Rule shower waste box

[Rory_d]

Hi anybody use these and are they any good? I am about to buy one As I’m refitting the boat and just want to make sure I get the best I can buy for sensible money

[mrsmelly]

3 minutes ago, Rory_d said:

Hi anybody use these and are they any good? I am about to buy one As I’m refitting the boat and just want to make sure I get the best I can buy for sensible money

Dont do it they are crap. It WILL gunge up. Get a whale gulper or similar and gravity drain such as the sink.

[rusty69]

I would opt for a Whale gulper given the choice.

 

I just fitted a replacement float switch in one of these sump boxes,I expect it to start leaking at some point

 

Sorry didn't answer your question did it!

[springy]

If its only for the shower then fit a Gulper, has to be switched manually but far less likely to result in a bilge full of water than a float box.

 

beaten to it by mrsmelly

 

springy

[Guest]

Another vote for getting a Whale Gulper instead of the tray. Saves cleaning out the filter every few weeks or not realising it's blocked and filling up yer bilge. I got a bit overly annoyed with my float switch and it stopped working altogether, which sped up the Gulper buying process.

[nicknorman]

We had a rule box. Lasted a couple of years then it flooded the bilge. Now have a whale gulper and all is fine!

[Boater Sam]

They are a bilge pump and level float switch with a crappy plastic filter in a poor plastic box. Over priced under engineered.

You will spend loads of time cleaning it out or it will flood your boat bilge. They are the spawn of the Devil.

[Movin' on]

DONT - gulper wins hands down!!

[matty40s]

One of our more common jobs is replacing these awful devices with a Whale Gulper pump, and then emptying the bilges.

Not helped when some boat builders install them under the shower or box them in with woodwork. 

[Chewbacka]

10 hours ago, Boater Sam said:

They are a bilge pump and level float switch with a crappy plastic filter in a poor plastic box. Over priced under engineered.

You will spend loads of time cleaning it out or it will flood your boat bilge. They are the spawn of the Devil.

Probably both

[dave moore]

We had one at first, but not for long. Dismantling and cleaning the filter were a bloody horrible job, a mix of pale grey sludge and hair. The gulper never gave a moment’s bother.

Dave

[dmr]

Sometime called a strum box I believe?   We had one when we got the boat. I took it out and a boaty friend sold it for me at the Beaulieu boat jumble. Got a few quid for it. I must assume lumpy water sailors are quite happy with a bilge full of dirty shower water.

 

...............Dave

[Chewbacka]

7 minutes ago, dmr said:

Sometime called a strum box I believe?   We had one when we got the boat. I took it out and a boaty friend sold it for me at the Beaulieu boat jumble. Got a few quid for it. I must assume lumpy water sailors are quite happy with a bilge full of dirty shower water.

 

...............Dave

Maybe they don’t waste precious drinking water when out sailing.

[Guest]

Gulpers are best. Wouldn't touch another of the box/float switch type; ours flooded the bilges a few times. Gulper has been faultless.  If there is concern about it being left powered up, it is easy to fit a timer switch, though we never bothered.

[roland elsdon]

Everyone is in agreement. Spawn of the devil. We had two on the boat one on bath one on the kitchen sink. On buying the boat my first job before even having a bath was to fit a gulper. They are not sealed block easily and fail. If they fail the water goes to the lowest point in the boat.

the kitchen box was harder as the boat had low hullsides and deep draft. Until i did the kitchen one we had to supervise the damn thing , and fit a manual on off rather than the bloody float switch .

 

[rusty69]

Just now, roland elsdon said:

Everyone is in agreement

...........It'll never happen again you know!

[roland elsdon]

I disagree it might...oh

[Boater Sam]

Strum block is a pickup at the suction end of a bilge pump, like a comb, helps to get the level lower than just a pump inlet.

[blackrose]

Has anyone mentioned the Whale Gulper 220?

 

Have a look on ebay. I've seen them as low as 80 quid. You don't need to fit a filter.

[dmr]

44 minutes ago, Boater Sam said:

Strum block is a pickup at the suction end of a bilge pump, like a comb, helps to get the level lower than just a pump inlet.

So the shower waste box is a "sump" below the shower were the bilge (shower) pump sucks water from....so I can see why some people call them a strum box.

 

..............Dave

[Rory_d]

Looks like I will be getting a whale gulper then!

 

the only reason I thought about the rule shower box was that it is automatic and the fact we will have kids onboard seemed sensible so we didn’t have a flooded bathroom every time they had a shower

[nicknorman]

1 hour ago, Rory_d said:

Looks like I will be getting a whale gulper then!

 

the only reason I thought about the rule shower box was that it is automatic and the fact we will have kids onboard seemed sensible so we didn’t have a flooded bathroom every time they had a shower

You could consider a whale gulper with “IC” shower drain fitting - the latter contains a sensor and control system to operate the pump automatically. Although I’ve not personally tried it.

 

https://www.whalepumps.com/Marine/product.aspx?Category_ID=10020&Product_ID=10039&FriendlyID=Gulley-IC

 

Regardless of its reliability, an advantage is that it will be immediately obvious if the pump isn’t working, whereas with the sump box it isn’t obvious at all.

 

Edited October 29, 2018 by nicknorman

[Guest]

Whilst agreeing with the above views, you might like to consider what I have;-

 

I made a fibreglass box which is the hight of the gap below the shower plus the depth of the tray. This sits along side the tray in an adjacent cupboard. It has a float switch (An industrial one) that runs a whale gulper.

Features; -

It runs automatically but unlike the above.

It's solid and isn't going to leak.

It has no filter to clog up.

If the float switch fails, ( happened twice in 24 years) it's obvious because of the water in the shower tray, but no water goes into bilges.

I have never seen anything like this for sale however.

HTH

John

[Rory_d]

That sounds good do you have any pics?

[Guest]

4 minutes ago, Rory_d said:

That sounds good do you have any pics?

Afraid not. And since it worked so well I have fitted shelves in the cupboard that make it tricky to get to! However it is just an open top box of the right height. I will look to see if I can find the float switch I used. But it was 24 years ago.☺