Brinks Encore & Barnes Brinkcraft Review

[Vaughan]

I am surprised to hear from Robin that the Vetus filters (which he describes very well) are now common on hire boats. They never used to be as they are not "hirer proof". Their problem is two-fold:

1/. It is difficult to get the top back on properly and make an air-tight seal. The rubber seals have to be kept greased.

2/. As you can inspect them by just looking through the clear plastic cover, they tend to be installed high up at the side of the engine compartment for easy access. Problem then is, if you take the cover off, you have broken a syphon in the raw water intake and when you start, the pump has to prime itself again. If it is a bit worn, and if you move off at tick-over in a 4MPH speed limit, then it may not do this.

The good old tube filter, fitted in the bilges, is installed so that the top of the tube is above water level but the pipework and often even the water pump itself, remain below the waterline, so there is never any need for priming. Also if you drop the cap on top of the tube, it doesn't matter.

As DNKS has just said (while my two fingers were typing) the golden rule is to start the engine and then check that there is water coming from the exhaust when you cast off the mooring lines. If there is a good flow of water, then you don't need to check the filter anyway!

[LondonRascal]

The Vetus filters are only common on 'newer' boats or those re-engined - otherwise it is the old bronze tubes with those heavy tops you can be sure to drop and take an age to get back lol.

[BryanW]

Before this week the only type I had come across were the bronze tube type and I have had to get a lot of weed out of these in the past.  Totally agree that oil and water does not really require checking and I never have after the first couple of days once I knew that that no oil or water was being used.

Mind you, talking about maintenance we did have a 'fan' belt fail a few years ago (thus no coolant water or alternator) which I felt was down to poor maintenance, obviously the yard hadn't even looked at it for some time since it was totally shredded.

[JamesLV]

2 hours ago, LondonRascal said:

The Vetus filters are only common on 'newer' boats or those re-engined - otherwise it is the old bronze tubes with those heavy tops you can be sure to drop and take an age to get back lol.

Pretty sure the ones on fair Jubilee are the bronze types, but they have chains holding the caps on