Dan
Shower sump boxes are a maintenance issue. Hair and other stuff gets stuck in there. I suggest running the drain hose right to the pump with a strainer to protect the pump. You’ll have to open and clean the pump every so often, but if you mount it conveniently its easy to clean. I put mine under the galley sink.

I put a Y valve on the sump drain pump. This needs a self-priming pump. You can get them on ebay fairly reasonably. I put a bronze strainer on the end of the hose where it lays in the bilge. This keeps large stuff out and weighs down the end of the hose. This will do a good job draining the bilge.

Rich

Rich,

What capacity pump are you using for your shower sump? Mine is a 3.5 gpm (and I just bought a 4 gpm spare to take cruising). That’s adequate for the pump’s purpose, but it’s hard to imagine either doing much good as an emergency bilge pump with such modest capacities.

As for Dan’s question, I agree with your answer. My pump & strainer are mounted at the bottom of the locker underneath the head sink. The activation switch is on the upper aft corner of that locker’s facing (above the door & aft), easy to reach from inside the shower stall.

Tor
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Silver Heels, P-424 #17
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Tor
I don’t know what the capacity of the pump is. This looks like my pump.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/bilge-pump-jabsco-diaphram-pump-8-gpm_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQhashZitem45eec15fabQQitemZ300358393771QQptZBoatQ5fPartsQ5fAccessoriesQ5fGear

It was never intended to be used to prevent flooding though in an emergency every little bit helps. The nice thing about a diaphram pump is that you can mount them up high and have it drain the bilge almost down to dry. You really can’t do this with an impeller pump. Capacity isn’t an issue. I suppose a midget could get into the bilge and somehow mount an impeller pump down at the bottom of the sump. I’d never get my fat ass down there. I’d need the jaws-of-life to get me out if I ever fell down there. If I ever mounted one down there, I’d need some way to remove it during the winter. They don’t like ice, and whatever is left down there would surly freeze.

Rich

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Dan
The bilge is not a great place to mount pumps like this. They aren’t sealed units and the bilge is very damp. If you can find a place to mount it above the bilge it will require less care. Last year I relocated mine to the space under the galley sink next to the pressure water pump. I had to disassemble the motor and clean it with PB-Blaster. I then wire brushed the motor housing and painted the whole thing. This is far less expensive than replacing the unit.

Rich

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