3607 Shower Sump
Posted: July 15th, 2020, 7:06 pm
Well, I finally took on a project to address the shower sumps. I have two, one for the fwd head and one for the aft. The original equipment was still working but it is loud and the fittings on the reservoir were starting to leak at the aft cabin so I decided to pull the unit out. Also figured I would service the pump, as it's been at least a decade since I last cleaned it out. I figured I might put new grommets on the mounting bolts, as the pump is pretty noisy and I thought it might help isolate better. All the equipment is original to the boat (1983) and until recently was running perfect.
Here's a pic of the fwd sump, but it's basically identical to the original aft sump before I pulled it out.
After getting it out and starting to price some parts (the reservoir needed new 'thru-hulls'), I decided just to replace the whole thing with an assembly. I can't believe how much some of the vendors are getting for these. I ended up buying a knock-off and putting it in. All the new ones have regular impeller-type pumps in them, so they all leave a level of water in the reservoir. My old pumps are diaphragm pumps and could suck the entire reservoir dry, but they did have a float so the float would shutoff before they were completely dry. I had debated for several years to add a push-button manual switch in parallel with the float, so you could run the pump for a few seconds to clear out that remaining water, but never did that.
Here is a pic of the install. Figured while I had it out I took out the mounting below the reservoir and cleaned and painted the whole compartment. After putting it in I realized it had to also replace the bolt that you use to pull the hatch, as it was too long and would hit the lid of the reservoir and not go flush to the floor. The old reservoir had no lid. The new pump is MUCH, MUCH quieter than the originals.
Here's a pic of the fwd sump, but it's basically identical to the original aft sump before I pulled it out.
After getting it out and starting to price some parts (the reservoir needed new 'thru-hulls'), I decided just to replace the whole thing with an assembly. I can't believe how much some of the vendors are getting for these. I ended up buying a knock-off and putting it in. All the new ones have regular impeller-type pumps in them, so they all leave a level of water in the reservoir. My old pumps are diaphragm pumps and could suck the entire reservoir dry, but they did have a float so the float would shutoff before they were completely dry. I had debated for several years to add a push-button manual switch in parallel with the float, so you could run the pump for a few seconds to clear out that remaining water, but never did that.
Here is a pic of the install. Figured while I had it out I took out the mounting below the reservoir and cleaned and painted the whole compartment. After putting it in I realized it had to also replace the bolt that you use to pull the hatch, as it was too long and would hit the lid of the reservoir and not go flush to the floor. The old reservoir had no lid. The new pump is MUCH, MUCH quieter than the originals.