Aluminum safe bilge disinfectant / cleaner

[ERTF]

Well I just discovered my vacuflush pump was spraying a horrific mixture of brown liquid and disintegrated toilet paper globs in my engine room. Then it leaked down into bilge.

My plan of attack is:
1. Disinfect
2. soap/scrub/wet vac out liquid/tp
3. Degreaser/disenfect
3. Fill bilge up high with water / agitate
4. Pump out thru bilge
5. Fill bilge again (to rinse) and pump out thru bilge pumps

Question is what degreaser and disenfectant should I use?

The lowest point of my bilge is near an aluminum water tank (the bottom of which is essentially inaccesable). So that just gives me pause whether I should be putting bleach / purple power in my bilge.

Opinions / recommendations?

 

[H2O_Doc]

Well I just discovered my vacuflush pump was spraying a horrific mixture of brown liquid and disintegrated toilet paper globs in my engine room. Then it leaked down into bilge.

My plan of attack is:
1. Disinfect
2. soap/scrub/wet vac out liquid/tp
3. Degreaser/disenfect
3. Fill bilge up high with water / agitate
4. Pump out thru bilge
5. Fill bilge again (to rinse) and pump out thru bilge pumps

Question is what degreaser and disenfectant should I use?

The lowest point of my bilge is near an aluminum water tank (the bottom of which is essentially inaccesable). So that just gives me pause whether I should be putting bleach / purple power in my bilge.

Opinions / recommendations?

Most degreasers (oven cleaner, dishwasher detergent, windex, fantastik) are all alkaline (high pH) for dissolving grease. Aluminum is generally incompatible with any alkaline substance (those listed above plus bleach, baking soda, lye, caustic, etc.).

Mild acids and neutral cleaners are OK for use on aluminum. I'd read up on the citrus type cleaners that are typically good degreasers. Maybe Simple Green. Those are the only two non-alkaline degreasers that I know of. Any surfactant is OK too, like Dawn dish soap. They work differently than alkaline cleaners.

After a good cleaning, a very dilute solution of bleach should be fine, because you'll only be rinsing it and short contact with aluminum and dilute bleach won't be an issue.

 

[Bacchus]

Common Simple Green isn't good around alum but they make an alum safe version. Check directions & details.
I believe the alum safe is Simple Green Pro HD and they make an Simple Green Aircraft cleaner as well.
Don't use stronger solutions than recommended.

 

[Hippocampus]

Dawn and cheap alcohol will kill everything and permanently get rid of the smell. Neutral pH. Make sure plastics or other things that can be attacked by alcohol aren’t present. Don’t know why but Dawn works better than the other dish washing liquids for boat chores. Be interested if anyone can tell me why.

 

[Jeff F]

+1 for Dawn. If you can get at it with a hose and a scub brush it'll do the cleaning, and no worries with the AL.

Hippo, you can't dilute alcohol much, right? So are you suggesting a wipedown or light spray as a final step?

 

[Comodave]

I use Extreme Simple Green for most of my cleaning. It was developed for cleaning aircraft so it won’t hurt aluminum.

 

[ERTF]

Dawn and cheap alcohol will kill everything and permanently get rid of the smell. Make sure plastics or other things that can be attacked by alcohol aren’t present.

Well there are bilge pumps down there, plus hoses.

 

[Spinner]

I imagine it might be best to turn off the bilge pumps while using cleaning solutions. I wouldn’t turn them back on until the cleaning and rinsing is done. A wet-vacuum would be the way to go. You don’t want to pump all those strong cleansers and solvents overboard, right?

 

[Xsbank]

Noflex Digester would work. No bleach!

 

[Hippocampus]

Spray cheap gin. Then rinse.

Didn’t know about Noflex. Thanks

 

[ERTF]

Alcohol isn't gonna work, it needs to be something I can dilute by filling up the bilge because some of these areas are unreachable.

Is Noflex a disinfectant?

 

[Sea Q]

just a little Noflex in bilge and a rinse of water to activate it .
That will get rid of the smells and clean up any spills .
If you want to sterilize the area look at QUAT disinfectants with a neutral PH