Safe&Elan

Installation where similar metals have been used in both recreational and commercial vessels.

I often climb into an engine room to see what type of sea water strainers are fitted to a boat. I can’t help myself, it’s just curiosity to see what choices boat builders, marine engineers or mechanics make when protecting the cooling systems on engines, generators, air conditioning compressors etc.

 

 

I’m often amazed at the quality of strainers that are installed to protect an engine worth, lets say $80,000, from overheating. It baffles me, the false economy that some installers think they are achieving when they save $250 on a strainer, when they will most likely replace that plastic strainer 2 or 3 times during the life of the vessel. Not to mention the numerous people who have relayed tales of flooded engine rooms due to a leaky or cracked strainer. My wife actually has a saying – “buy quality or buy twice”.

The other surprising thing I see in engine rooms is the choice of metal strainers fitted. We all know bronze is a good metal to use for sea water plumbing systems, but too often I see stainless steel fittings screwed into bronze fittings or bronze strainers with stainless baskets. What about an engine room with steel or alloy engine block, stainless steel prop shaft, numerous stainless clamps, stainless brackets and fittings and some bright spark has fitted a bronze water strainer amongst all that steel. Anyone that has experience with galvanic corrosion will tell you to minimise the mix of metals in a salt water environment. This is one of the main reasons Arctic Steel manufactures strainers cast in 2205 stainless steel…..it just makes sense to keep the mix of metals to a minimum.

We choose to cast our strainers because it eliminates welded joints that are susceptible to corrosion and we cast in 2205 stainless because it has exceptional corrosion resistance, double that of 316 stainless. 2205 stainless steel also meets requirements for vessels operating under class survey.

The design of Arctic Steel water strainers also ensures that they perform better than others.

  • Our offset inlet and outlet changes the water flow so that the entire basket surface area is used, the flow is not focussed on one point. This simply means better filtration. Also the offset design allows air to be mixed with the water and drawn through the cooling system as small bubbles rather than allowing an air lock in the strainer, which can lead to overheating.
  • Swing down bolts with wing nuts make servicing very quick and easy. No tools are required and nuts don’t need to be removed. This means strainers are more likely to be cleaned on recreational boats and commercial vessels benefit from improved operational efficiency.