Swim Deck Shower

[mrobke]

Curious, we have a 2014 242 Limited S. How long is the swim deck shower hose supposed to be? Ours only extends approximately 18 inches, seems like it should be longer to be useful. Could mine be caught on something? If so what and how do I access it?

 

[captras]

On my 2016 242 I believe the shower hose is about 3-4 feet. I would have to measure it to be sure, but I know it is longer than 18 Inches.

 

[DRock3d]

Mine is super short as well, I've only got water to trickle out of it one time. It seems like it may be twisted up. Going to dive into fixing it before next season as it warms up

 

[sunbyrned]

I have a 2012 and it has good bit of length to it. I can spray the inside of the boat, but not all the way to helm. Sometimes though, it doesn’t come out very far, which means it is caught up on something. When that happens, I usually remove the rear speaker to get it fixed. So, give that a try. By the way, I was at West Marine and I found various length hoses available. I might try something like this next season.

 

[Ronnie]

2010 242 ls, so same generation here: the hose is over 5 feet long from the tank to the shower head, probably closer to 10 (mine comes out at least 4’ from the swim deck) and sometimes it gets hung up on the hardware in between. I access it through the speaker most of the time but you can also get to it though the clean out plug compartment.

 

[drewkaree]

I wish I had this, but with the water I boat in, it really might be making more of a mess than helping to clean up. I'm only chiming in because 80% of you guys posting have had this problem. Seems to be clear that the issue is the hose hangs up, much like the separate sprayer for a kitchen sink. Anyone who has one of those also knows that stupid thing hangs up on things under the sink, and when I replaced my sink, we ended up putting a piece of PVC under there for the hose to retract back into.

This kept us from being able to shove things back in there to cause the problem, and the hose slides out and back into the PVC easily. Perhaps something like that could be the fix you guys need to solve the problem of it catching on stuff under the swim deck. Some 5200 or construction adhesive to hold the PVC to the side of the hull in the proper position would eliminate the problem for you guys. Since I don't have the same setup as you guys, this may be worthless. Can any of you advise one way or the other?

Here's something similar, maybe looking at this video will do a better job than my explanation, or give someone an idea:

 

[Ronnie]

@drewkaree , using a piece of pvc pipe may work but as I recall the area under the opening for the hose is really shallow, so the hose is forced to bend less than a foot from the opening and sometimes bends to wards the center of the boat instead of towards the bow or stern. The hose gets caught up on the cup holder as well as some of the exhaust plumbing for the starboard engine: Some wood cut to fit to create a barrier / wall that would keep the hose out of the area over the water box and related plumbing may do a better job of keeping the hose from getting hung up.

the best access is through the speaker hole in the swim deck. If a fresh water system was installed in a boat without swim deck speakers the only access would be through the clean out port cover which is held in place by over 15 screws and in some cases as silicone bead.

whenever the hose gets hung up, which isn’t often, I’ve learned to just give it a strong tug or two or three which usually frees it up and is a lot less time consuming than removing the speaker or clean out port cover. The risk of breaking something or the hose by tugging on it is really low IMHO.

 

[drewkaree]

So from what you're describing, it sounds like it's bending left/right and snagging on stuff, am I reading that correct?

If so, would some small weight on the hose (like in that video above about the kitchen sink) work to weight it down and avoid the cupholder? From your description, it sounds like that might result in issues with the exhaust plumbing you described.

I can't picture the area, as it sounds like you guys have a lot less room under the swim deck area than I do, and trying to route that hose in some fashion is just simply going to be a PITA.

 

[Ronnie]

@drewkaree , you are correct. That is a weight may keep the hose from snagging on the cup holder but may also result in the hose moving to the left over/in the area of the plumbing for the starboard engine.

Something I forgot to mention for anyone experiencing this problem is another way to free up the hose. That is pull it out as far as you can and turn it as you reinsert and remove it. this may cause the hose to avoid what ever it was hung up on. like turning a fish hook from left to right by turning the line it’s attached to.