1999 Sea Ray 270 Sundancer Cabin bilge

I don't understand why the approx 2 gallon bilge under that shower/ac condensate tray (12" wide x 12" length and 3" high - that hold float switch and bilge pump), i guess for overflow, does not have a bilge pump or a drain hole to drain into the engine compartment to drain the 2 gallons. I had to syphon it out. Can someone help me understand if they forget to but a drain hole for that 2 gallons or a bilge pump in thw area (see picture).

270Sun said:

I don't understand why the approx 2 gallon bilge under that shower/ac condensate tray (12" wide x 12" length and 3" high - that hold float switch and bilge pump), i guess for overflow, does not have a bilge pump or a drain hole to drain into the engine compartment to drain the 2 gallons. I had to syphon it out. Can someone help me understand if they forget to but a drain hole for that 2 gallons or a bilge pump in thw area (see picture).

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Water should not get in there. That sump should have a top that seals it and the water in the box gets pumped overboard by the pump inside. Or maybe I am misunderstanding the question?

Creekwood said:

Water should not get in there. That sump should have a top that seals it and the water in the box gets pumped overboard by the pump inside. Or maybe I am misunderstanding the question?

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I agree that water should not get in there but my 400 has a "high water" bilge pump located in this very area, slightly below and aft of the shower sumps. It surely seems possible this is model specific but I too would have expected some redundancy.

Hey OP - to Creekwoods point unless you're getting water from somewhere else you should be able to resolve this root cause of the issue by working on your sump box. If it's overflowing, replace the pump and the switch and seal the lid with silicon when you put it back together. If the box is cracked or you have leaking lines, replace them and eliminate the leak. If everything is working as it should the box should be quite water tight, even when full. If/when your pump or switch fail, however, this means you're going to get water backing up into your AC trays or shower pans.

And last, in the for-what-it's-worth category, since you're already getting intimate with this sump box you might as well replace the pump and the float switch. Those buggers are practically wear items. Might as well get it out of the way...they will fail, eventually.

Creekwood said:

Water should not get in there. That sump should have a top that seals it and the water in the box gets pumped overboard by the pump inside. Or maybe I am misunderstanding the question?

Click to expand...

Come to think of it - don't you also have a high water pump in your mid-bilge someplace? I swear I had one on my 340...but I can't recall with 100% certainty.

Ok, thanks for all the advice. I guess I need to explain how I found this shower/ac condenser bilge pump - didn't even know it was in the boat. I thought the shower and ac condenser water drained out the side drain holes of the boat (oops, wrong assumption), just like my water from the cabin sink.

I have had this boat for a few years, never kept it in the water at a marina full-time until this year, so never used the cabin to live in for weeks at a time - wish I did when I first got the boat, marina life is great, relaxing, and you meet good people.

This past 4th of july, went into the cabin about 1am after fireworks, I heard this a buzzing sound, never heard it before. Sounded like it was coming from the shower or refrigerator area. Shut of all ac power and still heard it. Was to tired to troubleshoot anymore and went to bed. Woke up at 8am, to still hear the buzzing sound. Went into my engine compartment and disconnected battery 1, no more buzzing. Another person that owned a Sea Ray informed me that there is a hiden compartment under the steps in the cabin that holds the shower/ac condensor bilge pump and float switch (news to me). Long story short, the bigle pump drained all the water put the float switch was down but no shutting off. I lifted it and dropped it and it shut the bilge pump off. Filled tray with water, and float switched turned the pump on and water drained and float switch drop and pump continued to run (tried to clean switch put kept failing on). Got myself a new float switch and will install soon.

Go back a few weeks and i cleaned and hosed my cabin shower down, no batteries in boat and therefore no bilge shower bilge operation (oops, thought it drained without bilge as previously explained). So my guess now is that water went into the tray, the lid must not be seal tight as someone mention in this chat and it overflowed to the sump - mystery solved.

But this raised a question, with my boat in the marina and I leaving the ac on at 80 degrees to keep humidity down, what if the bilge or float fails, it will flood my cabin. My plan is to seal the lid with silicon, as mentioned, but if it back flows to the shower or ac tray, it will still overflow into the cabin right? It should have been designed to flow into engine compartment and get pumped out with the engine compartment bilge pumps.

You can buy a completely new shower sump with pump and switch for about $130. On a boat the age of yours its a great investment. When you re-connect the hoses make sure your shower drain goes into the inlet with the strainer. That is to keep hair and crud out of your pump. Next, mercury float switches suck and will all fail. I quit using them and went to a switch that works by conductivity like the Water Witch. No moving parts and I had 4 of them in my last boat and after 5 years there were no failures. The cost $30-40.
Next, if you do not have an emergency high water bilge pump in that compartment you should install one. A 2-3000 GPM will be more than adequate and you just wire it through a float or other type of switch (see above) and direct to a battery so it will operate even if the battery switch is off. Do not drain it into the bilge/engine room. Drain it overboard. If you are going to leave your boat in the water for any period of time this is a cheap investment. These are some of the little things of boat ownership that can make your life miserable or enjoyable. Remember....There is never time, or money, to fix it right but always time, and money, to fix it over.

I'm glad you have discovered Marina Life. I loved having a big boat in a marina. Prior to retirement I traveled about 40 weeks a year for work. All of it was air travel. I left Mondays and got home usually Friday before noon. I unpacked, loaded my dogs in my truck, hit the grocery and liquor store and went to the boat. My wife met me there after work Friday evenings. We often never left the dock. We would go home on Sunday before noon. I always said it was my drug of choice.

The more you take care of the nagging items now, the more enjoyable your Marina Life will be. Enjoy....
Shawn

I will look into this water witch.

Thanks.