interior smell from bilge

[LittleWing77]

Originally Posted by Boatyarddog

In every boat I've owned, I've painted the bilge with bilge paint.

It changes everything. It's like new again.

It may be hard to get to every cranny, but it will definitely get rid of the bilge smell.
Coat everything you can. Let the paint cure a couple days and it'll lose the solvent smell quickly.

Worked for me.
SV Cloud Duster

And further to that suggestion, CelestialSailor started a thread this week about what is a good bilge paint to use!

Paint Type for the Bilge
https://www.cruisersforum.com/forums...ge-241188.html

You'll surely foil that smell now, Taoist!
LittleWing77

[CaptTom]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

Instead of a bromine tablet that is corrosive, drop an AC Pan treatment tablet in it as it is non corrosive. Just a thought.

I thought the whole reason spa manufacturers recommended bromine was because it wasn't as corrosive as, say, chlorine.

But I'm willing to learn. Any information on what/how bromine can damage?

I wonder what compounds are used in the AC pan treatment tablets. They might be even better, since it's a similar problem they're intended to solve.

[sailorboy1]

As an ex water treatment guy i will just say bromine is corrosive, but is more effective than chlorine at certain pHs, and leave it as this is a boat forum.

[Mistress Sirena]

Originally Posted by Quadrille in JB

Ozone generators work great for eliminating smells but...
DO NOT LEAVE IT ON FOR TOO LONG!
When strongly concentrated ozone will eat rubber and vinyl, destroying them.
Our HVAC company owned a large commercial ozone generator that worked great. I loaned it to a friend who was trying to eliminate smoke odors from his home and I warned him not to leave it on for over 24 hours. Against my warnings, he left it on for 48 hours and it turned all of his new modern vinyl furniture very sticky. This ruined his new furniture

Also very harmful to your lungs don't ask me how i know !

[boat driver]

the ozone machine works ok-
but first question I have- is boat regularly closed up or ac running all the time?

My next concern is the fresh water getting into a wood stringer.?

The smell, is it rot, stinky bilge (marsh smell) , or something like a leaky head connection?
The rule of thumb is bilges need to be cleaned regularly with fresh water- sitting or old water causes the stink and mold/etc. The word seacock originated as a hole in the bottom of the wooden ship that was sealed with a wooden bung. When weather was nice the bosun would knock out the bung and thereby begin flushing the bilges. By design, the seacock was smaller than the full capacity of the bilge pumps. This flushing was done as part of the routine cleaning of the vessel.

Rot (in particular) is an airborne spore. Therefore, keeping a little moving air inside the vessel will reduce the opportunity for the spore to land and grow.

One method, very easy but not particularly human safe, is to use formaldehyde. Open all drawers, floorboards, etc. to let air circulate everywhere. Then put couple small fans around to move air. Pour a half inch of formaldehyde into a shallow cooking pan and create a wick (Tshirt) to promote evaporation. If needed put a dehumidifier onboard to accelerate evaporation. Close the boat air tight and leave for a week.

Return and open boat up without inhaling internal air. remove pans (they should be bone dry)
set fans to change air out. after couple hours if no formaldehyde odor, move back on.

This will kill everything onboard. bugs, mold, rot, etc.
It is not a kids toy, but works.
If smell returns, then something active is growing deep inside a stringer or someplace.
This does not remove the mold, etc. it simply kills it.

Good luck

[barnakiel]

It should be enough to dry the area and wash it with soap.


As others noted, vinegar seems to help in quite many cases.


b.

[garyfdl]

I cured a funkadelic odor from the bilge using enzyme based pet odor eliminator.

[CaptTom]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

As an ex water treatment guy i will just say bromine is corrosive, but is more effective than chlorine at certain pHs, and leave it as this is a boat forum.

OK then, what does it corrode on a boat?

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by CaptTom

OK then, what does it corrode on a boat?

Why dont you just look it up

[CaptTom]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

Why dont you just look it up

Because an expert once told me that it wasn't as corrosive, and that's what I should use in my spa, because of all the different materials in its construction.

Now, if another expert had a differing opinion, I'd be willing to listen to that. I might learn something.

But if it's someone claiming to be an expert, then refusing to explain, well... If I were to research every unsupported claim I ever read on the internet, I'd never have time for anything else.

[sailorboy1]

I am NOT interested in debating it. If you want to become an expert YOU look it up!

BTW - I never claimed to be an "expert". Was just someone who used the chemicals that effected $100s of millions of equipment. Compared to a pool guy's knowledge mine would be pretty useless!

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

Instead of a bromine tablet that is corrosive, drop an AC Pan treatment tablet in it as it is non corrosive. Just a thought.

I had a bilge stink issue that came from fresh water, I had a dry bilge as far as a shaft leak, but we shower in the cockpit and water would get into a shallow locker that drained into the bilge, and it stank over time.
funny thing was as long as I had salt water dripping in from the shaft there was no smell.
Anyway I was using bleach and pine sol to deal with the bilge stink, rather ineffectively as both were temp fixes.

Based on Sailor Boy’s advice I got some of these

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

They fixed the smell issue, and unlike bleach and other fixes, they are non corrosive, and bleach is chlorine of course and that off gasses, meaning you have to add it constantly to keep it effective, but these tabs are I guess some kind of biocide that does not off gas and they stay effective over time.

you’ll notice that they are advertised to be safe for computer rooms and I assume that means they are non corrosive.

They also are very effective for their intended use, and great for shower sumps as well.

Of course in my case the real fix was to fix the fresh water intrusion, but the AC condensate drain pan tabs do in fact work extremely well.

[Pat_D]

Originally Posted by Boatyarddog

Might be late in suggesting but, after cleaning bilge areas, scrubbing with a brush and rinsing with fresh water, drying.
In every boat I've owned, I've painted the bilge with bilge paint.
It changes everything.
It's like new again.
It may be hard to get to every cranny, but it will definitely get rid of the bilge smell.
So coat everything you can.
Let the paint cure a couple days and it'll lose the solvent smell quickly.
Worked for me.
SV Cloud Duster

What, exactly, is bilge paint?

[Nicholson58]

Our bilge is a deep well in the keel. Hard to clean. Straight bleach, let it slosh about for a while

[DeValency]

Originally Posted by taoist

I had a crack in water tank (built into keel) allowing water to enter from aft bilge. Patched it with flex seal and dropped in new water tank (much smaller. No more bilge water but having a hard time getting rid of bilge smell in main cabin. Air fresheners only work for awhile. Any ideas to get rid of smell?

You’re lucky it wasn’t a diesel tank leak...
1. Get a shop vac - the most important tool on any boat.
2. Get a narrow vacuum tube to get deeper to any area below.
3. Vacuum to dry
4. Get a garden pressure sprayer - the second most important tool on a boat.
5. Pressure spray in a mix of bleach, toilet cleaner, dish detergent with hot water - mix your own cocktail as you like...
6. Let it stay for an hour or so...
7. Vacuum to dry. Repeat if necessary. The last sprays are better with a dish detergent (lemon/citrus) only and mostly water so that you don’t stay with the bleach smell (unless you really like it).
Let it dry really well - mold is smelly.

Enjoy!