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I know i should not need one with a fully enclosed boat  but its a boat and theirs always a possibility of water getting in i don't want to lift deck's up to bale it out with a sponge so what the best option price wise 

bill 

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8 hours ago, wildbill said:

I know i should not need one with a fully enclosed boat  but its a boat and theirs always a possibility of water getting in i don't want to lift deck's up to bale it out with a sponge so what the best option price wise 

bill 

What is a fully enclosed boat? No stern gland? Outboard driven, sail, paddle steamer? No deck boards? The bigger the pump, the bigger the leak it can cope with. The best price wise is none at all, so it is a balance of  what you are prepared to pay, or have the money for and what leak you might want to cope with, until the battery is flat at which point it will sink. Not very useful I know, but this is an area where there are no hard answers. My boat has a volvo stern gland seal, which doesn't drip at all, ever. The only time I've ever had water in the engine room was when the weed hatch seal didn't and water got in when the prop was in reverse. The automatic bit of the bilge pump didn't work the one time it was needed! Manual override did though.

 

Jen

 

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I am very glad that mine failed recently. A sealing washer in the fuel filter chose to split while I was away from the boat during the last 3 months (I estimate actually about 2 weeks ago) and to slowly drip diesel into the bilge. The resultant mixture of water, diesel, and grease (and consequent slime) effectively glued the float switch down so that it didn't pump 50 litres of pollution into the canal.

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41 minutes ago, Keeping Up said:

I am very glad that mine failed recently. A sealing washer in the fuel filter chose to split while I was away from the boat during the last 3 months (I estimate actually about 2 weeks ago) and to slowly drip diesel into the bilge. The resultant mixture of water, diesel, and grease (and consequent slime) effectively glued the float switch down so that it didn't pump 50 litres of pollution into the canal.

So is your bilge pump in the engine drip tray (which contravenes the BSS) or is this a gap in the BSS standards which allows a potentially leaky fuel filter to be located outside the confines of the drip tray?

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16 minutes ago, David Mack said:

So is your bilge pump in the engine drip tray (which contravenes the BSS) or is this a gap in the BSS standards which allows a potentially leaky fuel filter to be located outside the confines of the drip tray?

No the bilge pump is not in the engine drip tray, it is fully BSS compliant. The filter in question is not the one on the side of the engine, but is the pre-filter in the fuel line from the tank. It would not be feasible to position that above the drip tray, instead it is mounted (as they usually are) on a fixed bracket that is off to one side.

 

Actually I doubt that many boats have a drip tray big enough to accommodate the contents of a full diesel tank without overflowing.

 

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41 minutes ago, David Mack said:

So is your bilge pump in the engine drip tray (which contravenes the BSS) or is this a gap in the BSS standards which allows a potentially leaky fuel filter to be located outside the confines of the drip tray?

This is why the BSS is now suggesting (recommending) the use of a filter / fuel separator in the bilge pump hose.

Co-incidentally RCR sell them.

 

https://www.rivercanalrescue.co.uk/other-services/bilgeaway-filter/

 

The BilgeAway filter is the world’s first truly environmentally-friendly hydrocarbon filtration solution. Designed to extract hydrocarbon contamination (petrol, diesel, engine oil, etc) from water, BilgeAway removes hydrocarbon content and renders the hydrocarbons non-reactive (non-harmful).

This is a global first because while other filter systems trap hydrocarbons, they fail to de-contaminate them, and only act as a barrier to pumping hydrocarbons overboard. Once the filter’s blocked/fully used, the damaging hydrocarbons contained within it must be disposed of. Traditional filters typically transfer the problem to a landfill site, where contaminants can enter land  environments instead.

 

Edit to add Link

Edited by Alan de Enfield
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4 hours ago, Alan de Enfield said:

This is why the BSS is now suggesting (recommending) the use of a filter / fuel separator in the bilge pump hose.

Co-incidentally RCR sell them.

 

https://www.rivercanalrescue.co.uk/other-services/bilgeaway-filter/

 

The BilgeAway filter is the world’s first truly environmentally-friendly hydrocarbon filtration solution. Designed to extract hydrocarbon contamination (petrol, diesel, engine oil, etc) from water, BilgeAway removes hydrocarbon content and renders the hydrocarbons non-reactive (non-harmful).

This is a global first because while other filter systems trap hydrocarbons, they fail to de-contaminate them, and only act as a barrier to pumping hydrocarbons overboard. Once the filter’s blocked/fully used, the damaging hydrocarbons contained within it must be disposed of. Traditional filters typically transfer the problem to a landfill site, where contaminants can enter land  environments instead.

 

Edit to add Link

What happens when the filter gets bunged up, does it bypass or just let your boat sink?

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8 hours ago, Arthur Marshall said:

Automatic bilge pumps simply can't be relied on. Mine has been needed twice, and they've failed both times. The auto function should be thought of as an emergency back-up.

Agreed :)

9 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

What happens when the filter gets bunged up, does it bypass or just let your boat sink?

It bypasses. It's covered in the link.

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12 minutes ago, Fitter kieron said:

Recently i have tried to remember when leaving the boat to isolate the diesel supply at the tank outlet. Been leaving a reminder on engine to turn it back on again.

I cannot do that - we don't have an isolation valve / stop-tap on our tank.

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35 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

I was talking to the owner of a 'river marina' and he told me that BSS examiners were refusing to issue a BSSC to GRP boats without one.

I'd be interested to see the reference that tells them to refuse it.

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On 03/07/2020 at 11:47, Keeping Up said:

 The filter in question is not the one on the side of the engine, but is the pre-filter in the fuel line from the tank. It would not be feasible to position that above the drip tray, instead it is mounted (as they usually are) on a fixed bracket that is off to one side.

 

A weakness in the BSS standards. In my experience it is almost impossible to change a fuel filter without spilling some diesel. So for an off-engine filter you will frequently end up with diesel in the bilge.

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3 minutes ago, David Mack said:

 

A weakness in the BSS standards. In my experience it is almost impossible to change a fuel filter without spilling some diesel. So for an off-engine filter you will frequently end up with diesel in the bilge.

Once you have fractionally loosened it have you tried putting it in a plastic bag, finish unscrewing it and it will catch 99% of the drips / spill,

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11 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

Once you have fractionally loosened it have you tried putting it in a plastic bag, finish unscrewing it and it will catch 99% of the drips / spill,

Or just putting a tray under it

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17 hours ago, ditchcrawler said:

Or just putting a tray under it

 

Thats what I do when cleaning my WASP filter. I use on old ice cream container.

 

I use the plastic bag trick when changing the engine oil filter.

Edited by cuthound
To add the last paragraph
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