Should the bilge look like this? And why are there engineering bricks in there?

[Jen-in-Wellies]

14 hours ago, madder do ee said:

The Bilge has courted my attention, mainly because it looks a bit of a mess to me. I don't understand why the bricks are in there and why the pump leaves so much water.

Bilge pumps won't pump below a minimum depth of water. They need a minimum depth to start working in manual mode and any auto switch on them will be set for a slightly deeper depth to ensure that the pump will actually turn off. Your stern area is walled off from the rest of the engine bilge. I suspect that the bricks are there to effectively reduce the surface area even further, so a certain volume of water will give a greater depth and will trip the bilge pump in to working more often. Some people will place the bilge pump in a plastic pot under the stern gland, with often a mesh screen above to catch most of the grease, as others have described. This increases the depth of a small volume of drips and triggers the pump more regularly. A mesh screen is remarkably effective in catching a lot of the gloop and there is less chance of the float switch in an auto bilge pump getting clarted up and sticking, either off, or on.

Jen

[magnetman]

Eureka!

3 minutes ago, Jen-in-Wellies said:

. I suspect that the bricks are there to effectively reduce the surface area even further, so a certain volume of water will give a greater depth and will trip the bilge pump in to working more often.

Eureka!

[LadyG]

On 27/04/2023 at 08:20, Jen-in-Wellies said:

Bilge pumps won't pump below a minimum depth of water. They need a minimum depth to start working in manual mode and any auto switch on them will be set for a slightly deeper depth to ensure that the pump will actually turn off. Your stern area is walled off from the rest of the engine bilge. I suspect that the bricks are there to effectively reduce the surface area even further, so a certain volume of water will give a greater depth and will trip the bilge pump in to working more often. Some people will place the bilge pump in a plastic pot under the stern gland, with often a mesh screen above to catch most of the grease, as others have described. This increases the depth of a small volume of drips and triggers the pump more regularly. A mesh screen is remarkably effective in catching a lot of the gloop and there is less chance of the float switch in an auto bilge pump getting clarted up and sticking, either off, or on.

Jen

Well now we know

[Ex Brummie]

Those bricks aren't ballast, they're stepping stones so you don't need to get your feet wet if you need to get into the bilge.

DAMHIK.😉

[beerbeerbeerbeerbeer]

6 minutes ago, Ex Brummie said:

Those bricks aren't ballast, they're stepping stones so you don't need to get your feet wet if you need to get into the bilge.

DAMHIK.😉

😂 yes, 

 

or are they for someone with short dumpy legs who wouldn’t be able to climb out again? 

Edited April 28, 2023 by Goliath