SERIOUS DESIGN FLAW: JET BOAT CLEAN OUT COMPARTMENT

[Yamapain]

Another reason not to buy a Yamaha Jet Boat


I had my brand new Yamaha 210x for two weeks when traveling at full throttle one of the clean out plungers dislodged. The surge of high-pressure water ruptured a seam between the cleanout compartment and the engine compartment resulting in the flooding of the engine compartment and destruction of one of the twin engines.


The main problem is that the barrier between the engine compartment and cleanout compartment is not designed to withstand full jet pressure if a plunger would dislodge. A Plexiglas plate simply screwed and caulked to another Plexiglas plate is the only barrier to disaster. Please see photographs.


The other problem is that the plungers would ever become dislodged in the first place. This is a chronic problem well documented on the Internet.


I considered my brand new jet boat ruined. Yamaha claimed that buying a boat is “not like buying a toaster oven-if it doesn’t work out you can’t take it back.” The warranty would cover repairing the engine and fixing whatever problems I would have with the boat in the future provided I extended the warranty. The supercharged high performance engine was rebuilt at the marina, which took several months and the rest of my summer. On the first sea trial it kept stalling out, then could not be restarted. I considered this extreme salt-water intrusion and rebuilt engine a potential source of continuing problems and aggravation. The dealer and Yamaha sold the boat to another customer, only disclosing that “there was a resolved warranty issue and the customer wanted to sell the boat.” I received the proceeds of the sale minus commission!


I was very disappointed and surprised that Yamaha was so difficult to deal with on what I considered a straightforward warranty/customer satisfaction issue. I had the new boat for two weeks, catastrophic failure due to design error or manufacturing defect occurred and I wanted a new boat or a refund.

 

[Wayloncle]

I wouldn't say chronic problem, how many times has it happened to however many boats are on the water, totaling how many thousands of hours? And out of the ones that have dislodged, I'm willing to bet a big majority weren't locked in all the way by the operator.

Sorry it happened to you but in my opinion the wrong way to enter a forum, bashing boats that a majority of us throughly enjoy and are fully aware of what might happen and lots of people have installed one of the "blow-out preventative devices"

 

[jcyamaharider]

Did the dealer show you how to properly install your clean out plugs. Always to check with 3 good jerks? You didn't notice the boat running strange for a little while before stopping to check?

Yes the cleanout plugs are known to come loose, if not installed properly, but there are fixes online to prevent any plug blowouts. These boats are by far the most universal boats on the market today and with proper education are also the safest most reliable boats on the market.


Also to note. ...the jet boat cleanout compartment is one of the best things about these boats. There would have been a many number of times that I would have had to limp back to the trailer due to debris in the jet pump from the river.

 

[Rigger]

Spammer?!?!?

 

[Bruce]

my brand new Yamaha 210x

The supercharged high performance engine was rebuilt at the marina

I am confused by the quotes above. The 192 is the only Yamaha model with supercharged engines.

I was on an extremely poorly maintained 2000 model Yamaha LS2000 when a freshwater version of your experience occurred in 2012. The clean out port cover which you have your fingers under in the pictures had not been reinstalled after maintenance. And I have read another story of salt water ingestion into the engines after a clean out plug blowout. So this certainly can happen but it is a rare occurrence. I have boated hundreds of hours in two Yamaha boats over the last three years without a single issue with the clean out plugs. I have used them to clean out the jets several times so I would much rather have them than not.

You should not be able to squeeze your fingers under the clean out port cover as you show in your pictures. I suspect that you had the rare and unfortunate experience of buying one that had a manufacturing defect in the assembly of that clean out port cover and possibly the clean out plug or its housing.

 

[Geiger41]

Hope you have insurance.

 

[Billtex2000]

OMG! I'm shocked!

 

[octavio3311]

Spammer?!?!?

Some first post!
Yep. I'm calling bullshit on this one!

And a supercharged 210x???? What???
He doesn't even know what boat he bought!

 

[OrangeTJ]

So sorry to hear that this happened to you, but your experience is not representative of the vast majority of Yamaha owners. We've had our 210 for three years now and have precisely zero problems. That obviously doesn't help you, but it's the truth. I, too, am confused by the statement about a supercharged engine, because no 210, 212, or anything other than a 192 has supercharged engines. Also, it's never happened to me, but I don't really understand how a person keeps going with blown out plugs for long enough that the engine compartment fills with water to the point of causing ingestion to the engines. It seems like the massive reduction in thrust caused by losing a plu would be immediately apparent. I once tried to run my boat (first outing actually) without having the plugs properly in place and the lack of thrust was significant.

