How to clear a blocked boat sink

MoodySabre

MoodySabre

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Getting the boat ready for a trip to Holland in a couple of days. Boys doing boy stuff, girls doing girl stuff....

"The galley sink is blocked!" - I've had the boat 7 years and it's never been blocked but it is slow because the fall is gentle.

We ummed and ahhed, we tried a few things. No go. Then a lightbulb moment. The pump off the Pela extractor. Fits perfectly over the plug hole. Sucks and blows so really effective. Three pumps and loads of junk comes out of the skinfitting. A couple of kettles of boiling water and wash-up liquid worked with the pump - loads more crud. Sink now drains like never before :D
 
MoodySabre said:
Getting the boat ready for a trip to Holland in a couple of days. Boys doing boy stuff, girls doing girl stuff....

"The galley sink is blocked!" - I've had the boat 7 years and it's never been blocked but it is slow because the fall is gentle.

We ummed and ahhed, we tried a few things. No go. Then a lightbulb moment. The pump off the Pela extractor. Fits perfectly over the plug hole. Sucks and blows so really effective. Three pumps and loads of junk comes out of the skinfitting. A couple of kettles of boiling water and wash-up liquid worked with the pump - loads more crud. Sink now drains like never before :D
Click to expand...
Dinghy pump clears mine
 
A small cylindrical wire handled bottle brush (test tube brush) with the wire pushed & araldited into a bicycle brake-cable outer makes a great flexible scrubber for sink drains.
 
MASH said:
A small cylindrical wire handled bottle brush (test tube brush) with the wire pushed & araldited into a bicycle brake-cable outer makes a great flexible scrubber for sink drains.
Click to expand...

I have been known to use the end of a hose, on one boat you could push it all the way out the hull... On others it has been wrapping a cloth round the hose as you push it into the plug hole... If you get it wrong with the hose running you find yourself a bit damp :D
 
Our sink waste is connected into the cockpit drains, in order to save a skin fitting, I suppose.
When the sink blocked I used the dinghy pump trick. A good hard pump and geysers of brown gunge erupted from the cockpit drains, luckily, not up someone's trouser leg.
 
i have one of those white plastic covers you fit over the standing rigging, that works a treat goes through to the skinfitting, as our pipe run is less than 500 mm.
The main culprit is the frying pan fat, although most is wiped out with a kitchen towel before hand..
 
I know my hose is clear as I only fitted it a few weeks ago. I've just bought a small plunger to keep it that way - slightly odd-looking thing as the handle is moulded on and it has a plastic bellows rather than the traditional rubber cup, and it utterly confused the checkout lady at Tesco who I swear was thinking it was some kind of sex aid :D. However, clearly I needn't have bothered as I too have a Pela-sucker on board and I cam imagine how effective the pump body off that would be. Thanks for the tip!

Pete
 
Don't forget, if you use a plunger in a bowl of water, it'll suck the debris up into the sink - which will quickly drop back down the pipe with the improved flow, if you let it. A tea-strainer is the perfect implement to scoop the carp out before it resettles.

Rob.
 
rob2 said:
Don't forget, if you use a plunger in a bowl of water, it'll suck the debris up into the sink - which will quickly drop back down the pipe with the improved flow, if you let it. A tea-strainer is the perfect implement to scoop the carp out before it resettles.

Rob.
Click to expand...

REMINDER: Don't have tea with rob just after he's cleared the sink :p:p:p




unless he's moved on to teabags...
 
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