De-stinking a bilge

[Maast]

In spite of my bilge rinsing after each trip I must have gotten some fish yuck in my bilge and it was starting to stinkm and I mean gag-a-maggot kind of stink.

I tried plugging the drain hole and filling it up with just water and then draining but that didnt do anything, and I didnt want to run straight bleach in there because its so reactive it'll eat rubber hoses, so I got a small tub of Oxy Clean laundry powder, mixed half of the small tub (about 3 or 4 cups worth) into a 5 gallon bucket of water, poured it into the bilge, and then filled up the entire bilge with water.

I let the Oxy Clean/water sit for about 4 hours and then drained it, refilled it again this time with a couple cups of mineral oil to re-lubricate anything that could need it and drained the bilge again.

Worked like a champ, my bilge is de-stunk.

Anybody else use Oxy Clean to de-stink their boat?

 

[Doug from Anchorage]

I used simple green. But quite honestly, even with all the fish blood and slime, I never had a stink issue. Just flushed it out. That is, until I lost a shrimp into the bilge and MAN! A week later, I crawled on the boat and almost lost my lunch. No matter how much I rinsed, I could not get rid of the smell. So finally, I put my dog in the boat (she's a lab) and she went straight for it to where she couldn't quite reach it. I removed the shrimp and sprayed it down with simple green and all was well again. The dog really wanted that shrimp.

 

[Captain Gugs]

I used baking soda solution to de-stink my boat a few years back after a lot of shrimp juice made it to the bilge area. It worked perfectly.

 

[avidflyer]

I use soft scrub. The small amount of bleach does a great job of cleaning the decks and the bilge!

 

[Tealer]

I use a jar of Real-Lemon. It's lemon juice and mix it with a bit of water. I put the plug in add a couple jars of lemon juice and some water and let it sit in their overnight. It's worked good and when I pull the plug it is something that can run out on the ground and I don't have to worry about the dog or grandkids getting something bad on them.

 

[tlingitwarrior]

I use soft scrub. The small amount of bleach does a great job of cleaning the decks and the bilge!

I've found soft scrub to be the go-to cleaner for my boat, really gets all kinds of stains out.