Anyway, I'm not surprised that the warranty would cover replacing your whole boat but I do hope your insurance might be of use. Good luck!

 

[Julian]

Pretty rare thing to have happen, but a bilge alarm is a pretty simple modification that will warn you of rising water levels in your engine compartment.

I do agree that this is a poor design from Yamaha, and that it cannot be hard to come up with a locking mechanism that would hold the plugs in better than the small edges of the "dogs" on the plugs. Large 1" pins that extend into the sides 1" on each side would be pretty simple to create.

 

[Skysurfer2010]

I bet this is a salesman from another "competitor" without cleanout ports (now this is a horrible design flaw) trying to bash Yamaha.

 

[Gym]

I am confused by the quotes above. The 192 is the only Yamaha model with supercharged engines.

I was on an extremely poorly maintained 2000 model Yamaha LS2000 when a freshwater version of your experience occurred in 2012. The clean out port cover which you have your fingers under in the pictures had not been reinstalled after maintenance. And I have read another story of salt water ingestion into the engines after a clean out plug blowout. So this certainly can happen but it is a rare occurrence. I have boated hundreds of hours in two Yamaha boats over the last three years without a single issue with the clean out plugs. I have used them to clean out the jets several times so I would much rather have them than not.

You should not be able to squeeze your fingers under the clean out port cover as you show in your pictures. I suspect that you had the rare and unfortunate experience of buying one that had a manufacturing defect in the assembly of that clean out port cover and possibly the clean out plug or its housing.

I'm also confused as your profile shows a 23 foot boat??? I wish you spent some time with us educating yourself about these boats before you blew a plug on your 23 foot supercharged 210x. Then we could have advised you to purchase the EZ lock to absolutely prevent any possibility of this happening.

 

[KXCam22]

I call BS. Too much info is wrong. I think he needs the EZ lock 1 prong in each ear. The "seam" he shows in the pics does not lead to the engine compartment. I have not had a plug blow out but I am sure you would hear/feel it far before you got enough water in the engine compartment to do damage. Cam.

 

[OrangeTJ]

"Plexiglas"?

 

[Wayloncle]

Another reason not to buy a Yamaha Jet Boat

I wonder what the other reasons are?

 

[Skysurfer2010]

He claims it's a 210x (what? This boat doesn't exist)

He claims it's supercharged (only the 19' 192 is supercharged)

He claims in his user profile he owns a 2013 23' boat (no 23 boats made this year)

I'd say he's credible...

 

[OrangeTJ]

Why do people do this stuff? What gain is there for the OP? I have to agree, there's no credibility to the post, particularly since it is about a boat that doesn't even exist. Annoying.

 

[scot71]

Assuming that this post is real (which I highly doubt). With all of the information avaliable to us these days from the internet. How can anyone go blindly into a purchase like this without knowing the ups and downs of what they are buying. I bought my boat last March and this is the first boat i've ever owned. I had never been on a boat with jets and knew nothing about them. Having said that. Before I even went to pick it up I did as much research on it as I could and one of the things I learned about was the clean out plugs. The first things I did when I got it home was to drill and pin the plugs and make sure I knew how to get them in properly. I never had the slightest hint of trouble all summer.

THE INFORMATION IS OUT THERE, EDUCATE YOURSELF.

 

[Noko]

I'm going to jump on this one too. If the OP bought a Yamaha without doing some serious research, I'd have to question his judgement on making any boat purchase. I read tons of stuff here and on other forums. I was well aware of the cleanout plugs and what the issues could be. I don't have any locking devices installed but I do give several good pulls like others have mentioned. I saw a poll here or somewhere on how many people had blowouts on the newer models and it was almost none. I may do the EZ Locks next year. I do have to wonder why it wouldn't be pretty evident as soon as the cleanout plug was blown that something was wrong and shutting down. I haven't had a plug blow, so I can't say for sure. That said, there are so very many people posting positive stuff on Yamahas, that this is an isolated case. And what are the other reasons not to own a Yamaha?

 

[jcyamaharider]

Atleast we keep ourselves amused for a little while