Pumping water out of a water tank

[Wittenham]

Any view on my options?  I think the water in the bilge is coming from inside the boat, so would rather nail it at source than waiting for it to get into the bilge. 

 

 The tank sits below the water line so syphoning is not an option and I have been unsuccessful in googling for suitable hand pumps. I earlier tried a drill powered pump to empty the bilge but found the thing not very useful. 

[Alan de Enfield]

1 minute ago, Wittenham said:

Any view on my options?  I think the water in the bilge is coming from inside the boat, so would rather nail it at source than waiting for it to get into the bilge. 

 

 The tank sits below the water line so syphoning is not an option and I have been unsuccessful in googling for suitable hand pumps. I earlier tried a drill powered pump to empty the bilge but found the thing not very useful. 

 

Take the plug out of the sink and turn the tap on.

[Wittenham]

2 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

Take the plug out of the sink and turn the tap on.

I like it... part of the leak is the water pump itself but I will see if it works well enough to do as you suggest.

 

 

[Dr Bob]

1 hour ago, Wittenham said:

I like it... part of the leak is the water pump itself but I will see if it works well enough to do as you suggest.

 

 

Once you have as much out as the water pump will handle, try one of these

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pela-Oil-Extractor-PL650-650/dp/B002EPSF7E/ref=sr_1_cc_2?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1526216214&sr=1-2-catcorr&keywords=pela+oil+extractor

I bought one on my lumpy water boat and it was invaluable for getting water out of the bilge. On the nb, I use it for sucking out the drip tray under the stern gland and other things where you need to suck liquids out. Quite expensive but makes life so much easier.

Lent it to the boat next door in the marina and he used it to get the water at the bottom of his fuel tank out. He then bought one!

[mrsmelly]

I have a small submersible 12 volt pump purchased on good old fleabay for peanuts that pumps diesel or water etc very good and was about twelve quid iirc.  It is slim enough to drop through a standard water filler etc.

Edited May 13, 2018 by mrsmelly

[Lily Rose]

On 13/05/2018 at 14:00, Dr Bob said:

Once you have as much out as the water pump will handle, try one of these

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pela-Oil-Extractor-PL650-650/dp/B002EPSF7E/ref=sr_1_cc_2?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1526216214&sr=1-2-catcorr&keywords=pela+oil+extractor

I bought one on my lumpy water boat and it was invaluable for getting water out of the bilge. On the nb, I use it for sucking out the drip tray under the stern gland and other things where you need to suck liquids out. Quite expensive but makes life so much easier.

Lent it to the boat next door in the marina and he used it to get the water at the bottom of his fuel tank out. He then bought one!

I was going to get a Pela (for getting water and muck from the bottom of the fuel tank) but the cost put me off a bit so I bought one of these instead https://www.amazon.co.uk/Woodside-Extractor-Syphon-Transfer-Engine/dp/B00JRUG01M/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1526404199&sr=1-1-catcorr&keywords=Woodside+pump

 

I'm aware of the saying buy cheap buy twice but thought I'd try this and keep my fingers crossed. So far, about 2 years, it's been fine though I'm sure it must be lower quality than the various Pela pumps.

 

 

[Flyboy]

On 13/05/2018 at 12:33, Wittenham said:

Any view on my options?  I think the water in the bilge is coming from inside the boat, so would rather nail it at source than waiting for it to get into the bilge. 

 

 The tank sits below the water line so syphoning is not an option and I have been unsuccessful in googling for suitable hand pumps. I earlier tried a drill powered pump to empty the bilge but found the thing not very useful. 

Is it the hot or cold water tank?

[Jess--]

2 hours ago, Lily Rose said:

I was going to get a Pela (for getting water and muck from the bottom of the fuel tank) but the cost put me off a bit so I bought one of these instead https://www.amazon.co.uk/Woodside-Extractor-Syphon-Transfer-Engine/dp/B00JRUG01M/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1526404199&sr=1-1-catcorr&keywords=Woodside+pump

 

I'm aware of the saying buy cheap buy twice but thought I'd try this and keep my fingers crossed. So far, about 2 years, it's been fine though I'm sure it must be lower quality than the various Pela pumps.

 

 

I tried one of them, it collapsed in on itself rather than suck oil out of my engine

 

went and got one of the pela clones and the difference is night and day

Edited May 15, 2018 by Jess--

[Dr Bob]

1 hour ago, Jess-- said:

I tried one of them, it collapsed in on itself rather than suck oil out of my engine

 

went and got one of the pela clones and the difference is night and day

Yes, Pela's don't do that.

