Filthy Bilge scrub tools?

Captain Crisp

Captain Crisp

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I am giving my 55yr old Twister a serious internal scrub while she's on the hard. Lots of greasy gunk built up over the years in horribly inaccessible nooks and crannies... Thinking of hot water, plenty of fairy liquid, washing up brushes gaffered onto long sticks... Elbow grease... Swearing etc...
Any other useful tips?
Ta, Crisp
 
Gael Force used to do an amazing bilge cleaner this might be the stuff, but it has been a while since I bought some. Makes short work of any gunk in the bilge but wear gloves when using it as it rips all oils out of the skin.
 
Captain Crisp said:
I am giving my 55yr old Twister a serious internal scrub while she's on the hard. Lots of greasy gunk built up over the years in horribly inaccessible nooks and crannies... Thinking of hot water, plenty of fairy liquid, washing up brushes gaffered onto long sticks... Elbow grease... Swearing etc...
Any other useful tips?
Ta, Crisp
Click to expand...
As a last resort, acetone, but take care.
 
Oven cleaner worked great for me.
Warm the area up with hot water Pump it out then use oven cleaner. Most of these things work better on warm surfaces
 
Oven spray foam cleaner .... lifts EVERYTHING ... even that sticky ooze of castor oil from Echo Sounder in-hull tubes. But it needs to be thoroughly rinsed off after.

If you ever thinking to resin anything to the GRP such as in-hull tranducer tube ... Oven Cleaner makes the GRP squeaky clean ready for the job.
 
The oven clean suggested above will work well as it is highly caustic. Keep it out your eyes and off skin. It will clean the bilge grime but will have a go at aluminium and paint too. For the more accessible areas, scrubbing with an automatic dish washer powder or failing that laundry powder added as a paste is also a good choice providing abrasion as well as cleaning chemistry.
 
Captain Crisp said:
... Any other useful tips?
Click to expand...

To clean well you need a more than just soap otherwise dirt will be left behind. I don't clean my cars until I come to sell them and then hire a valet service. This is what my valet service cleaner uses: -

1. Steam cleaner with wide head and small diameter head. The steam cleaner also has vacuum device that steams and sucks up the grime.
2. Detail cleaning brushes that look like shaving soap brushes. These get right into nooks and crannies.
3. Medium stiff bristle brush
4. Rotary brush heads that attach to a battery drill. Watched a chap in the marina clean his deck with a rotary brush on a battery drill, very effective.
5. The usual sponge and cloths. The clothes were high absorbance type.

Some examples

1, Soft99 Car Care Brushes Set, 6 pcs.
2. https://sharkclean.co.uk/product/sh...KgSZQv-ZtGUwkN8ChjQLf8_5B-_1spWRoCV0EQAvD_BwE
3. https://www.autodoc.co.uk/amio/2006...OUMfjJojSyclviK1HqX02HJjo74gVSWxoCrY4QAvD_BwE
 
a. Butyl-based cleaners are very effective on heavy grease. I do not know UK brands.

b. Don't pump this overboard. Dispose in the sewer. Discharge of oil, even mixed with soap, is illegal.

c. Ventilate. Even without dangerous cleaners, bilges can have low oxygen. Propane? Fuel?

d. I wish you hadn't brought this up. But someone always does. Now I will have to dive in there and clean! (but mine isn't bad) All joking aside, a clean bilge really does make the bilge pump much more reliable and trouble free, which is a very good thing. Make sure you hose all of the spaces that can drain to the bilge in the roughest conditions. List trimmings, tools, cable ties, paint chips, and sawdust clog the pump. Get it all out.
 
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