bilge drain-gctid354859

[Guest]

When I took my 38 out last fall I never saw an external bilge drain and since the bilge pump never fully drys everything, I ended up using a wet vac to dry the inside keel groove up before storage. That leads me to a couple questions

1) did I miss something?

2) should I have bothered being this fussy?

and BTW how much is a reasonable leak from shafts, rudders, air conditioning condensation? Running my lowest smallest pump for two minutes a day OK or too much?

Thanks

[Uncle_Bob]

Yeah, Bob is your uncle. You will always have water up to the depth of the automatic float switch. Stuffing boxes drip and the cockpit hatches are not water tight. You should not have to run any pump two minutes a day if the auto switch tests properly.

[Johnny_Vintage]

On a 38,if the keel is full of water, just below the float switch, 2 minutes is about what it takes. Pretty normal. Not to worry I would think. At least I'm not.

[Smitty]

It would take weeks of running for me to fill the keel area to the float switch. I have another small pump at the bottom of the keel that I run occasionally as required

[Guest]

Smitty wrote:
It would take weeks of running for me to fill the keel area to the float switch. I have another small pump at the bottom of the keel that I run occasionally as required

Yes this is exactly what I do - thank you - I was wondering if I was the only one doing it

[Guest]

[QUOTE]Uncle Bob wrote:
Yeah, Bob is your uncle. /QUOTE]

I originally registered as unclebob which was accepted in the form of all one word but after I saw your name I changed it - nice to hear from you - thanks

[Guest]

Hello all in our 4588 we have a diaphragm pump that "sucks" from the very bottom of the similar "very bottom" of the bilge. This pump has no automatic switch, just a switch on the dash. I often run the pump when we are a bit bow up cruising and it is able to suck all but a cup of water from the boat. To only slightly change the subject I love the idea of a light(s) that turns on when any bilge pump is running. Even a low level bell, buzzer etc. Might be helpful as well. Just hate the thought that while cruising or at anchor the boat might be filling with water or leaking,.... Possibly at a higher rate than the pumps can handle. If such was the case, a light on the dash would let you know that a pump was running.....or running for too long.

Cheers steve

[capt._ron]

I bet my A/C units put at least 5 gallon a day into the bilge on hot summer days. This is sitting in the slip, I've not seen any from the shaft logs when engines aren't running. I run the stripper pump in the keel once every day or 2, it is manual only no float switch.

[Guest]

capt. ron wrote:
I bet my A/C units put at least 5 gallon a day into the bilge on hot summer days. This is sitting in the slip, I've not seen any from the shaft logs when engines aren't running. I run the stripper pump in the keel once every day or 2, it is manual only no float switch.

I have never heard the term stripper pump but that is just what it is - in my case it is a small non automatic pump I placed right down inside the keel groove - and I am also pleased that you have confirmed what I suspected that the A/C could be producing that volume.

[Guest]

capt. ron wrote:
I bet my A/C units put at least 5 gallon a day into the bilge on hot summer days. This is sitting in the slip, I've not seen any from the shaft logs when engines aren't running. I run the stripper pump in the keel once every day or 2, it is manual only no float switch.

I have never heard the term stripper pump but that is just what it is - in my case it is a small non automatic pump I placed right down inside the keel groove - and I am also pleased that you have confirmed what I suspected that the A/C could be producing that volume.

[Guest]

Would have to agree that seems normal. I also have a small manual pump down in the keel. When it rains, I pump various amounts out of there depending on which direction the storm was blowing. When the sun shines, no pumping. Seems the two large cockpit hatches manage to let water in when it rains hard.

[JimMc]

I setup diaghram pumps in the forward and aft bilges. The diaphram pumps are mounted remotely with tubing running down to pickups I made out of copper tubing with slots on the bottom to suck from the very bottom. They are on timers and run just a minute or two a day. These keep the bilges bone dry.

There are bilge pump monitors that count the number of times the pumps run. If you pay attention to the cycles a day or week you would be alerted if the frequency of operation increases.

A high bilge alarm will warn when your pump is not keeping up with the influx of water.

[egbauman]

I have a 2 zone Aridbilge device in the bottom of my 4087. It keeps the mid and forward bilge absolutely dry. It's a marvelous device albeit somewhat expensive.

Contact [email protected] for details. He also makes devices for larger boats.

[Guest]

Scott

I noticed the accumulation problem after a storm and blew out the lines to what I think are called side scuppers - someone will correct me - it worked - they clog up badly - no bilge problem

[Guest]

I installed a bottom drain plug near the rear of the hollow keel. I leave it open when boat is on hard for winter. This way you do not have to worry about ice from water intrusion. Hope this helps. Greg.