My Dry Bilge Obsession


S

snakestang

New member
Nothing irritates me more than having a wet bilge. As I'm sure most of you are aware that practically all of our drains lead straight to the bilge and no matter what cover we have on the boat while not in use, rain water always finds its way in. Sure the pumps take care of most of the water but I hate the lingering inch or two that just sits around until I lug the shop vac down there and get it out.

While at the boat show last year I ran into the Arid ( http://www.aridbilge.com/Home_Page.html )folks who make a system for dealing with this excess water. They have a fancy setup which is all self contained and pretty but....the base system was over a $1000!! I can buy a lot of shop vacs for that kind of money!

Bored at work one afternoon I started researching pumps and timers on Amazon. I was able to locate a self priming diaphragm pump and a cheap timer for less than $15 total. I had all the material to mock up a box to test everything and proceeded to testing. The timer turns the pump on for one minute every twelve hours and that is more than enough to remove any excess water. I haven't calculated the volumes yet but I will do that over the winter.

One line will drop down to the back of the bilge and the other will run into my shower box to be pumped overboard by the pump. If anyone wants to give this a try, I can post links to the parts on Amazon. I am also open to suggestions as far as safety and function are concerned.

Chris
 

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I did pretty much the same thing in mine but instead of a timer I wired the pump parallel with the bilge pump. That way I can use the switch on the dash to drain the bilge down to a few drops whenever water has collected.
 
lscpc34 said:
I did pretty much the same thing in mine but instead of a timer I wired the pump parallel with the bilge pump. That way I can use the switch on the dash to drain the bilge down to a few drops whenever water has collected.
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I thought about that too but sometimes it's not enough water to activate the main pumps and I really hate water sitting there all week while we aren't on the boat. The water vaporizing in the heat and sitting on the motors and whatnot is my main concern.

jetmart said:
are you guys putting it in the engine bilge or the salon bilge?
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I am putting this in the engine room. While the pump motor is not brushless, the box it is contained in is airtight so gas fumes will not be a problem. Well, this particular test box isn't but the final version will be. Once the timer is set, the battery on it is supposed to last for years so no need to get into the box for anything.
 
It works so well in the engine bilge that I plan to add a second one to the salon bilge. Only part I haven't figured out is how to get the water from the salon bilge to the shower sunp where it is pumped overboard.
 
Is the shower sump not a low point in the bilge or close to it that you could plumb into it. The water in the salon bilge is what drives me crazy. My engine bilge is always dry.
 
The shower sump is in the engine compartment on my boat. There was always water in the engine bilge so I added a pump like yours which I connected to the shower sump and drained overboard. Different problem in the salon bilge, I can add a pump but there is no easy way to route a hose for drainage.
 
I always seemed to have *some* (very little) amount of water in the bilge (i.e. aft of the shower box pump) and would love a solution to keep water out of the bilge. THe pumps there (one low pump and one high pump) they both work but there's always about a 1/4" of water in there regardless. Would a solution like this help with something like that?
 
Blown284 said:
I always seemed to have *some* (very little) amount of water in the bilge (i.e. aft of the shower box pump) and would love a solution to keep water out of the bilge. THe pumps there (one low pump and one high pump) they both work but there's always about a 1/4" of water in there regardless. Would a solution like this help with something like that?
Click to expand...

I think it would work fine. just pump it into the shower sump box.
 
Blown284 said:
I always seemed to have *some* (very little) amount of water in the bilge (i.e. aft of the shower box pump) and would love a solution to keep water out of the bilge. THe pumps there (one low pump and one high pump) they both work but there's always about a 1/4" of water in there regardless. Would a solution like this help with something like that?
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That's my ultimate goal is to remove every trace of water from the bilge on a regular basis without having to drag a vacuum down there. If the pickup is positioned correctly it should be pretty simple.
 
snakestang said:
That's my ultimate goal is to remove every trace of water from the bilge on a regular basis without having to drag a vacuum down there. If the pickup is positioned correctly it should be pretty simple.
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Have you tried it? If so, is it working like you imagined?
 
Blown284 said:
Have you tried it? If so, is it working like you imagined?
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Not yet. Waiting for the weather to cooperate so I can spend some time on the boat. Today would have been perfect but you know, the whole Christmas thing... Hopefully I can test it in the next few weeks. I'll be sure to report back with the results.
 
snakestang said:
Not yet. Waiting for the weather to cooperate so I can spend some time on the boat. Today would have been perfect but you know, the whole Christmas thing... Hopefully I can test it in the next few weeks. I'll be sure to report back with the results.
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Love it, but I am either tired or slow or both....

Where do you route the discharge hose ?

I use a shop vac every weekend, an people think I am nuts, but my 7 year old bilge is spotless.

Engine-7319_zpstkdxdm5p.jpg
 
toofast said:
Love it, but I am either tired or slow or both....

Where do you route the discharge hose ?

I use a shop vac every weekend, an people think I am nuts, but my 7 year old bilge is spotless.

Engine-7319_zpstkdxdm5p.jpg
Click to expand...

I have an SS so my shower box is in the bilge and it will plumb into that. I will be plumbing one into my buddies PC though and we are going to use a barb above the overboard pump station on the starboard side.

jetmart said:
Chris,

can you send the links to the pump & timer?
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Pump. Can you found with prime shipping if you need it fast but it's double the price. I was in NO hurry lol.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HR8MS7G?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s01

Switch. Didn't see prime shipping but it only took a couple weeks to arrive. Thankfully someone had a dumb dumb tutorial on youtube or I would have been screwed trying to program it.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008999RYY?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o09_s00
 
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