Shower sump plumbing re-visited! - 2012

April 2012 - Marina Kona Kai Shelter Island San Diego, CA

 Stopped by Marine Exchange and picked more shower sump plumbing supplies.
We had the ¾ hose from the engine cooling fluid plumbing job and so needed to buy the bronze fittings and the hose clamps.

 What is cool about these joiners is that you can just unscrew the large nut and the hoses come apart. They do not turn or bind and there is no need to remove the hose from the hose barb. Then they will go back together by simply screwing the nut back on. It stays attached to one side of the joiner.
Note:
 We have taken many showers on the boat and have never had a problem with this system. I think we did snake out the SSS hose to the shower one time. It was easy with these connections. Of course you need to move all sorts of stuff in the bilge to get at them 😁(2018)

Back under the bilge again.

 First we removed the screw that we thought was going to be tough to get out but was not. That meant no need to drill a larger hole for it. We put LanoCote on a new screw and replaced it. 

 The next step was to replace the 3/4 clear hose with the black rubber coolant hose we had. It was as usual, cut the hose off the plastic hse barb. We could have used a heat gun but eather way it is a bit of a struggle. Then we cut the hose comming from the shower drain and pulled the whole thing out. We had disconected the hase form the shower sump sensor (SSS) which was easy.

 Next we cleaned the new joiner and put plumbers tape on the threads of the bronze hose barbs and put them together with pipe wenches. We put the new rubber hose onto the hose barb with soap as it is easy to work with and then ran it up to the shower drain hose. The original rummer hose coming from the shower drain pan. It is too tough to get at in the bilge under the drain to replace it. It is 5/8 so we convert it to 3/4 at the joiner. Also to convert the hos to 3/4 all the way we would need to replace the shower through hull in the shower drain to 3/4 and I am not sure even if we wanted to take this on if there is enough room for this.The Whale Gulley IC Waste Pump would like 3/4 all the way but sorry pump. This restricts the flow some what but the shower still drains fine.

Easy to snake now!

  Now we just cut the new black hose to length and put one end of the joiner on the end of the new hose and one end (with 5/8 hose barb) on the existing hose. Screw the big nut together and wala its done!

This was the new hose we first installed but it was flatting out on the bend. After pulling it and looking at it it seems a bit deformed. We are thinking that after the hose is used for a while being clear it will not. It will be covered inside with soap scum and other gray water no seeing a clog or whatever. We will bring it back to Marine Exchange for $$ back. The coolant hose forms better on this bend and is nicer to work with. Now to secure the hoses and we are done with the hose from the shower to the SSS.

 The way this will work is if there is a clog in the shower to SSS then we can try the shower drain, no luck the un-screw the big nut and snake up to the shower drain. No luck then we can actually pull the SSS side of the hose right up out of the bilge and snake to the SSS. The clog has no place to hide in this hose run.

 We had though of installing a T as a trap but it would be harder to snake.

 Next we will do the same with the hose from the SSS to the pump. This may not be easy as there is not much room to remove the hose from the SSS (yellow object.). Taking the hose off the elbow would be way too hard in the cramped are it is in. The existing hose is fine and we, if the hose does not come out easy just add the joiner to it also.

 Adding the joiner will allow us to snake from the hose to the SSS and from the hose to the pump. No where for a clog to hide on the this hose ether and it should be a no brainier to snake it. Then we just screw the big not back on and off to the shower we go! 

 The last hose I have not mentioned is a vent hose and is not a worry. It will get routed up through the bed storage are and out to the through hull vent by the cap rail when we do some work under the bed, need access.

 We could not finish off this because the second joiner I think is defective. The machining odf the seat for the other half is not good. We will bring it back to Marine Exchange for a replacement. Always something but better now than in some place in Central America. 

 We used single hose clamps as there is no water pressure on this system and it would simply drain to the bilge for the shower you are taking if there is a leak then the bilge pump would be the shower sump for the day. So not a critical system.