Grey water question

[MikeP]

This is not what I'd call important, or maybe not even slightly interesting but in doing some plumbing work the past week or so I got to wondering...

Why are there shower sumps? Grey water from the sinks/garbage disposal, the dishwasher, and the washing machine goes straight overboard but showers do not. Why add the complication of a shower sump and pump plumbing when the water ends up in the same place as the rest of the grey water?

I'm sure there's a good technical reason for it...or is there?

 

[chris piazza]

Mike in mine it's because the drains for both showers are below the water line so it has to be pumped up to go out. Also the sink in the master head is on a interior wall so that also drains down to the shower sump.

Chris
Superior Nights 53C

 

[GJH]

Mike in mine it's because the drains for both showers are below the water line so it has to be pumped up to go out. Also the sink in the master head is on a interior wall so that also drains down to the shower sump.

Chris
Superior Nights 53C

Exactly.

 

[captddis]

Mike,
Please tell me you are kidding?

 

[Pascal]

Long night partying mike? :?

Never post in a forum before morning coffee....

 

[Angela]

Mike,
Please tell me you are kidding?

That's exactly what I mumbled to myself as I read Mike's post. LOL Well, we all have a brain fart every now and then.

 

[Canuck Dennis]

Mike's post is perfectly valid, on my 70, the showers are pumped directly overboard, not through a sump, pump discharge has a check valve, nothing wrong with that system, no different than pumping a bilge via bilge pump, plus, no retained odors and less maintenance.

 

[captddis]

Mike's post is perfectly valid, on my 70, the showers are pumped directly overboard, not through a sump, pump discharge has a check valve, nothing wrong with that system, no different than pumping a bilge via bilge pump, plus, no retained odors and less maintenance.

Mike asked why the shower uses a PUMP when the other discharges do not.
I believe it is called gravity or the plumbing rule that shit travels down hill.
The shower water will NOT run uphill to the discharge.

 

[Canuck Dennis]

Not sure what pumps you use, mine pump from the sh. drain up 12" and then out, no problems no odors.

 

[Angela]

Not sure what pumps you use, mine pump from the sh. drain up 12" and then out, no problems no odors.

Now, that IS interesting! What kind of pump to you have? It would seem to me like some sort of "inline" pump rather than one like a bilge pump that is set down and uses a float switch. I wouldn't mind having something like that, but I've never seen one. What is it?????

 

[Canuck Dennis]

It's the Jabsco shower pump that is the flip flop type, I have 4 on board and usually get 5-10 yrs inbetween rebuilds, 2 are mounted slightly below the sh/tub drain and 2 are about a foot above, then they pump up to a standpipe which then drops down to just below the w/l line, this means no discharges are visible from outside the boat, same as my a/c pumps , all tie together and disch. below w/l .

I believe the inline Regular water guppy types will also work though may have a harder time pulling through the strainers which get hair bound .

 

[Angela]

It's the Jabsco shower pump that is the flip flop type, I have 4 on board and usually get 5-10 yrs inbetween rebuilds, 2 are mounted slightly below the sh/tub drain and 2 are about a foot above, then they pump up to a standpipe which then drops down to just below the w/l line, this means no discharges are visible from outside the boat, same as my a/c pumps , all tie together and disch. below w/l .

I believe the inline Regular water guppy types will also work though may have a harder time pulling through the strainers which get hair bound .

I'm having a hard time following....if your showers do not use a sump in which a pump would sit to wait for water to come to pump it out, then the only pump you could have, as I try to envision this, would be for your shower drain hose to be connected directly to the intake of the pump and be discharged out the other side of the pump to wherever it's going to leave the boat. Wouldn't that be an "inline" pump? On the other hand, if the shower water goes to a pan of some sort in which the pump sits, even if the size of a teacup, then that IS a sump. Or is the shower drain itself a pump right there at the grate in the floor rather than a pipe/hose going to somewhere? Which is it?

 

[Pascal]

You can plumb an elbow on the drain and run a hose straight to a bellow pump and overboard. Could be sealand pump or similar but the issue is that it has to be manual. I guess you could have a switch with a 20" timer but usually a small sump with basic bilge pump and float works jut a good , space permitting

 

[bigbill]

my pacemaker had the same setup as dennis has. there is a hose coming from the shower drain to the pump, then overboard. you had to turn a switch on when you got into the shower, and remember to turn it off when getting out. not sure what type of pump they call it but it was the type with a belt, and a pulley that made a diaphram pump the water. if you forgot it on it would make a gurgling sound until someone turned it off. never had a sump or a smell

 

[Angela]

OK....I'm starting to see the light on this. I had a boat next door once that had one of those pumps. It sounded like a minibike when it was running. It was really loud - it would wake me up in the morning and I wasn't even on the same boat. I'll keep my sump and bilge pump. They don't smell anyway.

 

[captddis]

Lets see I have a combination of pumps on my Chris Craft, The Hatt has two sumps and numerous other pumps, My truck has two pumps, I have a bunch of pumps im my garage etc..........................

What does this have in common with the original post/ Nothing! much like the past posts.
Mike asked why he has two shower sumps. The answer, BECAUSE THE SHOWER DRAIN IS BELOW THE WATERLINE AND THE DRAIN WATER NEEDS TO BE PUMPED UP HILL TO THE DISCHARGE!!

 

[Canuck Dennis]

Somebody's knickers are in a twist here, Mike also referenced "SUMP" which many have complained about ODOR, my post satisfied TWO issues at once, maybe I should not have done that, like maybe don't mention putting on safety glasses when learning to use a grinder, or turning off then battery switch when changing batteries, tunnel vision is great when flying at mach1

 

[Canuck Dennis]

I was also informed by a surveyor that Hatteras liked the sump concept as it allows for a secondary backup bilge pump system in event of a primary pump failure and also allows for condensate from a/c units.

 

[Angela]

I was also informed by a surveyor that Hatteras liked the sump concept as it allows for a secondary backup bilge pump system in event of a primary pump failure and also allows for condensate from a/c units.

Yep...that use for the sumps just occurred to me earlier today as I was running water lines and wires for the new AC units. Two of them are going to be below the water line, and for a moment, I though "how am I going to get these to the seachests and then "DUH!!! That won't work." Thought about it for a minute and then bingo, "Shower sump it is!"

Ironically, when I need my aft bilge pump that is all the way aft, under the rudder arm, that one never gets used....everything goes to the master shower sump since it's the very lowest spot on the boat.

 

[Los Suenos]

On the same or similar question. When I bought my 72' there was a bad urine smell in the master rm. I could not figure it out, even brought in a mechanic, no leaks, he had no clue. But by accident or whatever I ran the pump longer and little by little the smell went away. So we run all the head pumps longer and all is good now for quite a while. The urine was not leaving the system on short runs. A simple fix.