Anyone using auto bilge pump for shower sump?

[Encourager]

Originally Posted by vpbarkley

Hello fellow cruisers,

Our boat has a Whale diaphragm pump that drains the shower sump and a separate float switch. The pump makes a huge racket replete with slurping sounds befitting its namesake, if it were sipping a stadium sized bowl of soup! Now, there's something you don't see everyday!

Unlike an actual whale, this arrangement has no intelligence whatsoever; the diaphragm pump starts and stops a dozen or more times over the course of a shower.

We have an auto bilge pump that's super quiet with an integral level sensor. It has some smarts so it doesn't switch on and off all the bloody time.

It has a strainer that's easy to clean and it tolerates bilge detritus well. It seems like it would be a natural to handle the shower sump.

Is anyone using an auto bilge pump for a shower sump? Does it work well?

Thank you

Both showers on our boat drain to a Rule sump pump in a half-gallon container that allows the pump to run continually during the shower. There's not mechanical or noise difference between that sump pump and any bilge pump. We've had to replace on sump pump over the last ten years.

[DeValency]

Just replaced one of the (Two) shower drain pumps with a Whale BP 1552 Gulper diaphragm pump. At least in my case, the pumps are slightly elevated above the shower floor and installed under the galley sink. - so a bilge pump wouldn’t work at any case as it can’t self prime. Also, as others commented here, you really don’t want to deal with cleaning the gray water pump and strainer - it will always be in the most inconvenient moment.
The new Whale pump is surprisingly quiet vs. the former and the existing other shower (not original) Flojet pump, works much faster and perfectly leave a dry floor in the shower.
***Another very important note is that diaphragm pump serves also as a check valve to eliminate return to the shower sump/floor, even if there is a good anti siphon loop after the pump. Bilge pump does not.