bertram31.com

Hey,
just wondering if anyone has used pvc or nylon fitting instead of bronze for like a/c supply line or raw water washdown supply. the damn bronze fittings are so expensive.

Raw water comes from the sea through a hole in your boat... What keeps the boat from sinking is a valve. When a plastic valve craps out offshore and your boat sinks, how expensive was that bronze valve?

Never EVER use plastic through hull fittings!

I owned a Grady White 24 OB for about 10 years. Around the 6th year I had to run some wiring for a new stern light, and while playing upside down in the bilge I happened to look at the base of one of the two baitwells in the aft corners of the cockpit. I did not use the baitwells and never worried about them. I saw that the plastic combination through hull and drain fitting from the stbd baitwell (a 90 degree elbow) seemed out of line. I touched it and it broke off in my hand.. it had cracked completely around it's circumference. I looked at the port side and saw the same thing.. both breaks looked as they had been there for a long time. Both through hull fittings exited the hull exactly in the middle of the boot stripe.. at the waterline.

I had two 1" holes in my boat about an inch or so above the water. I don't think I ever took on water from either one. The water gods had been smiling on me for most likely 6 years. They aren't plastic now!

sorry, need to clarify
i have a bronze thru hull already, but from there to the pump, pump to a/c

For individual small fittings, like 3/4" NPT to 3/4" hose barb adaptor, you can use Marelon fittings, but I still wouldn't trust PVC. Never use nylon because it'll absorb water and break...

Marelon, (be very sure it's marked as such), is USCG approved. Marelon® is a proprietary formulation of polymar composite compounds using composite reinforced polymer and additives to produce a superior marine-grade product.

In the long run it's still short money to use bronze fittings. Just my opinion...

I've used plastic fittings many times. But not the thin wall cheap stuff.(read home depot)

If anyone uses the PSS packless glands the water connection is a plastic barb.

The heavey wall black stuff or the heavy wall nylon. Never had one fail yet.

NO PVC

Ya,
I should have made it clear all my thru hulls are bronze, i knew that was gonna start a sh*t storm of respones, haha
Ya the grey PVC is schedual 80, i dont think west marine sales the marelon, they sale nylon

I used PVC to plumb a manifold for my washdown and livewell pumps, but it is located under the gunnel above the waterline. I used bronze and rubber below the waterline.