Carpediem wrote:Source of the post Carpediem wrote:Source of the post Good points guys, Maybe Ill just put together a dry bilge system to evacuate the water that doesn't discharge over board then. I really abhor water standing in my bilge.
Upon thinking about your responses, I'm calling bull shit guys. There is absolutely nothing wrong with putting a duck bill style check valve in the discharge lines. Why would you not want to evacuate all the water from your bilge? Im just now buying my first Carver after owning 6 boats over 28 years from 18 foot run about to 44 foot flybridge sport yachts. My RInkers and Sea Rays had check valves in every bilge pump discharge line and I never experienced a failure. My bilges were always dry and clean as a whistle. The 506 I'm buying has, by design, no way to evacuate all the water from the bulge and as such is filthy, grimy, slimey and stinky. Ok for a crab boat but not a luxury sport yacht. I stand by my advice to the OP as a good solution to his problem and take issue with you guys that are okay with standing swamp water in your boat. To each his own though.
It all depends on the bilge pump. Some displacement pumps do have check valves built right into them but on centrifugal pumps any resistance in the output line can lead to an 'airlock' where the pump can't develop any pressure at all because the impeller is spinning in mostly air. Centrifugal bilge pumps don't develop much pressure at all when running, which is also why even a slight restriction in their output hoses will
drastically reduce their performance when you need them most.
I don't think anyone is advocating for water standing in the bilge, but some of us have been used to dealing with it due to conventional packings that have been around forever.
It's also a case of using "the right tool for the job". Relying on your emergency bilge pump to result in a dry bilge is the wrong goal. You want your emergency bilge pumps ready and optimized to do what they are supposed to do - quickly purge as much water out of the bilge as possible. If you truly want a dry bilge, install something specifically for that purpose. Could just be a small bilge pump or could be one of the more advanced "dry bilge" systems. There are a few DIY systems that just use a small potable water pump to 'vacuum' the bilge and you just put it on a timer.