Diesel odour

[halb]

Evening all
has anyone managed to banish diesel odour from their boat, if indeed anyone does get it. It seems that a small amount of diesel was spilt when the filters were changed, this has led to the impregnation of clothing, bedding not very nice!

 

[bert49uk]

Frabreeze

 

[Jcorstorphine]

I had a similar problem with my old leaky Volvo MD2B which resulted in fuel oil in the bilges. I managed to get the bilges clean by using a garden spray filled with hot Citron Oil type detergent similar to this one and blasted all of the areas under the floorboards and bilge keels (It was a Westerly Pentland)

http://mistralie.co.uk/products/bilge-cleaner-deodoriser?gclid=CKXnmPLJrr0CFTTJtAodcngAgA

However, even though I ended up with clean bilges my bunk cushions still carried a lingering pong of diesel so I took them home and left them out in the sun on the patio during a very sunny spell. This did reduce the smell a little but when you laid down on them you could still smell the diesel.

As SWMBO was still not happy I took all the cushions into the Company where I was Technical Manager involved in the design and construction of large vacuum processing chambers which were big enough to house all of the cushions.

The cushions were put into the chamber and the air evacuated. I left them there for about an hour and when I took them out, the smell had gone.

Now the problem is I am sure you don't have access to a 6 m3 vacuum chamber but if you can borrow, steal, loan hire source something like an Edwards 18 m3 / hour vacuum pump and fit a cushion into a large Polythene bag then connect the vacuum pump to the bag. Something like this

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/9283859.htm?CMPID=GS001&_$ja=cgid:7909338527|tsid:41409|cid:161745887|lid:49365508367|nw:g|crid:27928436567|rnd:9367418852861336219|dvc:c|adp:1o2

This bag is a little on the small side but you could remove the foam and cut the foam but you may find bigger Vacuum bags.

If you can get this together I would run the pump for approx 24 hours on each cushion as you will not get the same low pressure as I did in a leak tight steel vacuum chamber with 50 Kw of vacuum pumps..

You could try a heavy duty vacuum cleaner but it will not reach anything like the vacuum level obtained with an industrial vacuum pump BUT it will allow you to remove the air from the foam and then backfill it with clean air which will provide a sort of forced ventilation of the foam. If you try this, you would only require to pull the vacuum then vent and then repeat a number of times. You might even consider venting the bag with some nice smelly something like and air freshener

You just need to "think outside the box" or should that be "think inside the bag"

Best of luck

 

[Scotty_Tradewind]

far better than the smell of diesel or stale bilges, I recommend.....

https://www.google.co.uk/search?sit...j4.7.0....0...1c.1.37.hp..1.6.658.b-sPAWU-mQk

 

[nigelmercier]

I use these, they work well: http://amzn.to/1d0fkUP

 

[vyv_cox]

Sunsail use Toilet Duck. Very effective in our experience.

 

[charles_reed]

Sunsail use Toilet Duck. Very effective in our experience.

2nded

 

[lpdsn]

Evening all
has anyone managed to banish diesel odour from their boat, if indeed anyone does get it. It seems that a small amount of diesel was spilt when the filters were changed, this has led to the impregnation of clothing, bedding not very nice!

A small electric bar fire works pretty well.

I spilt about half a litre the year before last when a mobo passed whilst I was pumping a bit out of the sump of the tank to check for water and the bowl I was putting it in slid off the top of the tank. Mopped up most of it, but still a diesel stink.

A few weekends staying on board over the winter using an 800W bar heater to keep me warm and the smell disappeared. I reckon the fire slowly burned up the diesel. A fan heater wouldn't have got hot enough to burn up the diesel molecules.

Obviously, don't leave an electric fire like that unattended.

 

[vyv_cox]

Sunsail use Toilet Duck. Very effective in our experience.

Jill crewed on a delivery trip from Holyhead to Largs a few years ago. The boat's fuel was topped up in Bangor, when it was discovered that the pipe had been disconnected. A locker in the forecabin where she was sleeping was almost full before it was noticed that the tank was not filling. The smell was appalling but a few squirts of Toilet Duck made the cabin habitable again.

 

[Danbury]

Sunsail use Toilet Duck. Very effective in our experience.

This may seem a stupid question... but exactly how do you use Toilet Duck to remove odours ?? I'm thinking that Toilet Duck is a liquid that is usually squirted around a toilet pan ??

 

[catlotion]

Pour a load of Virosol in the bilges. Magic stuff:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Clover-Ch...r-Quality-Cleaning-Product-10Lt-/170994152321

Wear gloves though!

 

[vyv_cox]

This may seem a stupid question... but exactly how do you use Toilet Duck to remove odours ?? I'm thinking that Toilet Duck is a liquid that is usually squirted around a toilet pan ??

Squirt it exactly as you would with your toilet, then wipe it all around with a rag.

 

[SvenH]

I have used ground coffee to absorb the oil and smell. I Spread out 500 grams where I thought the oil had spread and let it sit for a week.
Maybe a bit more difficult if it has soaked in to mattresses and stuff.

I recently used coffee to get rid of dog scent in "new" car too, also left it for a week.