Cleaning Bilges with Bleech - is it o.k.

[Zhivili]

I should think like many others, if you try to push fuel lines, cables and the like through the bilge section of our Beneteau, you keep pulling out black muddy slime. To get rid of this, I was thinking of flooding the bilges with water containing bleach. Leaving it for a few hours and then pumping out. Has anyone tried this? Will it get rid of the black mud ? Will the bleech have any effect on the various hoses, fuel lines, aerial cables etc. or indeed the fibreglass itself. Advise please on how to effectively get rid of this black mud.

 

[Aardee]

Where had you planned on pumping it out? - Not sure the average harbour/ marina would be too chuffed at someone giving their boat a bleach enema...

 

[Zhivili]

Good point - could be pumped out into tanks

 

[jimbouy]

Given that the muddy slim is probably oily then surely a detergent based bilge cleaner would do the job far better.

 

[Zhivili]

Thanks Jimbouy. Thanks just the sort of information I wanted. Is there any trade name of a suitable cleaner ?

 

[webcraft]

You can get stuff called Bilgex eg HERE from Force4

- Nick

 

[jimbouy]

Your local friendly chandlers will sell you one of many brands of bilge cleaner. Failing that a bottle of washing up liquid will do almost as good a job.


Keep the water agitated as you pump out, then rinse with plenty of fresh water......

 

[totopalm]

MMMMmmmm!! and it smells better than bleach

 

[Evadne]

I've always been told that bleach softens fibreglass, so I wouldn't do it myself. You'd have to be sure it was all rinsed out. I use strong detergents, Bilgex, Fairy liquid, etc. W/up liquid is cheaper than Bilgex, but I do find it is not as concentrated. Mix it up for the first pump out, then scrub wherever is still stained or oily with neat detergent, rinse and pump out again. Given that the slime is invariably oily or dieselly I only do this ashore, onto the ground, or bail it out into a 10 gallon drum for disposal somewhere other than into the harbour.

 

[Zhivili]

Thanks for all your help guys. Abandon the bleech idea. Use Bulgex or Fairy Liquid seems to be the solution, and pumped to container and not into the marina

 

[Frontier]

[ QUOTE ]
Good point - could be pumped out into tanks



[/ QUOTE ]

But then what are you going to do with it?

 

[sailorman]

Washing machine powder doesnt "foam" much but cleans well

 

[fishermantwo]

I find Truck wash as good as any.

 

[SimonA]

What I have done is buy some oil absorbent sheets. I then left these in the bilges with the oily water for a couple of weeks. When I went back the sheets were covered in oil and the water was clear. I then removed the sheets for disposal at an oil recycling centre and put a small amount of bio degradable washing up liquid in the bilge and left the boat to rock about for another week. What's left can then be pumped out with the bilge pump without damaging the environment.

In the past I have also used a wet & dry vacuum cleaner to suck oily water from the bilges. This can then be cleaned up in the same way before being poured down a drain.

 

[l'escargot]

I've used "Daz" on bilges with excellent results.