Fresh Water System.....may need checking

In the interest of lessons learned I am posting the following:

Our 270FV is a 2000 model, and we have plastic thru hull fittings rather than the SS used today. One of my intended projects was to replace all of the plastic thru hulls with SS. I won't do this all at once but a few at a time. The first two were the fresh water vent, and the holding tank vent. Both had become discolored, and were the easiest to access....so that is where I started. But what I found was alarming.

The holding tank fitting was no problem....done

I removed the aft speaker to gain acess to the fresh water vent fitting, easy enough. I loosend the clamp, unscrewed the hex backing nut, and worked the fitting outboard to loose the sealant. I pulled the fitting off, and as I pulled the hose back through the speaker hole I looked into the hose. It was absolutely filthy! Not to mentioned the spider webs and crud actually in the fitting.

This caused some concern. So I then disconnected the fresh water fill hose from its fitting and looked down that hose. It too was filthy.....and this is the water we use. We actually bring other water on board to drink, and only use our fresh water for bathing, washing, brushing teeth, etc. But it was very filthy nonetheless! I certainly did not expect to find that.

Now I know some of you are thinkg that the vent hose is just a vent hose, right? But keep in mind that junk can run back into the tank,,,, rain and condesation can run back into the tank.

So I made a run to West Marine and picked up some replacement hose for both. I also picked up the Starbright water system cleaner/deoderizer/sanitizer stuff...whatever it's called. The ration is 1 gallon of junk per 100 of water. I have a 25 gallon tank, so 1/4 of the bottle, and followed directions. It took a little time, but I feel better that the system is cleaner now.

Lesson learned: Don't assume your hoses, or your water system is clean!