Dripless Shaft Seals

[Nepidae]

Hello everyone, while I've been a member for a while, this is my first post.

We have a 1985 43 Sundeck which we purchased 2 years ago.

Since then my wife's pet peeve is water in the bilge. It isn't great amounts but I got a wet/dry vac just so she could remove any water anytime she liked.

Now I need to say that she is the one, for the last 2 years, who has painted Nepidae's bottom and she has started on the hand & toe rails with stripping, sanding & varnishing. Therefore I will do what I can to keep her happy.

Since the water seems to come from the packing glands I thought that the solution might be to go to dripless shaft seals. I see there are predominately 3 manufacturers; PSS, Tides & LasDrop.

I'd like to get some input as to anyone's experience, both pro's & con's, with either systems that you put in or that were in a boat when you purchased it.

Thank you in advance.

[jleonard]

I installed a Tides Marine seal 7 years ago when I bought this boat, a 1983 single screw. I removed the oem packing.
I had installed a Tides in my "ex" and it worked flaswlessly for 5 years.
Now this has also been flawless. This spring I replaced the seal. It was NOT leaking, but after 5 years I wanted a new one in esp since I have been cruising all summer.
Not a drop of water in the bilge from the shaft.
I also have a spare seal pre-assembled on the shaft just in case. It can be changed in only a few minutes.

[RobS]

Tides here too, nice and simple, no leakage. I changed my seal ~600hrs ago and will do it again this offseason, probably the boot this time too. No leaks, just pro-active PM.

[twenham]

I have wanted to get a trawler for several years.Passage Maker magazine did a series on both shafts seals. The plus side to dripless seals is a dry bilge. the two downsides I saw were if the seal fails for any reason you get a flood of water instead of a leak. If the boat is being towed or you shut down the shaft a dripless is on then you need to either lock down the shaft or keep water somehow flowing to the dripless to prevent the seal from overheating and failing. A dive shop I know who was researching changing decided the packing seal was safer and did not change. I may be able to fine the series or if you contact Passagmaker they can tell you when it ran. Very good articles.

[Nepidae]

Thanks everyone for your responses.

I have read several articles about the Dripless Shaft Seals (DSS) with the pro's & con's and it does scare me a little about the potential failure of DSS but from what I've read, with proactive maintenance, they are safe and most issues concerned an owner who let something damage the bellows, like a toolbox or similar and/or wasn't proactive with maintenance.

Plus, the responses here were positive so I think that is how we will proceed.

We are going to the powerboat show in Annapolis next month so we'll see what I can find out there as well.

P.S. I did read also that one of the manufacturers had the ability if a seal failed to use packing to stem the flood to get you home. Will be investigating that as well.

Thanks again.

[psneeld]

You can make a regular neanderthal packing virtually dripless buy working on the adjustment and packing it right. It just needs to ooze a bit of water...not drip like crazy...it's temp dependent and even on my 3208 2600 RPM boat I had them just oozing...not dripping and the shafts remained only warm to the touch. If at rest for awhile...just tighten so no drips occur.

I have run several assistance towing boats with the dripless packing for over a decade...each and every one has been a problem but may because the engines never stay in alignment...and YES...they can and might fail with a bang if you don't watch them progress through the years. A stetch..but possibly....the downside is the haul and replacement of the carbon seal or other parts as opposed to a conventional setup that NEVER needs anything more than a bit more packing.

[jleonard]

I tried the traditional "dripless" stuff and it never worked for me. The marina people at my marina all said go Tides Marine style.
They also have years of experience.