Just wondering what I should use to replace seacocks and skin fittings. Having had a decalcified brass seacock bust on me before, I'm looking for marine quality seacocks and skin fittings. Whitworths claim to have bronze in both, which i find highly doubtful, given most marine grade seacocks are DZR (decalcification resistant zinc) brass these days.
Should I trust Whitworths' so called bronze?
Is there anywhere in Australia that sells genuine marine grade DZR brass skin fittings?
Another seacock thread www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/Sailing/General/Sea-Cocks(that has expired) suggested composite TruDesign seacocks and skin fittings. www.trudesign.nz/marine/products that are available here;
www.roadtechmarine.com.au/products/plumbing/c/CA?q=%3Arelevance%3Abrand%3ATrudesign&page=2
A good substitute?
I have a couple of Blakes' seacocks of unknown age on my 50+year old boat. Can they be serviced or should they be replaced?
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Thanks for that Harb. Unfortunately, I have about 8 hull fittings and seacocks, so they're a bit out of my budget.
I would use a modern plasticc type, Forespar and Trudesign are both good brands
Let me know if you want good pricing on sizes you have
I have Blake seacocks as well. I have never touched them and probably should regrind the surfaces with paste. I have one nylon ball valve for the heads and if I was to change out the others I would use filled nylon valves.
Plenty of info online on how to service Blakes seacocks. If you get stuck search or enquire here.
forums.ybw.com/index.php?forums/practical-boat-owners-reader-to-reader.13/
Doesn't dzr brass mean dezincification resistant?
That's what I learnt in my trade.
Select to expand quotesaltiest1 said..
Doesn't dzr brass mean dezincification resistant?
That's what I learnt in my trade.
It does. The trouble is it might only be the body that is dzr brass. A few years ago some of the cheaper gate valves were sold with brass spindles. What happened was these fell apart and the security of the vessel was left to the body of the valve, the rubber hose and the double clips. For a couple of years boats in survey had to have the valves opened up during the annual inspection so they could be checked. This could be a problem if you were keen to get back in the water off the slips if the inspector chose to be awkward with his timing. Running about assembling valves to catch the high tide is fairly stress inducing.
