Shower drain

[Lost Parent]

I have a 1982 Catalina 30 that has a shower that we like to use on long trips but have a problem ...the shower drain is in the corner and drains down through a hose into th bilge and then is pumped overboard by the bilge pump...gross...has anybody come up with a better solution than all the shower drain sumps around as they do not fit the narrow bilge

 

[gpd955]

Can you mount it on the port side in the engine compartment near your fresh water pump (provided that's where it is....it was there in my '79....will post s pic if I can find it) and then Y the hose into your sink drain through hull? Trying to picture how mine was set up and that's the best I could come up with.

 

[Gunni]

Yeah, use your shower pan as the "sump", plumb your drain hose to a run-dry diaphragm pump (via a screen filter) and mount a water-proof switch in a convenient spot. Tee the effluent into your head sink thru hull (with it's own ball valve shut-off ). Now you won't be draining that hairy scum into your critical bilge pump circuit.

 

[RichH]

Gunni has it nailed.
You definitely dont want to be pumping a 'shower drain' into the bilge as it will contain lots of human skin cells, etc. that when mixed with water and begin to 'decompose' into "putrenes" will give a unique odor of 'horrendous rotting stink' to your boat. Shower drain - if not direct overboard at least into a separate tank that doesnt communicate with the 'bilge'. Just imagine a rotting, liquifying 'corpse' in your bilge ... thats what dumping a shower drain into a bilge will smell like.

 

[Lost Parent]

Already did that when we got the boat boy it stunk , I guess my biggest problem is hooking up to the hose to the shower drain iy barely sticks into bilge maybe 1/4 inch I could grab another Shurlo pump and filter and rinse the drain line out with fresh water after using

 

[Winkfish]

Can you somehow raise the floor of the shower to give you a little more space?

 

[Rick D]

I Know What You Mean

Already did that when we got the boat boy it stunk , I guess my biggest problem is hooking up to the hose to the shower drain iy barely sticks into bilge maybe 1/4 inch I could grab another Shurlo pump and filter and rinse the drain line out with fresh water after using

Use a barbed hose coupler. I had exactly the same issue in a Hunter 32. I extended the bilge outlet to a home-made shower sump and T'ed it into the bilge pump outlet hose and put a one way valve to keep it from flowing back into the bilge.

In retrospect, I spent more money on the home made sump than one I could have purchased off the shelf. And, I should have tied the outlet to the bilge hose with a 3 way diverter valve instead of the T and backflow valve. Hope this makes sense.