Icebox Drain Trap

JWSutcliffe · Post by **JWSutcliffe** » Jun 16th, '10, 12:50

The drain trap in my icebox seems to be plugged - it only passes a trickle of ice melt liquid. The access plate adjacent to the trap only barely lets me get my hand inside, and I am not a sufficient contortionist to actually see inside.

How do I get the trap out to clean it? How is it fastened in?

Steve Laume · Post by **Steve Laume** » Jun 16th, '10, 13:42

I don't think you are going to get the drain fitting out of the box without cutting away some cabinetry. There is a nut on the bottom side of the drain fitting.

I sort of got a look at this when I was insulating my box as I cut an access on the inside of the cabinet next to the ice box.

As far as I know the only trap is a loop in the drain hose.

Although you might not like what ends up in your ice box you might try fishing the end of the drain out of the bilge and putting a garden hose to it. You could try working from the ice box side first but a back flush would probably do a better job.

On Raven I keep a foam plug in the ice box drain. Any ice that goes in there is either in the form of frozen jugs from home or first put in a dry bag so we never have melt water in the box. Spills and condensation are wiped dry. The plug also helps to keep cold air from draining out the bottom of the box. A loop in the drain hose with some water in it also serves this purpose but we prefer to keep things as dry as possible, Steve.

JWSutcliffe · Post by **JWSutcliffe** » Jun 16th, '10, 13:46

Steve:

The arrangement on the 31 is different than the 30. You are right - the 30 has a looped hose to the bilge. The 31 has some sort of plastic trap on the bottom of the icebox drain with a spigot out the side of the trap for the drain hose. Its this plastic trap that I am trying to figure out.

barfwinkle · Post by **barfwinkle** » Jun 16th, '10, 16:08

do you think you might be able to use a newly purchased/unused "plunger"

to force the blockage out or is it truly a "trap"?

FW & GL

marilou · Post by **marilou** » Jun 16th, '10, 18:20

Mine does not have a trap - just strainer - hose runs into bilge - try a bleach solution 15%/85%water- let stand for a day and come back with shop vac - vac - then blow air out - "reverse", In other words, suction it and then blow it.

Kevin Kaldenbach · Post by **Kevin Kaldenbach** » Jun 16th, '10, 18:41

Funny you should ask. I am in the middle of putting refrigeration in my CD31 and accidently popped mine apart. Give it a little twist and see if the outer shell doesn't want to come apart. If it does perhaps I did not break mine and it was actually meant to pull apart. I was thinking mine was broken but after reading your post I looked at it again and think it is made to twist apart.

JWSutcliffe · Post by **JWSutcliffe** » Jun 16th, '10, 21:24

Kevin:

How did you get access to the trap? Thru the little circular access port on the side, or did you open things up further?

Kevin Kaldenbach · Post by **Kevin Kaldenbach** » Jun 16th, '10, 23:10

thru the access port as is. pull on the hose for a little leverage.

JWSutcliffe · Post by **JWSutcliffe** » Jun 17th, '10, 08:55

Thanks Kevin, I will pull the access plate this weekend and try again.

Jim Cornwell · Post by **Jim Cornwell** » Jun 17th, '10, 15:21

I'll be interested to hear whether you find a trap or not. Since a trap is intended to prevent backflow of gases (stinky sewer gas in domestic plumbing) there shouldn't need to be one in an ice box afloat. On Yankee, the box drains straight to the sump. All sorts of tiny bits of ice box debris find their way into the sump, suggesting there's no trap which would be an impediment - and would be constantly clogging up. Jim.

Kevin Kaldenbach · Post by **Kevin Kaldenbach** » Jun 17th, '10, 19:14

it is a trap the question is was is suppose to come apart

JWSutcliffe · Post by **JWSutcliffe** » Jul 19th, '10, 19:51

For what its worth, the drain trap is removable!

I had to go buy a sawzall (I have been looking for an excuse to buy one for 30 years!) I had to cut away part of the decking inside the drain access panel area before I could pull the trap out. It turns out that the trap and drain hose were blocked with bits of debris and the plumbers putty that had been originally used to secure it to the sink drain used in the bottom of the icebox. The drain fitting is threaded, as is the trap, but the thickness of the FRP icebox prevents the trap from getting down far enough on the sink drain to actually engage the pipe threads. I cleaned out the hose and trap and added an elbow and short section of plastic hose to make it easier to re-engae with the nipple on the trap. I reinstalled the trap with putty - and it still doesnt drain properly into the shower sump. At some point soon I will redo this with silicone sealant.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/23556334@N05/4810151961/" title="P6272676 by jw9714, on Flickr"><img width="600" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4098/481 ... ec9a_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="P6272676" /></a>

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/23556334@N05/4810776944/" title="P6272677 by jw9714, on Flickr"><img width="600" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4135/481 ... 14d6_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="P6272677" /></a>

Troy Scott · Post by **Troy Scott** » Jul 20th, '10, 00:47

I replaced my icebox drain and hose with a new one that has a sink plug. I definitely prefer this to a trap, which would likely get really nasty and possibly pollute the icebox. It was necessary to cut an access to reach that thing. In my case, I had the engine out of the boat. I sawed away part of the bulkhead on the port side of the engine. I later epoxied it all back together, this time with a small removable panel n case, in 20 years or so, I need to look at that hose.

Duncan · Post by **Duncan** » Jul 20th, '10, 08:43

Jim Cornwell wrote:...a trap is intended to prevent backflow of gases (stinky sewer gas in domestic plumbing) there shouldn't need to be one in an ice box afloat...

I think the idea is to keep cold air from leaking out of the icebox.

As mentioned above, using a removable plug instead of a trap would also block the cold air from going down the drain.

Bill Goldsmith · Post by **Bill Goldsmith** » Jul 20th, '10, 13:30

JWSutcliffe wrote:For what its worth, the drain trap is removable!

Hi Skip. Once more this board shows the power of sharing knowledge. I have the same trap as you, and for several years I have planned to remove it and re-plumb the drain. However, the project has hovered at about #7 on my priority list for a while so I have not done anything. What I did do was reach through the access hole and try to unscrew it, but it would not budge.

Can you elaborate on exactly how you got yours loose--did it eventually budge and allow you to unscrew it? Was the drain fitting threaded directly to the top of the trap? From your description it seems they were not, since you mentioned that the FRP was too thick to engage the threads. If not, how were they connected?

Thanks!

Bill Goldsmith

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