Shower sump - Replace with gulper?

Check out the Whale site, they now have available a sensor arrangement which makes them automatic, you may feel that it adds extra complexity which you do not want, but it is there if you want it. Most of my narrowboat and widebeam liveaboard customers have them installed due to the lack of room for a sump, they obviously get a lot of stick and they swear by them (not at them) usually a simple switch with rubber boot inside the shower is the control solution if no sensor is used.
 
''Ideally: Shower drain - hose - gulper - hose - outlet''
This is the arraignment I have.It has worked perfectly though I have only had it for one season.I have the switch just outside the shower.I have the Whale Gulper 220 which I think can cope with hair and can be run dry.As it is in the bilge it could also used as another bilge pump in a emergency.

Martin
 
Fitted the gulper today. Fingers crossed this is the last of having to open up this section of the bilge (easy access but never good news when you have to go in there).

No more sump, no more float switches, no more filters... woohoo!! We just have to remember to turn on the pump before showering. It does sound like a randy frog, but only from inside the heads (hardly noticeable outside) so we'll happily live with that for hassle free showering.

Note that in the pic below, there is a plastic insert inside the smaller (clear) pipe, just incase anyone thinks I just stuck 2 flexible pipes together and tightened up! Excuse the wet bilge, was giving it a clean while I was at it.

IMAG1628_zpssf2yx1wi.jpg
 
Is the Y connection on the inlet sider or outlet of the gulper?

The skin fitting looks like brass or bronze and the ball valve and 90 deg elbow looks like Stainless but is probably nickel coated brass, beware.
 
I use a Gulper as a shower sump drain / bilge hoover.

For this I have a 1" flexi hose with a smaller end fitting with a 10mm entry hole. This can reach all over the engine bay.

1 Definitely fit a suction strainer as the valves hate small lumps of debris

2 I find when hoovering the bilge that last 5mm doesn't get drawn because the 400mm if has to lift up the flexi before the tube turns back down to the pump means the inward suck stroke doesn't quite get all the liquid up so this then falls back on the next stroke. I tried a simple NRVv at the suction inlet, but this choked on the smallest piece of crud also.

Sucts like a very sucky thing as long as the valves are clean, so good as long as the end is fully immersed.

Comments about the strange camel fart noise are quite correct. Some times it sounds like it is talking.
 
Bandit said:
Is the Y connection on the inlet sider or outlet of the gulper?

The skin fitting looks like brass or bronze and the ball valve and 90 deg elbow looks like Stainless but is probably nickel coated brass, beware.
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The Y is the inlet. My shower has 2 drains (only 1 shower) but only ever drains into the forward drain... guess they anticipated people would be showering while on the plane!

Re. Seacock - I had heard a lot of mention of issues in the past, but wondered was salt water a contributer? I'm on fresh water, and any time i've inspected (it had a survey last year), didn't see any issues. Please feel free to provide more info!

superheat6k said:
I use a Gulper as a shower sump drain / bilge hoover.

For this I have a 1" flexi hose with a smaller end fitting with a 10mm entry hole. This can reach all over the engine bay.

1 Definitely fit a suction strainer as the valves hate small lumps of debris

2 I find when hoovering the bilge that last 5mm doesn't get drawn because the 400mm if has to lift up the flexi before the tube turns back down to the pump means the inward suck stroke doesn't quite get all the liquid up so this then falls back on the next stroke. I tried a simple NRVv at the suction inlet, but this choked on the smallest piece of crud also.

Sucts like a very sucky thing as long as the valves are clean, so good as long as the end is fully immersed.

Comments about the strange camel fart noise are quite correct. Some times it sounds like it is talking.
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This is only used as a shower drain pump, so no debris. There is a little strainer on the drain in the shower that picks up hair, so we just clean that out when needs be.

