My daughter and I spent the last couple of days working on some jobs getting Polaris ready to sail for the season. When we arrived at the boat We discovered a lot of water collected in the shower, about 20 gallons. It wasn't draining into the shower sump. I have two questions:
1. Where did the water come from.?? We didn't have an obvious leak and the bilge didn't have an unusual amount of water in it.
2. How is the sump plumbed? I thought I read somewhere that the shower sump pumps Out of the drain through hull for the bathroom sink. I did operate the sump pump and could hear that gurgling water noise, but no water came out the thru hull. Does it pump into the holding tank?
3. If the shower drain is clogged, how do I gain access to clean it out? This may be a stupid question, but I didn't see an obvious way to do it and I frankly didn't spend a lot of time looking.
Thanks! Della
My guess would be that its 20 gallons of rain water that blew in the forward vent of your Dorado box. The box has a drain topside. if that were to clog up it could fill up and spill over into the boat. Your starboard cushion might be wet too (the aft vent). But I think that forward pipe is shorter to direct rain only to the shower stall. I mounted a TV under my main salon vent one time. That was a huge mistake.
I have a gravity drain from the sink going to that through hole in the head. There is a valve to shut it off when heeling. My shower drains to a custom grey water tank under the sole. Its about 6 gallons. I have a 3/4" Y valve going to a Whale Gulper that drains either the shower tank or the bilge out the stern. There is an overflow on the shower bilge holding tank that spills into main bilge. I also have a Rule high volume pump in tandem with the gulper.
On Phantom, 1981, the shower sump tees into the sink drain which goes to the shower sump. The sump pumps overboard under the head sink. The push/pull switch is above the head lower cabinet door. Access to the drains is via the removable sole panel at the mast. It is tough to get under there. The tee connection is where I have had plugs form from hair. Snaking it out with a small light weight hose usually works. I bought a remote camera just to get into those spaces to know what was there. I wish there was a Gumby pill so I could reach further and bend more and get both hands into the access.
20 gallons? Could have come from a clogged dorade vent above the shower, but that's a lot of rain. When was the last time you looked in the space? Maybe, just maybe, the sump pump was off and there was a leak in the shower faucet??
If the port in my head is not closed tight enough it will leak and it can fill up the sink. If its t'd into the shower bilge and the through hull is closed it could fill up the holding tank. Without an overflow on that tank to the bilge it will fill up the shower basin.
Pete
Thanks for the insights. It had been a month since we were at the boat, and there is certainly a possibility that the dorade is the source of the leak. We will check on that and see if we can figure out the plumbing between the shower sump, sink, and holding tank. I wouldn't be too surprised to find the shower drain clogged with dog hair...
When I bought my boat the pump that pumps out the shower didn't work, and the hose was left to drain into the bilge. I bought a little bilge pump mounted in a small square box. As the water drains from the shower, into the box, the float starts the pump, and it is discharged from the through hull just aft the shower. This is separate from the sink.
I don't know about 20 gallons.. But the vent hole under the dorade box has a pipe that comes through the deck to protect the core. I've found the bedding on all 3 of my "vent hole pipes" to be rotten to the point where it really wasn't doing anything. The boxes are really easy to remove, and the rebidding can be done from above. Fixing these solved a serious mystery leak for me. Remember to take a look at the core around the hole and repair as necessary.
I just got done replacing all the pressure hoses with modern day pex pipe. The shower fixture was especially difficult to re-plumb due to the restricted access port at the foot of the pilot berth. But it's done now and I believe it will last another 30 years.
I replaced all my shower faucets and plumbing in the shower with relative ease by going in through the medicine cabinet. Those pieces all come out and its right there. I had to make a special wrench to get on the faucet nuts which are recessed.
Pete
Last time at the boat, I learned something about how our shower drain works. It wouldn't drain with the sump pump, so I assumed it was clogged, but then I tried it with the sink stopper in the bathroom sink in place, and it drained like a champ. Wish I had figured that out a while ago.
Everyone else probably already knows this little detail, or maybe we are plumbed different than everyone else, but without the plug, it just sucked air from the path of least resistance, and didn't drain the shower pump. Looking back on it, I had left the window over the sink open accidentally when we left the boat and it rained through the open window into the sink on counter. I think that's where a lot of the water at came from.
I think my shower has had relatively little use over its lifetime. Hoping it will be happy to remain in service for a few more years. My freshwater lines left a lot to be desired, so I replaced all the tank fill and feed lines, which prompted me to replace the pressure lines as well (at least one was leaking)
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