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Hardin Marine has been very aggressive lately in new product development, even though this is a company with a long history in the marine business and already has many exclusive product designs. One of the company’s newest products builds on Hardin’s widespread acceptance. Its Swirl-Away Sea Strainer line is at the forefront of technology in the area of cooling system protection.
For the uneducated, a sea strainer is a sea strainer. It is nothing more than a screen to catch debris before it gets caught up in the cooling system. As you will see, there is much more to this than meets the eye.
Hardin started with its popular Single-Stage Swirl-Away Sea Strainer and applied the technology of a dual high-flow conical-designed strainer basket, which was proven effective in the rigors of the high-speed naval support program. Each Dual-Stage Swirl-Away Sea Strainers’ housing is constructed from the very finest in seamless 316L stainless steel tubing. From there, each unit is manufactured with pride by one of Hardin’s many premier certified craftsmen.
Dual inlets and dual outlets are available in your choice of 1-inch NPT or 1-1/4-inch NPT configurations, and a special order unit is even available with a 1-1/2-inch NPT connection. An additional 3/4-inch NPT bung is installed for the convenient use of a high-pressure relief valve system or the Hardin quick-disconnect flush system found on many of today’s luxury pleasure boats.
An adjustable heavy-duty swivel-style mounting provision is standard on all Swirl-Away Sea Strainers. This unique attachment system allows 90-degree rotation of the sea strainer housing in either direction for easier hose connections in tight mounting applications.
Next, a 100-percent pure Lexan lid is installed for crystal-clear viewing of the unit’s contents while providing maximum sealing during pressure spikes of up to 100 psi. The Lexan lid incorporates an encapsulated O-ring seal, which is retained on the lid during removal and replacement of the lid. This solves the common irritation caused while operating many other sea strainers, as their O-ring seal commonly falls off or stretches and cannot be reassembled properly. A functional and attractive decorative billet lid is available as an option. This lid serves as additional lid support while providing the attractive styling many boaters demand today.
Fancy packaging is nice, but it is the heart of a system that determines its overall performance. At the heart of the Swirl-Away Sea Strainer is its patented “industry exclusive” (according to Hardin) dual high-flow conical basket design. One conical-shaped basket sits directly above a similar basket with a finer mesh screen than the other. Single function units are limited to a single-style boating environment, and too large of a screen passes too much debris through the cooling system, while too fine of screen clogs prematurely. The dual basket design allows the unit to sort debris while allowing a greater volume of water to pass through (versus conventional single-style strainer systems). The conical shape of the basket unit offers up to 60-percent more filtration area than conventional flat-screen styles, according to the manufacturer.
While many sea strainers in the market today claim effective debris containment, it is hard to find a unit that boasts the ease of use that the Swirl-Away offers. Imagine that you are leaning over the back seat of your boat—nearly upside down—attempting to reach your properly-mounted low sea strainer. Now is not the time you would want to be looking for that giant wrench, which is required to access many sea strainers. Under these same circumstances, you probably don’t want to dig the debris out of your sea strainer while attempting to toss the debris overboard in a somewhat acrobatic fashion either.
Hardin’s new Swirl-Away unit is easily serviced with no additional tools in less than a minute’s time. A precision-machined billet stainless knob is merely unthreaded by hand, allowing easy access to the Swirl-Away’s conical-shaped dual basket. Because of its shape and the fact that the unit merely lifts out, the days of digging debris from a sea strainer are over. Each basket also features a rubber-sealed lip, which captures the debris in the basket to eliminate debris from falling back into the sea strainer assembly. Merely flip the basket upside down to empty the contents, reinsert the basket assembly into the unit, thread the stainless knob back on and you’re back to what Hardin likes to call “pleasure boating.”
The Dual-Stage Swirl-Away Sea Strainer can be found on many of the world’s finest and fastest boats manufactured today, including Nor-Tec, Hustler, Outerlimits and more.