[Sea Dog]

On 13/05/2018 at 12:40, Wittenham said:

I like it... part of the leak is the water pump itself but I will see if it works well enough to do as you suggest.

 

 

Did you do this yet? If the pump has a problem, you're gonna need to fix it anyway so why not do that pdq?  Once that's done, should it not fix your leak, you can follow the suggestion to turn on the tap til your tank is empty - which is what everyone does to empty the fresh water tank.

[Lily Rose]

32 minutes ago, Dr Bob said:

Yes, Pela's don't do that.

Nor did my Woodside. Well not yet anyway, maybe next time.

 

Mind you, I haven't tried it with oil, only with diesel (several times) and water.

 

62 reviews on Amazon averaging 4* which, so far, I would go along with (perhaps I'll regret saying that next time I use it).

[jonesthenuke]

24 minutes ago, Lily Rose said:

Nor did my Woodside. Well not yet anyway, maybe next time.

 

Mind you, I haven't tried it with oil, only with diesel (several times) and water.

 

62 reviews on Amazon averaging 4* which, so far, I would go along with (perhaps I'll regret saying that next time I use it).

I had one of the Amazon ones. I think I used it twice and threw it away, it was useless in my opinion.

[Lily Rose]

8 hours ago, jonesthenuke said:

I had one of the Amazon ones. I think I used it twice and threw it away, it was useless in my opinion.

Ok, looks like I may have been lucky then.

 

I bought mine direct from the seller, not via Amazon, for about £16. Currently it's £12.95 + £2.99 p&p.  

https://www.outdoorvalue.co.uk/99421-woodside-4l-oil-extractor-pump.html

 

For that money, far less than a Pela, I thought it was worth a punt. I'm sure the Pela range is far better quality. At 3 or 4 times the price you would certainly hope so.

 

I bought it for a specific purpose i.e. diesel. I haven't tried it with oil and maybe if I had it would have been useless, I don't know.

 

What I do know is that it did the job I bought it for so I certainly wouldn't use the word useless to describe my experience. I have used it 3 times and have successfully and easily removed some 15 to 20 litres of diesel (very little water but lots of muck) from the bottom of my fuel tank.

 

Note: the OP's issue relates to water, not engine oil. Perhaps the price of a Pela is a bit OTT for that. Hence my suggesting this a a possible alternative.

 

Perhaps I will buy a Pela one day but, so far at least, I don't need to as the Woodside has been doing the job I bought it for.

 

 

[jonesthenuke]

1 minute ago, Lily Rose said:

Ok, looks like I may have been lucky then.

 

I bought mine direct from the seller, not via Amazon, for about £16. Currently it's £12.95 + £2.99 p&p.  

https://www.outdoorvalue.co.uk/99421-woodside-4l-oil-extractor-pump.html

 

For that money, far less than a Pela, I thought it was worth a punt. I'm sure the Pela range is far better quality. At 3 or 4 times the price you would certainly hope so.

 

I bought it for a specific purpose i.e. diesel. I haven't tried it with oil and maybe if I had it would have been useless, I don't know.

 

What I do know is that it did the job I bought it for so I certainly wouldn't use the word useless to describe my experience. I have used it 3 times and have successfully and easily removed some 15 to 20 litres of diesel (very little water but lots of muck) from the bottom of my fuel tank.

 

Note: the OP's issue relates to water, not engine oil. Perhaps the price of a Pela is a bit OTT for that. Hence my suggesting this a a possible alternative.

 

Perhaps I will buy a Pela one day but, so far at least, I don't need to as the Woodside has been doing the job I bought it for.

 

 

My opinion of "useless" was based on the pump breaking after only 2-3 uses. I forget exactly what the fault was and I threw it all away.

[Lily Rose]

17 minutes ago, jonesthenuke said:

My opinion of "useless" was based on the pump breaking after only 2-3 uses. I forget exactly what the fault was and I threw it all away.

Fair enough. Maybe mine will break when I use it for the 4th time. But it has already done the job I bought it for. 

 

I would summarise as 2 bad experiences (so far) on this forum plus 1 good one. And an average rating of 3.9 on Amazon from 62 reviews, 10% of which were 1* and 16% 3* or worse.

 

If the OP has a simple one-off job involving water, not oil, and is looking for a cheap solution then they may want to read the 62 reviews, make up their own mind based on a rather larger sample size and then buy for £16 directly from Outdoor Value if they decide, like I did, to take a chance.

 

[jonesthenuke]

1 minute ago, Lily Rose said:

Fair enough. Maybe mine will break when I use it for the 4th time. But it has already done the job I bought it for. 

