Showers And Sumps

[Jim]

We have a 1984 Falcon 22 and the shower drains straight into the bilge.  The bilge has to get quite an amount of water from the drain before the bilge pump will push it out through the skin fitting.  All other owners have mentioned a sump that collects the water with an attached pump to exit the hull. Because our shower is on the starboard side, plus we have a planing hull, there is little clearance below to fit a sump. Any suggestions would be welcomed!  

[JanetAnne]

The sump does not need to be under the shower tray, just lower than it. In the bottom of the v will do nicely. There are various makes available, try Brian Wards, ASAP or Aquafax, they all stock one. As an aside, running the sink/basin waste to the sump as well reduces holes through the hull. Of course, if they are already there its too late though you could run them to the sump and then use the old basin outlet through the hull for the sump outlet and save another hole - especially if seagoing.

Edited August 18, 2016 by JanetAnne
cant spell

[Viking23]

We have a tripple headed diaphragm pump for the shower tray, must be close to 30 years old, it used to foul regularly and I stripped it down every 14 days of boat use. 

So I fitted an inline strainer on the input to the pump, and clear the filter every month of boat use, quite easy to do, 2 minutes max. We use the pump when the shower tray starts to fill, and the pump can run dry. No foul containers of smelly grey water, nothing to block, no risk of overflowing into the bilge. When you consider what gets swilled away during a shower, do you really want that hanging around the bilges?

[Jim]

Thanks for the replies!  We have a skin fitting for the hand basin which is fine and is fixed sufficiently above the water line so no risk of sinking!  Our marina fitted a much improved calorifier, immersion, shore power etc so we do tend to use the shower more since then which means more water in the bilge. If the old copper tank was removed during this work (if not it will be removed)  then we should have space to fit a sump which would sit lower than the shower tray. I must admit I haven't been under that area for years and reaching the shower tray could be fun just to get a fitting on the drain.

There is also a bulkhead which stops all the shower water reaching the bilge pump and the solution to this has always been to whack the throttle forward which means the water will reach the pump.or jump up  and down on the swim platform to get the bow up.

Need some bilge freshener as a temp fix.   

[Jim]

Correction!  Where I thought a sump could be fitted is much higher than the shower tray.  There is only one option on a Falcon 22 and that is to lift the cabin floor right next to the shower. Siting a sump in the V should then be okay.

Pity about the glued down fitted carpet  

[Jim]

Ran the bilge blower fan for 30 mins yesterday which made a big difference and then a small drop of Bilgex poured down the shower drain. No more nasty pongs lol