Despite a Lickin' Our GalleyMate Keeps on Pumping

Under the rear starboard double berth you can find the heart of our fresh-water system. Besides a storage heater coupled to the engine heat exchanger, we also have a Raritan Super GalleyMate GMPT, a unit that has served us very well. The GalleyMate is a replacement for the unit Prout Catamarans delivered with the boat. The OEM pump did not function very well and was replaced at out cost by the US distributor for Prout.

However, Prout cost cutting was evident when we discovered that the total wire run from the circuit breaker and to the main ground was over 50 feet, yet untinned 16AWG conductor was deemed good enough. We replaced those wires with a set of 8AWG Ancor tinned wires that have improved the electrical situation for this pump tremendously. Suddenly, the voltage drop is no longer crippling for the motor.

Another required improvement was the substitution of a proper circuit breaker for the water pump circuit. More information on this topic in the electrical section of the web-site.

The only bothersome aspect to this pump was that someone had adjusted the pressure set point to 35 psi, even though the manual states quite clearly that 25 psi is the maximum the pump should be adjusted to. I discovered this over-pressure when I inspected the pump due to excessive run-times - it was trying to reach pressures it could not achieve and luckily was "smart" enough to time out. Perhaps a boat show needed a impressive water flow? We'll never know and it doesn't really matter. So far we've only had to replace one impeller in 8 years. A tough little unit, and a great buy for us.

When we replaced all the hydraulic lines in the rear compartments during the 2002 refit, we also moved the mounting for the pumps. Now attached to the actual hull wall, the revised mounting allows better access to the space underneath the aft starboard bunk while also affording more room to work with. The Euro-connectors have also been removed and replaced with proper connection blocks, as elsewhere on board.