greywater sump, bilge pump General Forum Forums

lol. ok… stock your boat should have drains and sea cocks for the sink in the galley and the one in the head directly under the sinks that drain straight out of the boat. They should not drain into the bilge. The drain in the bottom of the coolers/fridge do drain into the bilge on a stock setup. Also the chain locker will drain down the length of the boat and into the bilge.

The shower on our boat also drained into the bilge when we got it. Ours had a pump under the floor that sucked water out and pumped it aft. It was very unreliable and got plugged up and stopped for every 15 or 20 minutes of operation. We put in a dedicated bilge box with float activated bilge pump in it under the floor near the hatch in the floor of the vberth. We then ran the shower to that and sealed off the lower chain locker from the rest of the boat with a 1 1/2 inch through hull. We ran a hose from that under the vberth and to the bilge box. While we had A/C still on the boat we also ran the condensate line to the bilge box. This has worked exceedingly well for 3 or 4 years now and the boat stays as dry as a bone from all those water inputs. We ran the outflow line from the pump in the bilge box to a above the water line through hull on starboard at the top of starboard hanging closet in the vberth. We used a half inch line with a back flow preventer right off of the bilge box and a anti-siphon fitting in the top of the hanging closet. This setup has been maintenance free for us for the last 3 years.. The bilge box has a rough filter in it that the water flows directly into on its way into the bilge box. This strains out large stuff before it can get to the float switch or pump.

On our boat there is a large through hull for the head and right beside it another maybe 3/4 inch one for the sink. we have gone to a composting head so the large one is no longer used.

Our sump/bilge pump unit forward was a commercial unit. We bought it at west marine for about 100 dollars. Way over priced for plastic box but I didnt have the time or patience to glass in a permanent unit and add a strainer and filter to it. I'm not sure the model or brand.  It has worked well so far over the last 3+ years.

here is the product we are using from west marine..

one from west marine

Sad to say the reviews on durability are really bad on west marines website. Ours has worked well. I did a short search and here is one from attwood that is 30 or 40 dollars cheaper with a similar size pump that has some really good reviews. Same basic thing as what we have. If ours died I would probably get this to replace it with.

 Rule model