My bilges stink!

[tyce]

Any ideas how to keep my bilge smelling sweet, when i lift one of the cabin sole boards the bilge smells very musty, it is a dry bilge with minimal water in it but i cant think of a good way to improve its essence.

 

[Seajet]

How about one of those cleaners you wash / wipe on, usually green fairly pleasant smelling stuff ?

I'd be careful to get the right one, or it might smell like a freshly cleaned public loo !

I'll ask SWMBO what it is and report back.

 

[Koeketiene]

Any ideas how to keep my bilge smelling sweet, when i lift one of the cabin sole boards the bilge smells very musty, it is a dry bilge with minimal water in it but i cant think of a good way to improve its essence.

Dethol

 

[Elessar]

Any ideas how to keep my bilge smelling sweet, when i lift one of the cabin sole boards the bilge smells very musty, it is a dry bilge with minimal water in it but i cant think of a good way to improve its essence.

cats's piss stink remover from a petshop.

an enzyme that gets rid of all biological smells - and the bilge stink is usually traces of oil and diesel (or worse) so it works a treat. Doesn't try to mask it with a perfume.

it's a life saver after a diesel tank split.

 

[Tugw]

cats's piss stink remover from a petshop.

Is that the trade name?

 

[vyv_cox]

Check any drains from fridge and cool box. Spilt milk sometimes runs down them into bilges and smells very bad after a week or more.

 

[bobsadler]

i had the same problem. i put a few drops of BILGEX in the bilge now when i leave the boat. odours have gone

 

[tyce]

Bilgex looks good will give it a try, thanks for input all.

 

[Salty John]

There's a product called Bio-Clean from Bio Technics Ltd that people were raving about last year. It digests the gunge in your bilge, smells neutral and is environmentally friendly.

 

[davidej]

I think bleach is the first stop (as well as the cheapest). A good swill round will kill the bacteria (often the cause of the smell) and makes the bilges look a whole lot better.

If the smell persists- try one of the expensive cures.

 

[SimonA]

Try some cheap supermarket washing powder mixed with hot water.

 

[l'escargot]

Is that the trade name?

Probably more widely known as "Simple Solution", I have also used it with success - also removes red wine stains from fabric.

I have also used Daz in near boiling water in bilges with some success too.

 

[KINGFISHER 9]

Stockholm tar ... make her smell like a proper boat!

 

[SteveTibbetts]

A hopefully minor drift - what to do if there's only minimal access to the bilge? Mine have only a couple of small holes to the side lockers, one to the engine bilge and about half inch around a compression/table support post. I know there's a gunky oily mess down there about an inch deep I reckon but can't actually get to it. What to do? Make an access hole in the saloon floor?

 

[affinite]

As has already been said, do make sure that you check for the source. Bilges on my new boat were also "stinking". I found that a concealed anti-siphon loop vent had failed and was spraying *rappy water up behind the heads and down into the bilge
Have now sorted the leak and now off to swindlery for some bilgex.

 

[Spyro]

I think bleach is the first stop (as well as the cheapest). A good swill round will kill the bacteria (often the cause of the smell) and makes the bilges look a whole lot better.

If the smell persists- try one of the expensive cures.

I've also used bleach to good effect.

 

[Billjratt]

Stop papering over the cracks!
Where's the "stink" coming from?
Find and fix....... You don't say what the boat is, but unless it's been designed in, (the smell I mean) in which case the users association will have some workaround to circumvent, you have a FAULT...
- water (maybe contaminated by 'heads liquids' or from the galley) is getting to somewhere it can fester and develop. You have to prevent it from getting there, rather then mixing something probably equally toxic, but less odorous in with it and then having to pump out.
If it's "Condensation"as a lot of new boat owners seem to prefer.. you need more airflow - again a design problem.