Home Forums Fishing Freshwater fuel/water separator?

I was reading my Outdoor life magazine the other day, and in a little blurb they made mention of a "fuel/water separator" that goes in the fuel line.....I've never heard of these before! Apparently, they remove water and filter dirt, grime, etc that gets into the fuel system. It helps to get rid of the water that comes in through the vent (as either humidity or rain) that may get into the tank and get mixed with the fuel
I did a little research on the net, and they aren't that expensive.....around $30 or so, and they sound like a good idea.
Anybody use one with an outboard? I'm thinking about mounting it to the transom of my 12 ft V hull and just cutting the fuel line and putting it in.
Just curious if anyone here uses one, and how they might have mounted it on their boat (mine is mostly aluminum, and I don't want to go drilling holes in the aluminum if I can help it....that's why I opted for the transom).
Having had water in the fuel line and gotten stranded out in the middle of a big lake, I think this might definitely be a useful item.
Anybody know of any down side to these?

I have one on my boat. No issues. Mine is a Yamaha separator and it runs to my 90 HP Yamaha.

I had one on my boat for the ten years I owned it and never had an issue. It was mounted to transom and was similar to this one ...

I have both a separator and a separate fuel filter on my Ski boat. Considering the PITA of a dead boat and the cost of a carb rebuild, The $20 I spend on them each fall seems like cheap insurance.

It seems that I was getting a carb rebuild every couple of years maybe 300 hours on the clock. Since I put in the extra filtration and switched to ethanol free gas I have been running well for 4 years and hopefully no end in sight.

FWIW, I never changed the filter element. I had two six gallon tanks with micro-screen filters in them and never had an issue with contaminants. Every year I drained the tanks to flush whatever small amount of particles got in there so it wasn't necessary to change the big water/fuel filter.

I rebuilt the carbs five or six years after I got the boat (it was 10 years old when I bought it and had the filter on it) and there was virtually no contamination in the carbs.

For a small outboard, you can use an even simpler water separator. I replaced the internal water separator in my 140hp suzuki and put the old one in my 8hp e-rude.



Sierra 18-7716 Fuel Filter Suzuki 15410-87J10

For $6, hard to go wrong.

Thanks to all for your input....I installed one this weekend, and the outboard fired right up and ran smoothly. Hopefully I won't have any other mechanical problems at the end of the month when I go duck hunting/fishing.
Thanks again.........