Is there any reason.....

[Guest]

why I shouldn't use a high strength industrial degreaser to clean out smelly and oily bilges. Planks are mahogany on oak and copper fastened.

Bilges are in this state because I emptied most of the contents of the oil filter in the bilges when changing oil at the beginning of the season. Most of the oil has now in fact been removed but a quantity has smeared on the planks. The smell is awful; probably from the sulphur in the dirty oil. I have tried Bilgex and such like but these products hardly improve the smell.

I have used copious amounts of hot water followed by even greater amounts of sea water but to no avail so far.

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[ianwelsh]

There's the environmental reason. It depends where the residue will drain to

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[davidbuttriss]

No probs using a proprietry engine degreaser, enviromental issues for removal though.
Save yourself hassle and invest in one of the oil removal tools sold in chandlies. Not only do they make emptying oil from engines clean and easy they can also be used for removing contaminated bilge water safely and also get into any pockets you may have difficulty reaching


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[Peterduck]

When I bought my current boat, an old gaff ketch, the previous owner had just emptied the whole sump, I think, into the bilges. The smell was really stomach-turning, and I have a poor sense of smell! The bilges were not only full of oil, they were also full of lead ballast, so that a through cleaning job was almost impossible. I kept on adding industrial degreaser for several years, pumping the effluent into old oil bottles which I kept after changing the oil in my car. These I would take home and empty the oil/water mixture into the sewer, knowing that there was a treatment plant at the other end of the sewer which could cope with oil and worse. If possible, I would decant the oil off the top of one bottle into another, until I got down to mostly water. The decanted oil would go to the company I buy my oil from, who would recycle it. It was all very trying. I suppose that the first five years were the worst, but now I can pump my bilges without worry. The oil sticks to, and soaks into the planking and everything else
abominably.

Peter.

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[tcm]

Re: better idea ?

industrial degreaser can be a bit much - there was a product known as elbow grease, bright green, very powerful and needs care.

But if you're rinsing out, then it shd be ok.

However, i have had fab results with truck film remover. There's a product called truckwash i think, and also a poster hereabouts "hlb" sells the stuff from his bottemless well and badges it as er "boat remover" - use that diluted 5 to 1 and your bilges will be like new.

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