Unpowered bilge pump

When I was a kid and we kept wooden sailboats at a mooring leakage from the hull and cockpit cover was a hassle.

The cure was to hit the auto junk yard for a working mechanical fuel pump from a larger car.

Big cars fuel pumps pumped on both strokes , up and down.

The pump was mounter so the lever hung down.

The lever had a bolt welded to it with a bit of lead and when mounted 2 wooden stops were used to limit the swing .

The pendulum hung down and with every minor wave moved and pumped a teaspoon of water overboard. A teaspoon isnt much , byt most bays have small waves , so 24/7 removes a bunch of water.

The fuel pumps would last a summer season in sea water ,and another was easy to fit as needed.

I have seen this done in bronze , but today one would think a plastic unit would be low cost , and last more than a season.

Any MFG , out there looking for another product?

 

Interesting..

Not a manufacturer here but what a great concept!

I don't suppose this would work in a marina where there are no waves??

 

Guess you could use one of these

http://www.modernenviro.com/rainperfect-solar-water-pump-sun-power-for-rain-barrels/

 

A Whale Gusher will pump a lot more with an equal number of strokes.

 

You could use a wooden lever hanging over the side of the boat, pointing towards the dock, with the sign saying 'Do NOT pump this handle up and down'.

That should keep the bilges clear

 

^ Watson you are a comedian whose dry humor is to be appreciated.

 

Thats a really good idea.

I saw another interesting energy free bilge pump which worked on the pull of the boat on its painter.

The painter was divided into two with what I can only describe as a diaphragm pump in the middle (the pump looked like a concertina). A pipe was fed from one end of the pump to the bilge and the other just emptied into the sea. With each small tug of the boat on the painter the pump would excise a little water.

 

Sounds great for my kayak too! However, cars drink a lot less than they used to so fuel pump capacity may have gone down over the years. Get a 70's unit - they guzzled big time!

 

FAST FRED I'm quite sure there was such a pump commercially available. I've been wishing I could find one but haven't got around to it and at the moment don't need it either.

 

Fuel pump capacity has gone up, by leaps and bounds Terry. Carb equipped cars needed about 3 - 5 PSI, while modern EFI requires 60 PSI in some cases, with 40 PSI being quite normal.



Called the "Drainman" . . .

 

- but at 1 cup/min it's only good for washing toy cars!

That's an interesting pump setup though - is it using wave motion?

 

It uses the boat's motion against a dock line or mooring pendant. As the strap is stretched, it compresses the bulb. It carries about a 6' head, maybe 8'. Of course after a sudden thunderstorm, is when you'll really want one to work, but is also the time the air goes still for a few hours, meaning it's idle, just when you need it most. Generally, if you're counting on mother nature, she'll find a way to piss you off, pretty quickly.

 

>but at 1 cup/min it's only good for washing toy cars!<

Sort of depends how leaky your Teeky is.

A cup a min is 8oz so over 3 3/4 GPH would be pumped or near 90gal per day!

I doubt if a car auto pump would come close to that volume , but I think there is a better chance of a boat rocking side to side than yanking on its mooring pennant .

 

I've seen small open boats in our marina with the type of pump PAR's picture shows. They were generally filled with water because the rocking motion usually provided too little force to operate the pump. Maybe the solution would have been to use an even smaller pump.
Erik

 

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