Tracking down a bilge leak

[RKsailsolo]

Thx again pcmm and sandero. No city water system hookup.

[bsurvey]

plug up your limber holes and the source will become apparent or at least localized to the point where you may be able to tell.


also taste it fresh or salt

[Squanderbucks]

I would invest in a bilge pump counter. There are several on the market and I installed one on my boat after many years of not knowing exactly how much water the boat was pumping out.
I found the the pump would go off 60 to 80 times a day even when no rain. After replacing my fiberglass shaft tubes (one had worn hole in it due to rubbing shaft) and replacing my packing glands and hoses I now get by with the counter not going off at all on non-rainy days. May go off a few times on a rainy day due to seepage around the aft deck hatch that would be very hard to fully waterproof.
By having an exact number per day as a reference it can tell you if problems are occurring such as a dripping raw water pump on a engine, generator, and rudder and shaft packings. Just knowing what is the normal number and when it goes widely different mental alarms should start going off. Hard to quantify without a digital counter as a reference.
Squanderbucks has a molded keel area that runs the length of the boat that is too narrow for even a 300 GPH Rule pump to fully empty so the boat always had about 1" of water maintained in the keel. A couple of years ago I put together a bilge pump that uses a diaphragm run-dry pump and hooked it to a 12volt DC timer that comes on twice a day for 3 minutes. It's hose ends with a 1/2 inch copper pipe with a notched tip put all the way down into the lowest part of the keel. It is surrounded by a square of 3-M Scotchbrite pad as a filter. Now the boat is totally dry and smells better to boot.
Regular bilge pump switches won't activate/deactivate properly with the little bit of water that is why the DC timer.

[Cadence]

Originally Posted by RKsailsolo

How often should your bilge pump run before you need to track down the source?

i just put in for season two and cleaned out all bilge areas and lubricated all seacocks with Marelon from the outside before the boat got wet. Now the bilge runs every 35 minutes for 45 seconds to remove water from an unknown source.

Two questions from this...

1) the lowest part of the bilge appears to be the small well where the bilge pump sits. Lloks to me like all drainage goes to that point either via a drainage hose from shower or sink or AC condensate or a laminated ditch/tunnel in the hull. Is there another opening in the bottom of that sump of is the sump just a trough?

2) what is the process used to discover the leak source?

I'm not sure you have a leak? Sounds like water running back down your discharge hose.

[Stu Jackson]

Your shower goes to the bilge?

[Cheechako]

Yes, check your packing nut on the shaft for how often it drips. Also, beware that for most bilge pumps, the water in the bilge hose runs back into the bilge when the pump quits running. Sometimes this can be almost as much as it started to pump in the first place, thus... the pump cycles often.

[zeehag]

have you checked the integrity of your bilge pump hosing?? have you checked the connection between hose and bilge pump itself?? obvious but common issues

[Tetepare]

Originally Posted by RKsailsolo

Wouldnt TP clog?

Dry your bilge. As in totally dry.

At the rate you're pumping, you should see water pooling somewhere.

If you don't lay toilet paper on the bottom of the bilge, and or along the sides if possible. When paper gets wet it's obvious, and you know the direction from whence the leak originates. Then backtrack.

[UNCIVILIZED]

Originally Posted by RKsailsolo

AC is being installed and only testing right now. I did observe the condensate pour into the bilge during tests and accounted for that, but on board yesterday with AC turned off and condensate pan under unit was dry so no apparent water from AC.

AC testing in Minnesota in Dec. How does that work? It's like 2deg C there (or a lot less)

[Cadence]

I believe zeehag and I are on the same page. Before looking for leaks, turn off or disconnect your bilge pump while onboard. Watch the level. If zeehag and I are right. The level will not keep rising. It may keep you from digging out a bunch of toilet paper. If we a wrong nothing is lost other than an hour or so of your time.

[LooseGoose]

An important first step is eliminating all the water rom the bilge, then sources even small ones become apparent more easily. I find a shop vac really helpful in removing the last few ounces after a pump discharge.

[Trekker]

There's an easy way to track leak origins. Get some chalk line chalk (usually blue or red) from a hardware store, put some in an old cotton sock, and pounce it around suspicious areas. The water tracks are unmistakeable. After the chalk treatment the residue is easily wiped away.

Also, being a "new boat" doesn't guarantee the absence of deck leaks - poor bedding techniques exist no matter their sources.

[DeepFrz]

Sorry if this has been suggested before but if your bilge pump has a back flow valve to stop the water from leaking back into the bilge, check it. Sometimes that just keeps the pump working on and off.

[Alastair A]

Hi all. You may think of using a little natural food coloring (cake/icing pigment) in the bilge water to see if the pump clears out the colored water? If not. then back flow or pump out leakage / internal water recycling will be evident. The color will guide you to the return flow location. Happy hunting. Best wishes. A.

[SofiaB]

My bilge pump never comes on. Nothing "dumps" into it and if so, something major is wrong. AC drains into individual condensate sealed boxes with their own pumps. Bilges are dry and spotless and hopedully will stay that way. This is one of the major reasons I purchased a modern boat.

With a wet bilge I would determine a norm and would hopefully detect the increase. I would add a second pump with alarm to detect the excessive amount or reroute the excess with redundancy.

Love the troubleshooting provided by others. I will use these steps when that alarm does sound. I will also keep testing it to ensure no malfunctions.