A bit over a year ago I had some issues with my bilge pump setup. The extra weight we have taken aboard has made the bilge pump hull drains to take on water as waves hit the side of the hull. My first approach was to put one way valves near the drain then, to stop the water coming back down the pipe, I put another. Smart, right?
Not really, although initially it worked, the accumulation of salt and bilge detritus allowed water to once again infiltrate the bilge. Really annoying as it only takes 4 litres of water to cause the shaft coupling to spread salt water around the engine bays. In desperation, I added a ball valve which stopped the seawater ingress, but the bilge water had taken its toll on the one way valves and these now impeded the flow of water to nothing. Blowing out the pipes worked for a bit, but the same old problem came back so today I bit the bullet and replaced the hoses and removed the one way valves. Problem solved, now the water disappears and a very quick rate.
I did, however, need to keep the ball valves to stop water ingress while we are in a seaway. Need to remember to monitor the bilges whilst underway and to open the valves up whilst at anchor/moored.
The moral of this story, keep it simple--much less to go wrong, particularly for a critical system like this one.
 |
| Old hoses with one of the one way valves |
 | ||||
| New green hose with ball valve |
No comments:
Post a Comment