Freshwater System - PEX fittings

dtfeld

dtfeld

Water Contrails
GOLD Sponsor
Jun 5, 2016
5,553
Milton, GA
Boat Info
410 Sundancer
2001
12" Axiom and 9" Axiom+ MFD
Engines
Cat 3126 V-Drives
My old Jabasco water accumulator is leaking, so it needs to come out along with a weird raw water/fresh water connection. To do this, I just need to connect the HOT water inlet to the main pipe coming from the front of the boat where the tank/pump accumulator is located.

I thought that Sea Ray used 15mm pipe/fittings, but looking online, SAE fittings are white and Metric is black. My fitting are all white, so I'm thinking I have 1/2" installed. Can anybody confirm you can tell by the color of the fitting? I found no obvious lables/marking on the outside.

1EDCC4A2-7447-4F76-BB2B-DBDC4182EDE5.jpeg
 
Just did some plumbing myself. You are correct that is standard 1/2” PEX available at HD and easy to work with. Boat manufacturers use both 15mm & 1/2” indiscriminately.

Good luck
 
Those should be 15mm. The lines may have some markings on them (I don't recall). But you could also check in your parts manual to double check me.
 
The tubing should be marked. Our 280 did use 15mm and those fittings were white (just looked at an old pic of the water heater to check). The dimension is of the outer diameter of the tubing so it’s easy to check with a set of calipers, anything that isn’t 0.500” isn’t ½.
D173D2AA-C293-47F1-AD19-9A4330AECD30.jpeg
 
I have/had those same fittings. 1/2” shark bite fitting will work as replacements if you want to be able to remove easily. I opted for Clamp on barbed fittings. I’ve replaced nearly all of them in my boat. The pex lines in my boat have a slightly smaller ID than regular 1/2” PEX, requiring a bit more persuasion to get the barbed fittting inside.
 
dtfeld said:
My old Jabasco water accumulator is leaking, so it needs to come out along with a weird raw water/fresh water connection. To do this, I just need to connect the HOT water inlet to the main pipe coming from the front of the boat where the tank/pump accumulator is located.

I thought that Sea Ray used 15mm pipe/fittings, but looking online, SAE fittings are white and Metric is black. My fitting are all white, so I'm thinking I have 1/2" installed. Can anybody confirm you can tell by the color of the fitting? I found no obvious lables/marking on the outside.

View attachment 89219
Click to expand...
My boat has all 15mm and 22mm lines with white Guest fittings. When they fail I replace them with Sea Tech fittings, which happen to be black. The fitting color is not indicative of size. It's manufacturer preference.
 
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Thanks guys. I was hoping color was indicative, but looks like that wont work.

Part manual does in fact show 15mm. The complication is I don't think this is original Sea Ray, the water tempering valve is gone, and some PO has some weird connection between the fresh water and AC raw water systems. It's all coming out. This could be either 1/2" or 15mm depending on who did the job. I'm headed to the boat with a section of 1/2" PEX tubing and hoping these are 1/2" If not, I'll have to come up with plan B.
 
Anybody have about 3' of blue 15mm?
 
dtfeld said:
Thanks guys. I was hoping color was indicative, but looks like that wont work.

Part manual does in fact show 15mm. The complication is I don't think this is original Sea Ray, the water tempering valve is gone, and some PO has some weird connection between the fresh water and AC raw water systems. It's all coming out. This could be either 1/2" or 15mm depending on who did the job. I'm headed to the boat with a section of 1/2" PEX tubing and hoping these are 1/2" If not, I'll have to come up with plan B.
Click to expand...
I don't know if this is 100% accurate across the line-up, but every time I've seen red and blue lines, they are 15MM. White lines are 1/2". However, what I see in the picture (at least the lines and white fittings) looks to be factory.
 
Henry Boyd said:
The tubing should be marked. Our 280 did use 15mm and those fittings were white (just looked at an old pic of the water heater to check). The dimension is of the outer diameter of the tubing so it’s easy to check with a set of calipers, anything that isn’t 0.500” isn’t ½.
View attachment 89221
Click to expand...

Calipers is the tool bag. See if I cant sort this out.
 
Dave, Westmarine in Buford has the 15mm Blue and Red in stock and so did Home Depot last I went in.
 
Cocktail Time said:
Dave, Westmarine in Buford has the 15mm Blue and Red in stock and so did Home Depot last I went in.
Click to expand...

That's AWSOME!!! I'll swing by there and get a peice, and have both.

I may get this fixed yet!
 
The Bill Collector said:
My '98 is 15 & 22 mm and I have replaced 99% of my fittings as they all fail sooner or later...
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FYI, You can buy the parts for the major brands like Sea Tech and John Guest. Besides the locking rings they sell the collet rings and the rubber o-rings. The last two are what usually goes bad. You might want buy a few of these and stick them in your spare parts kit.

The repair is very simple, use a set of diagonals and take the locking ring out in pieces, poke out the o-ring. Then insert o ring, insert locking collar, and your done. It took me longer to write that than it does to do it.
 
CORRECTION TO EARLIER POST

Metric PEX is measured by Outer Diameter (OD), and English dimension is by Inner Diameter (ID).

Here is a link to English dimensioned PEX:

https://www.pexuniverse.com/pex-tubing-technical-specs


I couldn’t find a full spec, but here is info on 15mm:
https://www.freshwatersystems.com/p...MIxquM6Z_w6gIVqdSzCh2yYwp3EAQYASABEgIUcfD_BwE

As you can see 15mm PEX has an ID of 10mm and ½ “ has an ID ½”, or 12.5mm.

So, Uplander your “smaller diameter” tubing is in fact 15mm and not 1/2”. You might want to consider reworking to correct match of fitting to tubing.
 
Cocktail Time said:
Dave, Westmarine in Buford has the 15mm Blue and Red in stock and so did Home Depot last I went in.
Click to expand...

My dock neighbor needed 3' of blue 15mm and had to buy something like 15'at WM. If HD has it, it will surely be cheaper. They had the 15mm fittings as well, but super expensive also....

Bennett
 
Henry Boyd said:
CORRECTION TO EARLIER POST

Metric PEX is measured by Outer Diameter (OD), and English dimension is by Inner Diameter (ID).

Here is a link to English dimensioned PEX:

https://www.pexuniverse.com/pex-tubing-technical-specs


I couldn’t find a full spec, but here is info on 15mm:
https://www.freshwatersystems.com/p...MIxquM6Z_w6gIVqdSzCh2yYwp3EAQYASABEgIUcfD_BwE

As you can see 15mm PEX has an ID of 10mm and ½ “ has an ID ½”, or 12.5mm.

So, Uplander your “smaller diameter” tubing is in fact 15mm and not 1/2”. You might want to consider reworking to correct match of fitting to tubing.
Click to expand...

The barbed fittings available at the box stores or plumbing supply stores for 1/2” will work. Like I mentioned they require a bit more effort to get them inside the lines. For a couple of locations I had to warm the pex to get it in the fitting. After the ring or clamp is installed; they are solid. (In fact they are nearly drip free without the clamp since they are a tighter fit. I replumbed my entire house with pex, so I had some materials left over.

Either way metric or 1/2” it’s a BIG improvement. I got sick of chasing leaking connections.
 
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