Y-valve maintenance?

[Lynx]

One of my Y-valves is sticky. the new ones move freely. Is there maintenance for the black water Y-valves?

What does one do?

[AdriftAtSea]

Did you grease it the last time the boat was out of the water?? If not, might be a good idea to do so.

[Lynx]

The Y valve that I am refering to is in the head/holding tank system.

[Oldrig]

Dan's right; it should be greased regularly, even if it is connected to your head/holding tank.

Of course, if you're sailing in a no-discharge zone, you might want to lock it into the holding-tank position with a cable tie and forget about it.

[AdriftAtSea]

Generally, I grease the valves and seacocks once a year, as part of my spring commissioning... If you don't do this, the valves and seacocks will eventually start to seize up and fail. They should also be operated on a regular basis...at least once a month—preferably weekly. 

[Norm]

I have some pictures of doing a "post broken handle repair" because we didn't maintenance the valve properly.  We're new owners, what'd you expect?

Glad I have a small boat with simple systems.  There is a lot of maintenance.

[Cacique]

Norm
You say you have pics how do we see them?

[Norm]

Y-valves.
There is a picture on our blog, 4th one down as of today... and probably tomorrow, too.

We have a Jabsco Diverter Valve, Jabsco number 45490-1000.

It was simple to remove the face plate and replace the guts without removing the body and hoses.  It seems the maintenance is to remove the face plate annually, clean and lightly grease bearing surfaces.  We had not thought much about it before but having a part such as this that is easily serviced is sensible.  I suspect our prior opinion was to ignore it and it will ignore us.  Folly?

Norm
www.averisera.com

[AdriftAtSea]

Norm-

Trust me...they won't ignore you, but will wait until it is almost as inconvenient as possible to strike. :)

I suspect our prior opinion was to ignore it and it will ignore us.  Folly?

BTW, I'm using these diverter valves on the Pretty Gee, and have been pretty happy with them.