1984 H27 ice box drain to bilge. Hate it! I have a hard enough time keeping the bilge dry. Anyone have made a modification to this? Is there some silly reason I should keep this set up?
Ice box drain to bilge
- Thread starter Bigjer40
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Many if not most of us have plugged the icebox drain. It is a serious drain of cold air more than anything. You will need to come up with a way to pump or sponge the water into the sink periodically.
It may be a choice between sponging the bilge or the cooler but there is another alternative and that is to use the cooler as a dry storage comparment and carry a portable cooler.
On a lot of boats the ice box drained is connected to a hand pump on the galley sink. That way you can maintain the cold air in the box and pump off excess water.
Freeze water in jugs not only do you not get water in bilge but it last longer than bags of ice. Lee PS keep bag ice for cocktails in another cooler 
I have installed an Atwood Sump Pump and connected the Ice Box Drain to it and also the Shower Drain to it. The discharge from the Sump Pump goes thru a check valve to a manifold at the Galley Sink Drain. Both the Ice Box drain and Shower Drain went into the bilge. Not good.
His H37C already has a shower sump but it is too far forward. Fred, if you can get a plastic anything under the icebox drain write and tell us how. Pictures would be great.
Mentioned this awhile back. Run the tubing from the drain, put a seal loop, top of the loop below the bottom of your box and connect with Tee past the drain loop of your sink. Keeps a little water in the bottom of the loop thus keeping cold air in the box.
Rivet, that is what I was thinking. The sink drain is right there and we have unlimited ice at the docks to keep the beverages chilled! I just didn't want it going to the bilge. I have a leaking sink drain I need to repair anyway, so two birds one stone. I will use the frozen milk jug method til then. Has always worked for me in the past and as it thaws, you have ice cold drinking water thanks for all the input.
thanks for all the input.
Anyone know the factory setup on a 25? Our boats ice box has been sealed off, and initially I wanted to open it back up, but now I am not sure. Was there a tube in the bottom of the drain that went right down into the bilge? Its hard to crawl back there and look forward to see what is still there....anyone just put a stopper in the hole then drain it when needed? If you already have a little water in the bilge, and you pump it over, what is wrong with a little more water from the ice box? I am not saying water in the bilge is good, but just curious on the logic....
Thanks!
Thanks!
Cooler drain
My H25's cooler is a plain Igloo '5-day' cooler (not a marine model) that I modified with a shelf, a divider to keep ice back from the front half (so as to stand up milk and soda) and a drain. I used a plastic snap-together drain and bedded it with white 5200. I trimmed it off so the cooler will sit on the sole or dock and the drain tube doesn't protrude far enough to take any weight of it.
Into this tube fits a brass 1"-dia plug that has the lever you put over to cinch it in the hole. I don't see why plugging any cooler/fridge drain is such a problem. I can unplug it when I want to drain it; and with the plug in this cooler really does keep ice (or some portion of it) 5 days in summer (in the shade of inside the boat).
The drain was problematic in that I had to make a drain under the ladder to lead it into the bilge. This meant cutting a huge ugly hole in the floor where the cooler sits and fabricating PVC pipe to catch the drip from the cooler's drain, adapting it down to 1/2" to lead to the bilge, and then patching over the hole in the floor. I haven't finished painting it yet (too lazy) but when it's pretty I will put pics on the blog.
BTW-- on this boat only the head and galley sinks and the cockpit pan itself drain overboard. Out of necessity everything else drains into the bilge. I made PVC tubes from the rode locker and the two compartments aft of it (see the blog) leading to the bilge and from the cockpit seat-lockers leading forward to the bilge as well. These isolate each of these compartments so that leaks or bilge water do not lead to water going everywhere. All bulkheads that come in contact with the hull under the waterline are bonded with either fiberglass or 5200 to the hull. The 'shower' is just a sink drain set into the removable floor board so I have a strainer to catch the hair (daughters! --sheesh). The fresh-water tanks can drain into the bilge as well (hopefully while out of the water!). I have two bilge pumps, a Rule 1000 and a manual Whale one. They can get all but about 3/4" of it.
There is plenty of filth in there now but I am waiting to finish varnish and paint on the cabin sole (and fitting the new hull drain) before I dump in bilge cleaner and scrub it all out. Fortunately I painted the whole thing with gelcoat, which is much easier than plain green fiberglass, or old paint over the same, to keep clean. Otherwise it's not a problem.
