When I bought my Down East 45, the shower in the aft stateroom’s head drained directly into the bilge, where the boat’s regular bilge pump removed it. This is not a good setup, because even with the boat’s powerful automatic bilge pump that discharged the soapy water out of the side of the boat into the sea, there was always a small amount of residue left over. It soon began to smell.
I considered fitting an automatic self-draining shower system at a cost of $200 or more. Then I thought about making one myself.
These types of automatic shower drains are pretty simple. A small bilge pump is mounted inside a watertight container, along with a float switch. As the shower water runs into the container, the switch activates the pump, which removes the water through a seacock. There is no overspill or leakage into the boat’s bilge.
I had an old bilge pump I could use, but it needed a container that had at least 6 inches of clearance inside its lid. I found a plastic container with a tight-fitting lid at a big-box store for the vast sum of $7.95. I also bought a float switch for $9.50.
The container needed an inlet and outlet pipe. I found a nylon fitting at my local hardware store. The fitting had a ¾-inch barbed pipe on one end that matched the shower drain pipe, and a 1-inch pipe thread on the other. The thread just happened to be a nice, tight fit into the 1¼-inch holes I cut in the side of the container with a hole cutter.
I was not able to find a nylon nut to fit the 1-inch pipe thread to secure the fitting to the box, and I didn’t want to use steel or stainless steel in a water-filled box, so I bought a cheap PVC pipe coupling with the same threads as the fittings in both ends. I then sawed a half inch of each end with a hacksaw to give me two round nuts to secure the fittings.
For good measure on waterproofing the seal, I also fitted a 1¼-inch internal diameter plastic sink drain washer. All these items cost less than $22.
A short length of rubber pipe from my spare pipes locker pushed snugly into the pump outlet, and equally well into the outlet fitting through the container. There was no need for any pipe on the inlet fitting because the shower water would run freely into the container. I also didn’t see any need for the internal filter that is fitted to shower drains, because only soapy water would flow into the box, and the bilge pump had a filter base.
I did buy a ¾-inch diameter, one-way check valve that fitted exactly inside the discharge pipe from the pump. This little rubber valve prevents water from running back into the container from the uphill passage of the discharge pipe over the side.
Next, I drilled tiny holes in the side of the container for the four wires from the bilge pump and float switch. I sealed them with Goop glue.
My pump was quite heavy on a 4-inch circular flat base. When I connected it to the outlet fitting, it stayed firmly in place with no need to fasten it to the bottom of the box.
The float switch needed fastening, but I didn’t want to risk a leak by drilling a hole in the base of the box and screwing it in place. Instead, I fastened it with Goop glue, which is superb for waterproof applications.
I connected one of the float switch wires to the black positive wire from the pump. The other wire from the float switch went to a single pole switch that I mounted near the shower so the pump could be activated at the time of a shower. The switch was powered from a 12-volt contact breaker on the electrical distribution board.
In the end, I mounted the complete box on a shelf in the engine room adjacent to the shower floor, but a little bit lower so water would drain directly into the box by way of gravity, then pump out through an existing hull fitting.
Even if I’d had to buy a new pump, which is about $60, I still would’ve saved money by building this myself. Sure, you can spend $200 to $350, but if you are a DIY cruiser, there is always a way to save money.