Does sound like a randy frog, though. The neighbours will think i'm shagging a frog any time I shower :D

seastoke said:
Seem a lot of electrical conections have youjust taped them up
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I had to extend the wires that came out of the pump due to positioning. There are 2 sets of connections, not unusual. Each connector is crimped and heat-shrinked (shrank?) - Totally adequate and much better than i've seen in the past (i'm quite OCD about electrics). Granted it's not the tidiest, but it's in the forward bilge, where nothing else ever goes, don't see the point in being too anal about presentation, provided it's fit-for-purpose
 
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as long as you don't expect the gulper to suck water the Y inlet should be fine (at least I think so!)

don't like the fact that it's too low on the bilge. Personally would hung it off a bulkhead or the shower floor (upside down if needed, no problem)

regarding the worm and screw I've managed to destroy one of my gulpers by having it dump some dirty bilge water (with small plywood debris) what happened is that the debris blocked the skinfitting outlet and the built of pressure destroyed the plastic bit :(
Got a spare motor now :D

cheers

V.
 
The gulper will suck water 3m vertical and pump to discharge.

Try it but if the water flow throught the y piece is not balanced it could suck air as the line of least resistance?

But it's plumbed in so try it and see.

The old Tupperware box that you have binned was gravity feed to the box and pump out.
 
Just to be clear, the pump works fine... I tested it quite a bit yesterday.

There are one-way valves within the gulper. When I got it, I tested it with my mouth (ooh er!)
From the inlet: I could push, but not suck
Form the outlet: I could suck, but not push

Then then I added the reducer piece on the outleft (in the foreground), there was what looked like another joker valve. The Y Valve is the inlet, with about 12" of gravity to help the water down to it.

All I can say is, it works damn well, and i'm delighted with it (so far). The only nuisance is the well known 'randy frog' sound... will quickly get over that, just turn the stereo up and inform the neighbours i'm not into shagging frogs :D
 
alt said:
Folks,
Last season my traditional float switch gave up, so replaced it with one of those Whale no-moving-items ones. Less than 6 months later, it's given up!

I am thinking of sucking it up and buying a Whale Gulper pump.

What I would like to do is remove the shower sump altogether.

Ideally: Shower drain - hose - gulper - hose - outlet

Would this work? I would just turn on the pump when going for a shower and turn off when done. The other advantage is that there would be no need for the filter/strainer in the shower sump and i'd remove the whole shower sump box.

Will this idea work? Will the pump take hair? SWMBO has long hair!

If my above idea would work, any recommended products? I don't need a huge capacity one, i'd be looking at getting the smallest one available (well, within reason) - Any recommendations?
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I have mine set up just like you are talking about ..Shower drain - hose - gulper - hose - outlet.
Works fine just turn on the gulper @start and finish when using the shower.
 
moonraker 36 said:
The Y is the inlet. My shower has 2 drains (only 1 shower) but only ever drains into the forward drain... guess they anticipated people would be showering while on the plane!

Read more at http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthrea...Replace-with-gulper/page3#dmKSKkVdCeTFHx0z.99

If you have two drains i would plug one as the gulper will be drawing in air and losing vacuum,reducing its performance.
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Having tested it, it pumps more water than the shower can provide, so i'm happy out!
 
njrickard said:
The only thing i can add to this is what about a simple flo-switch on the cold flow, so when shower is turned on so is the pump when switched off so is pump ? maybe a bit belt and braces, cheers
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Just Googled and seems like a great idea, but, I think i'll keep it simple. Turn on when showering, turn off when finished
 
Norman_E said:
Be very careful where you install a Whale Gulper pump. If its in the bilge and you ever get any seawater there it will fail. The problem is that the worm wheel that drives the pump head is plastic and the worm is steel. Any exposure to water will rust the steel worm, which will then grind away the teeth on the plastic wheel. Unless Whale have changed the worm to bronze or stainless steel since I bought mine the thing is not fit for purpose IMHO.
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Exact thing happened on ours, replaced after six months FOC but a pain to refit.
 
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