Cleaning stinking drains

Hey guys,

Our galley sink drain is starting to emit a funky odor. It drains just below the waterline so is exposed to seawater. Looking for recommendations on the best thing to use to clean and deodorize.

Thanks

I use a lot of hot fresh water followed by liberal pouring of vinegar. Boaters tend to minimize water use and don't flush the pipes enuff. So when your tied up to the dock, run the hot water and don't be afraid to empty the tank. Then several cups of vinegar to follow. Did this on both the boat and the RV and it helps.
Good luck!

hydrogen peroxide will also help kill anything living in the joints. I don't know if that's better than Vinegar, but may help.

I keep a spray bottle of diluted bleach under each sink.

I give each sink a shot when it smells and it is handy for mildew in corners or small spots. Handy for spraying in remote access areas to the hull interior that also usually has a touch of milder here and there.

Close the seacock (assuming that, because it drains below waterline, there is a seacock. If there isn't, there should be!).. Put about 2 oz of Raritan C.P. into the drain and fill with water...let stand at least overnight.. Open the seacock, flush out the drain. If you'll do this once a month, you'll always have clean sweet smelling drains. A couple of ounces down the shower drain on a into a sump that's about 25% full of water on a regular basis when it can stand at least overnight will keep it running free and odor free. It can remain in a sump or a drain for a year without harming anything, but it does need time for the enzymes to do their job.

So WHY Raritan C.P.? Although Raritan only markets it as a toilet bowl cleaner--an excellent one!--it's a bio-enzymatic cleaner that also happens to be best sump and drain cleaner on the planet. Not only does it destroy odors on contact, but the enzymes in it "eat" grease, oil, hair, soap scum...all the the things that make drains and sumps stink and clog up sump pumps.

Btw... C.P. was part of the product line that my own company developed and then sold to Raritan...possibly the BEST product in our line.

HeadMistress said:

Close the seacock (assuming that, because it drains below waterline, there is a seacock. If there isn't, there should be!).. Put about 2 oz of Raritan C.P. into the drain and fill with water...let stand at least overnight.. Open the seacock, flush out the drain. If you'll do this once a month, you'll always have clean sweet smelling drains. A couple of ounces down the shower drain on a into a sump that's about 25% full of water on a regular basis when it can stand at least overnight will keep it running free and odor free. It can remain in a sump or a drain for a year without harming anything, but it does need time for the enzymes to do their job.

So WHY Raritan C.P.? Although Raritan only markets it as a toilet bowl cleaner--an excellent one!--it's a bio-enzymatic cleaner that also happens to be best sump and drain cleaner on the planet. Not only does it destroy odors on contact, but the enzymes in it "eat" grease, oil, hair, soap scum...all the the things that make drains and sumps stink and clog up sump pumps.

Btw... C.P. was part of the product line that my own company developed and then sold to Raritan...possibly the BEST product in our line.

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Howdy Peggie

C.P. sure sounds great... Your own Co developed it... maybe I missed something all this time. Can you further enlighten regarding your Co?

Cheers! - Art

You haven't missed anything Art...I started the company in '87 with one product, added a few that we could stand behind with money back guarantee, became a distributor and mail order retailer for every US mfr of toilets, tanks and related products and accessories, became a vendor to WM, B/US and a couple other national retailers, learned a LOT along the way...sold it to Raritan in '99. My occupation ever since has been "semi-retired consultant/author."

Greetings,
Ms. HM. "...My occupation ever since has been "semi-retired consultant/author." Ummmm....you forgot cute!

We've always had good success with CP.


About that seacock thing... I suppose, if the discharge is below the waterline...


But we've found P-traps to be quite common as well, and one source of odor is simply stuff (soap, hair, grease, whatever, depending on sink) sitting in the trap. In that case, a good rinse is useful... but we've also augmented with a little toy plunger, to break up the lettuce or whatever... so more flushing can move more of that out over the hump and out the rest of the line.


Plus periodic treatments with CP.


Although vinegar and baking soda can do some good, too.


-Chris

P-traps do not belong on boats. Their sole purpose on land is to provide a water gap that blocks sewer gasses that would otherwise escape through showers, tubs and sinks. But sink, tub and shower drains on boats aren't connected to sewers, eliminating the need for P-traps to block any gasses from sewers (gray water tanks CAN stink, but don't have to if they're maintained, so they're not a valid defense of P-traps). Because all drains on boats drain via gravity, P-traps are nothing but impedances to good drainage. And, as Chris noted, they become traps for food and other non-liquids that go down drains.

Haven't have the problem. Maybe putting a bit of chlorine in the fresh-water tanks helps.

HeadMistress said:

You haven't missed anything Art...I started the company in '87 with one product, added a few that we could stand behind with money back guarantee, became a distributor and mail order retailer for every US mfr of toilets, tanks and related products and accessories, became a vendor to WM, B/US and a couple other national retailers, learned a LOT along the way...sold it to Raritan in '99. My occupation ever since has been "semi-retired consultant/author."

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Cool!!!

RT Firefly said:

Greetings,
Ms. HM. "...My occupation ever since has been "semi-retired consultant/author." Ummmm....you forgot cute!

Click to expand...

Agreed!


Cute was well before "semi-retired" too... so was and is smart!!

Great idea for the CP with closed seacock. We're going to give that a go.

Thanks Peggy!

A 20 year career in advertising overlapped my starting a company that specialized in poop management. Several people have told me it really wasn't much of a career leap.

