Electrolysis

[Jason Landau]

I have a 2014 Yamaha sx192. During the season I leave it in the Hudson river which has brackish water. After only two seasons in the river I had to replace the entire impeller assembly to the tune of $2,400. Dealer said it was due to corrosion from electrolysis combined with inactivity. It is true that I sometimes don't use the boat for weeks at a time. A mechanic at a different shop recommended I install a Mercahode system to prevent the same problem from re-occurring. Has anyone had a similar issue and/or installed such a system.

 

[Jason Landau]

I do get some barnacles but hasn't been too bad thus far. I want to be able to jump on the boat without all the hassle of unloading it off a trailer every time I want to go out. On the other hand I am not anxious to spend $2,400 every couple of years.

 

[Bennie]

I do not have any experience with such a system but as I do boat in brackish and pure salt water and I will tell you that you will continue to have "premature wear" on your vessel. We trailer for every use and wash her down after every single outing but I can still tell the difference and the chemical abuse the salt water is having on my boat.

If you can at all I would highly recommend dry docking your boat, trailering it or investing into a power lift to get you out of the water. Just mho with my salt water experience but @Cobra Jet Steering LLC has much more knowledge on this subject than I do.

 

[Cobra Jet Steering LLC]

Filling in the blanks I am assuming your pump liner swelled and locked up your impeller, this made it impossible for thee engine to start.
In order to get everything separated they ended up destroying things.
If this is correct it was a combination of dissimilar metal corrosion where the aluminum housing reacted with the stainless liner and this caused the corrosion in between those surfaces to bulge the liner sufficiently to lock up the impeller. The longer the boat sits the worse it gets. You need zinc anodes on your pumps, most people believe they have them from the factory, however I found that the factory uses magnesium anodes, those are not effective for salt water.
Usually when you run your engines out of the water on a trailer or dock you hear a ringing from the pumps, that noise is the impeller hitting high spots of your liner.
I change my pump sections out with some that use replaceable nylon liners, as this solves the corrosion issues and the liner can be replaced very inexpensively if you damage it with a rock in the pump etc. And I never have to listen to the ringing in the pumps when I run on a hose flushing out the engines. Sea doo uses nylon replaceable pump liners for decades just to avoid this problem.

 

[d_coyne1984]

Can you install a boat lift where you park her? That is probably the best thing you can do.

 

[Scottintexas]

any pictures, doesn't sound right,
what exactly did they replace, shafts, impellers, buckets, cables ?