You asked me to repost this question.

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George Kornreich

Cleaning Da Bilge Submitted by George Kornreich of Galveston Bay on 11/11 at 05:08PM regarding General_interest. Peggie, I posted this yesterday, but it seems to have disappeared into cyber never-never land, so please excuse me if it shows up in duplicate, What's the best way to clean the bilge. Most of the cleaners direct you to add it to the bilge water and let it slop around there, but most of the bilge is dry, so that won't work. Does it make sense to spray a cleaner solution into all the unreachable nooks and cranies (under tanks, etc) with a garden pump sprayer and then rinse it with a hose. Eventually I guess it waii all find its way to the miniscule wet bilge. Maybe there's a better way??? As usual, many thanks for your excellent advice. Happy Turkey Day!
 
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Peggie Hall/Head Mistress

Dry bilge isn't necessarily a clean bilge, George

Dry bilges may not be the smelly cesspools that wet bilges are, but they still manage to collect plenty of dust, dirt etc, so it certainly won't hurt anything to give the whole thing a good bath once in a while. Just follow the directions for bilge cleaning in the article in the HM Reference Library called "Boat Odor Isn't All in Your Head" (or something similar), making sure to rinse very thoroughly and mop up ALL the water once you've gotten it clean.
 
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Been there

And how else do you know if your pump works?

As Peggie says, every so often, you should wash the bilge, rather than just vaccuum it. This lets you test your float switch and bilge pump.
 
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George Kornreich

Thanks, Peggy, but

my problem is to find an effective way of cleaning the areas I can't get to with my hand or a mop, sponge etc. That's why I wonder if it does any good to spray cleaner into those areas and then hose them out. What do you suggest? (BTW, I when I referred to the "dry bilge" I guess I meant an area where you can't pour cleaner into the water and let it aggitate, as directions on these products suggest). Thanks.
 
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