Zip ties as a drain snake

[stephen_i_w]

I thought I would pass this along. My shower sump was running slow, also the relief valve on the my holding tank was clogged by a mud dauber. At the suggestion of the Admiral, I fixed both using zip ties as a snake. For the shower sump I needed to make a chain of them to get the necessary length. Maybe someone will find this useful.

 

[Rich Stidger]

Good idea. I've been doing this for years but never thought to post it. Good tip for everyone. I use one to check for impeller pieces in the inlet and outlet raw water pump hoses.

 

[Stu Jackson]

How do you push on chained zip ties?

 

[stephen_i_w]

How do you push on chained zip ties?

Term "chained" just means to attach them together, end to end, in this context. I zip them a little ways end to end, say about an inch overlap. Then I wrap the joint with electrical tape. The stiffness of the zip ties is enough to get it through the pipe. Choose zip ties thick enough to push through the pipe, but thin enough to fit.

 

[rgranger]

 

[Davidasailor26]

Very handy idea!

I think threads that involve holding tanks might be the only ones that don’t benefit from pictures.

 

[stephen_i_w]

I feel I ought to update my post. It turns out that my shower sump re-clogged on my trip. I tried to use my zip-tie trick with no joy. I even tried using a long stiff wire in my attempt to unclog it. Again no joy, no shower. Sadly, I had to put off fixing this until returning from my trip.

The good news is that the fix was simple. I found the filter in the system and cleaned it out. This restored the usefulness of the shower sump system on my boat. It would have been nice if the location of the shower sump pump and filter had been documented in the owner's manual or anyplace else for that matter. But alas. For the curious, it turns out that the the location of the pump and filter housing was in the v-birth, on the port side, under the mattress, under an access panel. The picture below shows what the pump and filter housing look like.