweed but 12 gpm is slow, its 750 gph, i think thats the same as the stock pumps. I'd go for Tsunami 1100's to speed up flow.

[chpthril]

May I ask a dumb question, is there any reason you couldn't use one of these or something like it?
http://www.boaterswarehousestore.com...tm#m0c639p1169

Hmmmmm, if you need to grind up solid waste in order to fill yur ballast, id find a new lake

J/K Using a self-priming pump as a boost pump would probably increase the flow rate, but its hard to say if it would be enough to justify the cost.

I think the best solution would be to add a dedicated fill pump for the surf sac like Kerlee did.

[talltigeguy]

from your link:

Detects the absence of fluid then shuts-off pump before impeller is damaged. Sensor provides a 16 - 20 second run-dry period to allow initial priming of pump. Interrupting power supply to the macerator resets the Run-Dry Device. Flow rate to 12 gpm (451pm). Self-priming to 4ft. (1.2m) vertical lift.

The self priming up to 4' is great and it will chop up bits of seaweed but 12 gpm is slow, its 750 gph, i think thats the same as the stock pumps. I'd go for Tsunami 1100's to speed up flow.

Technically speaking, 12GPM is 720 GPH...what does 451pm mean? I think if it can overcome head pressure better, it is reasonably fast. I think most of our pump ratings are done with 14.4 volts and with no hose on the pump. Real world ratings seem to be different.

I wonder if the macerator pump would not be able to consistently pump for 10 minutes at a time. Other possible disadvantage would be that it is not reversible.

CHP, we should have made your ballast pump test a sticky in the ballast section.

[TRD]

Ok, this answers my questions. I thought this pump had a faster fill time w/ the bigger hoses and outlets. I was looking at the speed of pump times.

W/ a Tsunami pump, how do you get them to pump back out. W/ the Tsunami pump I have now sometimes it doesn't want to prime when emptying the sacs. You would put the pump right at the thru hull inlet correct?

[talltigeguy]

Ok, this answers my questions. I thought this pump had a faster fill time w/ the bigger hoses and outlets. I was looking at the speed of pump times.

W/ a Tsunami pump, how do you get them to pump back out. W/ the Tsunami pump I have now sometimes it doesn't want to prime when emptying the sacs. You would put the pump right at the thru hull inlet correct?

There are dozens of threads on this, but the pump will prime easily if you have it coming off of the bottom port of the sack so water rushes into it right away. Priming the discharge pump is virtually never a problem.

[TRD]

There are dozens of threads on this, but the pump will prime easily if you have it coming off of the bottom port of the sack so water rushes into it right away. Priming the discharge pump is virtually never a problem.

Thanks talltigeguy,
I just got my design setup so now I starting my research on pumps and installation. W/ the help of JLoflin420, I think my surf setup is 100 times better then what I had. Now I have a new layout and before I bomb Chptril, I wanted to have everything in place so he can look at w/out any changes (I hope).