I suspect gunk in the pipe. There is a gizmo sold at the dollar store that has little nubbies on it. Plunge it down the drain and then tug it up. Do that multiple times and you'll be surprised what all appears.

I just did mine and it was disgusting. No smell as my drain is above the water line. And the hair (puppy) managed to catch a lot of other stuff that should have gone down the drain.

It's called a Zip-It drain cleaner. Here's a picture from an upcoming article (unpublished as of yet)

HeadMistress said:

P-traps do not belong on boats. Their sole purpose on land is to provide a water gap that blocks sewer gasses that would otherwise escape through showers, tubs and sinks. But sink, tub and shower drains on boats aren't connected to sewers, eliminating the need for P-traps to block any gasses from sewers (gray water tanks CAN stink, but don't have to if they're maintained, so they're not a valid defense of P-traps). Because all drains on boats drain via gravity, P-traps are nothing but impedances to good drainage. And, as Chris noted, they become traps for food and other non-liquids that go down drains.

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Many manufacturers don't seem to know that first part.

I've read it's also about blocking gasses (including CO, as from gensets) from the boat you're rafted to. I guess that sounds slightly plausible...

janice142 said:

I suspect gunk in the pipe.

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I suspect Janice's Shucker has a P-trap.

-Chris

ranger42c said:

Many manufacturers don't seem to know that first part.

I've read it's also about blocking gasses (including CO, as from gensets) from the boat you're rafted to. I guess that sounds slightly plausible...





I suspect Janice's Shucker has a P-trap.

-Chris

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Good point on the genset exhaust or CO in general. Guess it would depend if the thru-hull empties under water or not.

Goes to show...many different opinions and reasons to do things a particular way on a boat...and depending on which position is taken...might sway the way one deals with setting a boat up.

P-traps in sink drains aren't much protection from CO...Every above waterline thru-hull, hatch and even the smallest cracks that allow air in are openings for CO from gas generators. I've known of more than a few times when canvas cockpit enclosures became death traps. Diesel is low risk unless you're in the engine room with a leaky exhaust...but anyone who runs a gas genset while sleeping is suicidal even the boat has CO detectors.

More than a few that own gas boats with gensets will disagree about being suicidal...and there was at least one death the USCG has attributed to CO making its way into a stateroom through the sink drain....

Obviously a freak accident...but then again...where are the openings and likely hood of being in the path of CO?

Just saying there are more than one set of concerns and experiences that drive boat designing, building and ,modifying.

ranger42c said:

I suspect Janice's Shucker has a P-trap.

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Hi Chris. Neither do now though both had one. I want a clear run to the water when stuff goes down the drain.

There is one unfortunate downfall: In the winter in windy conditions cold air can blow up the sink drain in the head. Brrr. I've got a stopper for that now.

And too I add something to cover the drain anyway. We always used to keep the sink stopper upside down in the hole as ours (40'er) was simply a straight pipe down.

I remember mother dropped a knife down the drain and thought "that didn't happen" so she dropped a second one. Fortunately we weren't in real deep water and I was able to retrieve them though I balked at doing so. It is not fun when you're hunting knives -- and the second drop (deliberate!!) really ticked me off. I knew better than to grumble but five decades later I still remember hunting that second damn knife.

Still, I suppose all kids have their memories of parental authority run amok.

Ah well, it's water under the hull now...

Good point Janice about the cold air...brisk winds and 35 degrees tonight and p traps sound better all the time.

Plus they would make it easier to recover things dropped down the sink. In all my dirt houses p traps were only occasional maintenance items so their benefits could outweigh the negatives, especially if living aboard and wintering aboard.

Gas engines of any sort should not be run while (all are) sleeping on a boat. There are exceptions when in transit and at least one is awake while other sleep. In that case good alarms should be operational and good ventilation utilized too.

There have been several on houseboats on inland lakes. The one I will never forget happened on Lake Mead...several rafted against a cliff, gensets running. One of the women wasn't feeling well...took a float raft out and floated around away from the raft for an hour or so...felt much better. But began feeling sick again soon after returning, so she and her husband broke away from the raft and went back to the slip and then home. The next morning she was feeling fine, so they took their runabout to go back to join their friends...and found all of them dead in their beds from CO.

That one was the most dramatic, but only one of many that were a result of running a gas genset overnight where there was NO breeze to carry exhaust fumes away from the boat.

Since these and other CO deaths occur on INTRAstate lakes that aren't under USCG jurisdiction, they don't make it into CG stats.

janice142 said:

Hi Chris. Neither do now though both had one. I want a clear run to the water when stuff goes down the drain.

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It was just a guess.

Surprised you get any "vegetation" in there, though, if there's no trap... I think that's the biggest culprit we have to deal with.

I was just winterizing our fresh water side yesterday, which included plunging and flushing the sink drains... specifically because of the P-traps...

-Chris

Folks that set up to liveaboard need the sink to drain above the WL or well below it.

When iced in a sink slush is not pretty but does work. If the toilet discharges above the WL, do not use colored toilet paper.

Discharge a foot or so below the WL works fine in New England cool , but the hassle of any grease solidifying exists.

Our solution is a marine flex hose (wire wound) to the seacock from under the sink .

The seacock is located so the hose (sink is above the WL ) can be pulled and a broom stick used to clear any obstruction.

KISS

ranger42c said:

[P traps] I've read it's also about blocking gasses (including CO, as from gensets) from the boat you're rafted to. I guess that sounds slightly plausible...

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Put the stopper in.

Sometimes it's not a separate trap, it's a loop in the drain hose. Shorten the hose to remove the loop. You don't need a trap.