Bilge Pumps & Hose Loops

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TomS

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Here is a post I made to Yahoo groups just before CP was created:

After seeing Megabyte's report on his bilge upgrade last year, and
seeing how easily his thru-hulls snapped off, I put this project on
my TO-Do list for the spring. My boat is a 1999 21' DVCC that I
purchased a year ago.

I went out back and crawled under the tarp this afternoon to take a
better look and was surprised by what I found. Maybe I've been
reading THT for too long, but I was surprised to see that the thru-
hull was the 90* type and that the hose ran straight down through
to the bilge pump and was unsupported along its length.

In my boat, access to the thru-hull is through the corner-
seat/storage box in the stern, and as you can see in the picture,
there isn't enough room to get a loop in above the thru-hull to
prevent water from coming in. On top of that, the solid, smooth-
bore bilge hose that I purchased isn't very flexible.

See these two pics:

View of stern box showing thru-hull:
thru_1.jpg


View of bilge hose coming down from above and running straight to
bilge pump unsupported:
thru_2.jpg


From my research on THT, I can see that a check valve or joker valve
isn't a recommended solution for a bilge pump. So, is there
anything else I can do to limit water coming in? I ran the boat
last season in all kinds of conditions and never had any trouble
with water coming in, so I'm not that worried about it.

Also, the requirement for a 90* thru-hull limits my options pretty
quickly if I want to stay with the same size mounting hole. I
couldn't find any 90* chromed over bronze, stainless, or Marelon
fittings for 1 1/8" hose and 1 3/8" mounting hole. Looks like I am
limited to the cheaper plastic types, with TH Marine being the best
bet. I looked at several other brands on-line, and couldn't find
any others that would work (SeaChoice & Cabelas didn't list the
mounting hole size; Attwood & Rule use different hole sizes).

Just wondering if anyone else has any other options or ideas? I'd
love to find a source for a higher-quality plastic version.

I am planning on installing a second bilge-pump, so maybe I
shouldn't worry about it and just make sure that I check the
condition of the plastic thru-hulls regularly?

-- Tom
 
As an update, today I went out to the boat and brought along the heavy-duty PVC bilge pump hose that I purchased. It doesn't look like I can fit a loop in the hose that will fit, without having the hose start to collapse in on itself and decrease the overall diameter.

The picture makes the amount of space look bigger than it actually is, there is less than 4" between the top of the thru-hull opening and the 'ceiling' of the storage box.

Maybe I just need to find some more flexible, but thin walled hose?

-- Tom
 
One trick also used for "soft" hose is to thread it through a formed curve like a PVC elbow, the tighter the fit the better.
 
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