My H25's cooler is a plain Igloo '5-day' cooler (not a marine model) that I modified with a shelf, a divider to keep ice back from the front half (so as to stand up milk and soda) and a drain. I used a plastic snap-together drain and bedded it with white 5200. I trimmed it off so the cooler will sit on the sole or dock and the drain tube doesn't protrude far enough to take any weight of it.
Into this tube fits a brass 1"-dia plug that has the lever you put over to cinch it in the hole. I don't see why plugging any cooler/fridge drain is such a problem. I can unplug it when I want to drain it; and with the plug in this cooler really does keep ice (or some portion of it) 5 days in summer (in the shade of inside the boat).
The drain was problematic in that I had to make a drain under the ladder to lead it into the bilge. This meant cutting a huge ugly hole in the floor where the cooler sits and fabricating PVC pipe to catch the drip from the cooler's drain, adapting it down to 1/2" to lead to the bilge, and then patching over the hole in the floor. I haven't finished painting it yet (too lazy) but when it's pretty I will put pics on the blog.
BTW-- on this boat only the head and galley sinks and the cockpit pan itself drain overboard. Out of necessity everything else drains into the bilge. I made PVC tubes from the rode locker and the two compartments aft of it (see the blog) leading to the bilge and from the cockpit seat-lockers leading forward to the bilge as well. These isolate each of these compartments so that leaks or bilge water do not lead to water going everywhere. All bulkheads that come in contact with the hull under the waterline are bonded with either fiberglass or 5200 to the hull. The 'shower' is just a sink drain set into the removable floor board so I have a strainer to catch the hair (daughters! --sheesh). The fresh-water tanks can drain into the bilge as well (hopefully while out of the water!). I have two bilge pumps, a Rule 1000 and a manual Whale one. They can get all but about 3/4" of it.
There is plenty of filth in there now but I am waiting to finish varnish and paint on the cabin sole (and fitting the new hull drain) before I dump in bilge cleaner and scrub it all out. Fortunately I painted the whole thing with gelcoat, which is much easier than plain green fiberglass, or old paint over the same, to keep clean. Otherwise it's not a problem.
I hooked a drain tube up to the discharge fitting. Originally I was going to splice it into the sink drain, but change my mind after determining that the splice would be below the water line.
Instead I just drain the water either into a bucket or into a solar shower bag.
Instead I just drain the water either into a bucket or into a solar shower bag.
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I solved it by tearing out the entire ice box
Really, I cut out the inner shell, then cut the corner of the outter shell that was exposed in the aft lazzerette locker, and pulled out all the insulation with a claw hammer. I was left with most of the outter shell securely in place and all the cabinetry inside intact. I then glassed in a shelf, and stuck in a Waeco CoolMatic. I took the compressor off the bottom (which it comes from the factory with the idea that the installer can and probably will take it off and move it somewhere else) and glassed in a couple of tabs and hung it from the lazzerette locker's ceiling so nothing shound slam into it. This whole project made the necessary room to glass in a shelf for building a proper battery box. Now the area underneath the shelf that holds the new ice box, is used for storage, and I know I can dump something really wet down into there, and it'll drain into the bilge. The new box is so efficient, that it draws only 300 watts and runs off the solar panels during the day, batterys at night. I've had this arrangement for about 5 years now and it's worked well while living aboard and for a half dozen three day trips.
Kb
Really, I cut out the inner shell, then cut the corner of the outter shell that was exposed in the aft lazzerette locker, and pulled out all the insulation with a claw hammer. I was left with most of the outter shell securely in place and all the cabinetry inside intact. I then glassed in a shelf, and stuck in a Waeco CoolMatic. I took the compressor off the bottom (which it comes from the factory with the idea that the installer can and probably will take it off and move it somewhere else) and glassed in a couple of tabs and hung it from the lazzerette locker's ceiling so nothing shound slam into it. This whole project made the necessary room to glass in a shelf for building a proper battery box. Now the area underneath the shelf that holds the new ice box, is used for storage, and I know I can dump something really wet down into there, and it'll drain into the bilge. The new box is so efficient, that it draws only 300 watts and runs off the solar panels during the day, batterys at night. I've had this arrangement for about 5 years now and it's worked well while living aboard and for a half dozen three day trips.
Kb
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Sweet modification! Don't have the glass skills to pull that one off!!!! Nice job! I need to figure something out tho. First weekend sailing and every time I keeled over the bilge water runneth over!SailH37 said:
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