 

I would summarise as 2 bad experiences (so far) on this forum plus 1 good one. And an average rating of 3.9 on Amazon from 62 reviews, 10% of which were 1* and 16% 3* or worse.

 

If the OP has a simple one-off job involving water, not oil, and is looking for a cheap solution then they may want to read the 62 reviews, make up their own mind based on a rather larger sample size and then buy for £16 directly from Outdoor Value if they decide, like I did, to take a chance.

 

Yes I agree it may well be the best option for occasional use but generally I think we all expect these items to survive for a reasonable length of use,

 

 I have bought a cheapo 12V electric oil pump from LIDL or ALDI, I forget which it was.  This was so cheap I thought it worth trying for water removal from the diesel tank, but have yet to try it out.

[Lily Rose]

4 minutes ago, jonesthenuke said:

Yes I agree it may well be the best option for occasional use but generally I think we all expect these items to survive for a reasonable length of use,

 

 I have bought a cheapo 12V electric oil pump from LIDL or ALDI, I forget which it was.  This was so cheap I thought it worth trying for water removal from the diesel tank, but have yet to try it out.

Wouldn't disagree with that. I'm still hoping mine will last a while longer yet and If it doesn't I'll be disappointed but not gutted, given that it was only £16 and has done the job I bought it to do. At the time I felt £53 to £82 for a Pela (depending on model) was too much to spend on fixing a problem I didn't even know for sure that I had.

 

Just out of interest, did you use yours for oil, diesel or water?  I'm wondering if it's just not robust enough for what I would think is the tougher job of sucking up thick engine oil.

 

I was in Aldi last week and had a quick look through their non-food stuff but I don't remember seeing a 12v pump so maybe it was Lidl. How long ago was it, and how much?

 

[jonesthenuke]

I used mine for oil. 

[Wittenham]

10 hours ago, Sea Dog said:

Did you do this yet? If the pump has a problem, you're gonna need to fix it anyway so why not do that pdq?  Once that's done, should it not fix your leak, you can follow the suggestion to turn on the tap til your tank is empty - which is what everyone does to empty the fresh water tank.

Yes, last night.  It worked, although the pump kept leaking water into the bilge.  We have stopped all repair work until we get the boat to a yard and have it surveyed [subject of another thread].

 

It was a blindingly obvious solution... [just not to me].

[Sea Dog]

7 hours ago, Wittenham said:

Yes, last night.  It worked, although the pump kept leaking water into the bilge.  We have stopped all repair work until we get the boat to a yard and have it surveyed [subject of another thread].

 

It was a blindingly obvious solution... [just not to me].

 

Good on yer - at least the leaking is over for the time being now the supply source us empty.  If your pump is the ubiquitous Jabsco Par Max 2.9 or similar, they're available at about 60 quid online. Frankly, at that sort of money, I'd replace it. The leak from it is then known to be fixed and, if it's just seals,  you can fix it up at your leisure to be your  spare. Even if it still dribbles a tiny bit, it'll get you out of trouble should you need it.

 

Good luck with the survey - I hope it's encouraging. 

[rusty69]

4 minutes ago, Sea Dog said:

if your pump is the ubiquitous Jabsco Par Max 2.9 or similar, they're available at about 60 quid online.

They appear to be creeping up in price. I paid 59 quid two years ago,typically 70 plus these days. ALthough there are some "New" ones for sale.

[Alan de Enfield]

3 minutes ago, rusty69 said:

They appear to be creeping up in price. I paid 59 quid two years ago,typically 70 plus these days. ALthough there are some "New" ones for sale.

That's a lot for a second hand pump - So how much are the new ones ?

Edited May 16, 2018 by Alan de Enfield

[rusty69]

2 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

That's a lot for a second hand pump - So how much are the new ones ?

I'll sell you mine for £59.One careful owner.

[Sea Dog]

10 minutes ago, rusty69 said:

They appear to be creeping up in price. I paid 59 quid two years ago,typically 70 plus these days. ALthough there are some "New" ones for sale.

You may be right, Ion B.  Mine (last year or maybe the year before now) was, like yours, 59 quid delivered.  A quick Google shows them at 64.95 from Marine Superstore,  but the 5.95 delivery takes their offering to that 70 quid plus figure you give.  Still beats buggering about with repairs which are frequently ineffective and suffering another leak though - I really don't like wet bilges.

[rusty69]

6 minutes ago, Sea Dog said:

You may be right, Ion B.

I've heard of Iron Mike, but who you calling Ion B

Rusty