Getting the last bit of bilge water

[roverhi]

I use a Milwaukee battery powered wet and dry vacuum to suck up the 1" plus water that the bilge pump leaves. It's quick and painless to get all the water out but not automatic. Requires me to be there to lift the floor board, deploy the vacuum and dump it out. Something that needs to be done every time the boat is washed down or it rains, not very often in SoCal, as the anchor well drains into the bilge.

https://www.acmetools.com/shop/tools...t=GS_milwaukee

[Donald Bryden]

we seldom have water in our two bilges. Our bilges are also deep so reaching in by hand is cumbersome. When we do have water, I use one of the dripless mops with the apparatus on the handle that squeezes the water out of the sponge. I can stick the mop into the bilge water bring it up and squeeze it into a bucket. The no drip claim is accurate. I can do all this while standing.

[wingssail]

Our bilge is totally flat, no sump. 2 gallons of water seems like a flood, but it is only 1/2 inch deep.

We use a whale gulper pump in the engine room with a long coiled 1/2 hose and no strainer on the end. To pump the bilge, (not automatically) we turn on the whale and stick the end of the hose into each place where water accumulates. The hose is over 25 feet long so it can reach to the ends of the boat. There is a garden hose type connection where large bits which are picked up get stopped and a large screen type water strainer just ahead of the pump to catch all the dirt and hair. Using this a hassle but we see no other choice.

To be truthful we get as much as we can with this set up but it still leaves around 1/4 of an inch of water in the bilge. To get that we must use a sponge. In the rainy season we just don't bother, the bilge stays wet. In the dry summer the bilge dries out and stays dry.

[Bassman3]

This one works great for me. Seems a lot easier than a DIY.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Was $200 when I bought it. It leaves just a litlte water that quickly evaporates.

[jmschmidt]

They are called "Shop Vacs" You can suck the bilge dry with one.

[Badsanta]

Great. Thanks for this post. Exactly what I was looking for. I have it ordered. Thanks again

Originally Posted by Bassman3

This one works great for me. Seems a lot easier than a DIY.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Was $200 when I bought it. It leaves just a litlte water that quickly evaporates.

[Badsanta]

$149 now.

[BlackHeron]

Originally Posted by Bassman3

This one works great for me. Seems a lot easier than a DIY.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Was $200 when I bought it. It leaves just a litlte water that quickly evaporates.

We have one too.. This thing is brilliant.. Price is now $150. Worth it. Easy installation.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07V4G41K4/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_rsevFbYEW28JE

[speedcat]

Hi All,

I have what might be a stupid question, not sure. If you don't have a system to remove the extra bilge water, and are just using a shop vac to get it out, what do you do with the bilge water? Just dump it overboard? Is that legal?

Thanks

[SV__Grace]

Originally Posted by speedcat

Hi All,

I have what might be a stupid question, not sure. If you don't have a system to remove the extra bilge water, and are just using a shop vac to get it out, what do you do with the bilge water? Just dump it overboard? Is that legal?

Thanks

No problem if it's just water. Use a bilge pad to remove oil, fuel, coolant, etc. before dumping.

Bilge pumps dump overboard anyway!

[Davidhoy]

Originally Posted by speedcat

Hi All,

I have what might be a stupid question, not sure. If you don't have a system to remove the extra bilge water, and are just using a shop vac to get it out, what do you do with the bilge water? Just dump it overboard? Is that legal?

Thanks

Only illegal if it has oil or other prohibited contaminants in it. But that same restriction applies to any discharge, whether it be from your bilge pump, holding tank, gray water, shop vac, or bucket.

[speedcat]

Thanks. So what do you do with the bilge pad when it's saturated?

EDIT: Wait... do you use a bilge pad inside your shop vac? Or drop one in there after you've sucked the stuff up?

[StuM]

Don't know if it's been mentioned before, but I had occasion to remove a mixture of water and petrol from a bilge recently (tank filler hose was not clamped properly )


My Pela oil extractor did a great job of sucking it up all up.

[speedcat]

Originally Posted by StuM

Don't know if it's been mentioned before, but I had occasion to remove a mixture of water and petrol from a bilge recently (tank filler hose was not clamped properly )


My Pela oil extractor did a great job of sucking it up all up.

That looks like a very useful tool. But it doesn't actually separate oil from water, right?

[StuM]

Originally Posted by speedcat

That looks like a very useful tool. But it doesn't actually separate oil from water, right?

No, it just sucks it up into the reservoir. But the fuel/oil sits on top of the water in it and it's not that difficult to carefully decant the top part to separate most of it.