Deck drains

[lldks]

On our 53MY (1972), the deck drains on either side of the wing door are joined under the deck by a T connection and then enters the sea chest through an L connection. One side plugs up. Yes, eliminating the Ts and Ls would be the right way to correct the situation. In the interim, how bad an idea is it to pour Drano down and then flush the sea chest? How anyone had experience?

[yachtsmanbill]

fill them with water and a shot of air. just a slug of trash... did mine yesterdat plus the a.c. drain... ws

[Glory]

I have never had a blockage in the plumbing. Only at the drain plate on deck on my '73 58 YF

JM

[sandspur1966]

Drano is a very BAD idea. Aside from being toxic to marine life, it may, as a strong alkaline, do nasty things to your bilge hoses and perhaps even the glass of the sea chest.

As Bill said, a nice shot of air will do the trick, we used to have air plumbed right to the sea chest on an old dutch built tug i ran.

[rsmith]

Drano gets Hot'r than a $5000 hooker It'll melt your hoses.

[Pascal]

on the 53s, it's not that easy since on each side the drains (forward and aft of the wing door) are hooked together so you need to seal one to force air or water in the other one and clear the blockage.

and dont' underestimate the ability of a previous owner or "mechanic" to mess things up over 30 to 40 years... a couple of weeks ago, drains on the stbd side were clogged. i ended up pulling the hose from the sea chest (hard to reach thry the shower) and realized that the hose had been replaced but was too long, with a loop where "stuff" would collect.

on the stbd side you have to pull the access panel under the master sink and maybe an access plate in the shower. on the port side, it's worst, you have to reach in thru the master closet, behind the air handler.

[Nonchalant1]

Go to Ace Hardware and get a "Drain Claw" which is a 15" coiled wire with a claw end. Stick it down in the drain and it pulls any close stuff back up. If it's farther down, you have to go in through the master stateroom closet to the seachest hoses.

[bigbill]

how about a little bleach???????

[llldks]

Bleach?

Don't want to sterilize or turn plug white.

[aquacraig@shaw.ca]

I used 1/4" tubing like you'd have feeding an ice maker (rather rigid). Used some cheap fittings to connect it to a water hose and quickly blasted all the garbage out. I recall some duct tape being involved as well but isn't that normal?