Galley Sink Drains Annoyingly Slow

[TFlight]

Is anyone else having a hard time getting water to drain down the galley sink. I have to poke the drain hole with a pencil, burping the system until all the water has drained.
Has anyone made any easy fixes for this problem?
I have a 2009 26M

TFlight

[Kittiwake]

Is anyone else having a hard time getting water to drain down the galley sink. I have to poke the drain hole with a pencil, burping the system until all the water has drained.
Has anyone made any easy fixes for this problem?
I have a 2009 26M TFlight

On our 26M I just rapidly-and-repeatedly plug/unplug the drain hole with the tip of my starboard index finger. Very classy easy fix (no pencil required).
Kittiwake

[kmclemore]

Check the hose under the galley... it may be either kinked or clogged.

[Chinook]

I haven't experience problems with the sink draining, but I have become annoyed with the gurgling sounds which come from both the galley and head sinks, while we're anchored out. I've taken to inserting the rubber sink drain stoppers before turning in. It completely eliminates noises from the sinks.

[tlgibson97]

My drain had a pretty long hose that tended to kink. I shortened it up for a direct outlet. I didn't see any need for a trap since I won't be having sewer gasses coming out. Bugs might be able to get in but they can just get in through the companionway too.

[Tomfoolery]

My drain had a pretty long hose that tended to kink. I shortened it up for a direct outlet. I didn't see any need for a trap since I won't be having sewer gasses coming out. Bugs might be able to get in but they can just get in through the companionway too.

Perhaps there's something different about the (sliding galley requires long hose?), but my sinks just have a short hose that goes right to the thru-hull.

The problem I have, completely unrelated but very annoying, is the the PO replaced the hose fitting in the bottom of the sink with a conventional plastic or nylon thru-hull, which of course has that mushroom profile inside the basin, so a lot of water stands in the basin. Gotta do something about that, but the inside of the cabinet is built from plywood, and has to be taken apart to get to the plumbing. Some sort of flush drain/tailpiece for a real sink if I can make it fit, maybe.

But no burbling, and if bugs want to come in, they've got plenty of ways to get in. Since the thru-hull drains don't have ball valves but are above the water line, doing something about that isn't high on my list, but if I rip out the galley cabinet guts to work on the drain, I'll probably replace that one and add a ball valve, with a hand-hole for access.

[parrothead]

The and sink drains are very different. The hose from the sink in the 's sliding galley runs all the way back to the stern, where it T's into the drain from the outboard well, and thence to a transom thru-hull.

One change we made was to install an L fitting directly below the sink to avoid getting a kink in the hose.

[Chinook]

Our galley sink drain contributed to in interesting situation while we were on the Sea of Cortez. While anchored out in a number of areas, particularly down around the national park islands near La Paz, our boat would get visited by bees. We learned that the bees have figured out how to use boats as a source of fresh water, which is incredibly scarce down there, and which they desparately crave and need. They fly out to anchored boats, sometimes in large numbers, looking for moisture which has condensed overnight on white fiberglass hulls. They'll also help themselves to sips from water glasses which get left out. We had some enter the cabin and fly right down into the sink drain in search of water. We could hear them buzzing down inside the sink drain. Oh, and by the way, these bees are all of the Africanized "killer bee" strain. They seem to be on best behaviour when out drinking, though, and we never heard of stinging incidents among the boaters we met. All did have bee stories, however. Apparently, the bees most commonly exhibit aggressive behaviour if they feel their nest is threatened. We used our bug netting covers to keep them out of the cabin when they made an appearance. We also set up a sacrificial offering, in the form of a small bowl filled with water, which I set out on the extreme foredeck. Those bees could drain a bowl of water in a remarkably short length of time.

[Kittiwake]

The and sink drains are very different. The hose from the sink in the 's sliding galley runs all the way back to the stern, where it T's into the drain from the outboard well, and thence to a transom thru-hull.
One change we made was to install an L fitting directly below the sink to avoid getting a kink in the hose.

I have always just assumed that this (parrothead's note about structural differences) is the key point. On our 26M I see no kinking in the drain hose - indeed its wall structure seems to be highly resistant to kinking and collapse. Our galley is in the foreward position, and the hose is quite extended. But clearly the 'run' of the drain hose is long, and at a very modest inclination for much of its length. I would be surprised if the "L fitting" made a difference - did it?
Kittiwake

[RobertB]

One thing I did was to carefully open up the sink drain hole to its maximum size. The sink is built as a bowl and a separately molded hose fitting. The hole in the sink on mine was smaller than the inside of the hose fitting. I carefully drilled the hole larger then finished with a round file. Seems to drain better now.

[TFlight]

I didn't notice any significant bends or kinks in the hose. The sink drain line in the is very long with little slope though. If I don't find a clog in the T-fitting then I would think this is more of a 26M problem associated with the small sink drain hole, length and slope of the line.
I too was considering opening the sink drain hole like Robert did. I was afraid it might weaken the drain wall too much and maybe not even help, but thanks to Robert's post, if I don't find anything else wrong I may be reaching for the drill.

TFlight

[drams_1999]

Yes, mine has always drained incredibly slow. I havent done anything about it becuase it does drain, but it takes a while. I have learned to live with it......I have more important mods to do

[robbarnes1965]

I have always had the same problem. The T-connection can't help but it just occurred to me the it needs a vent. I wonder if it will drain faster if you put a drinking straw in it (the kind you can kink so it won't got down). I had a similar issue filling a large water bottle with a funnel. It was slow and splashed everywhere until I did that.

[Boblee]

Think ours had problems at the start but fixed it by using a larger hose and routing it out the back of the galley and down through the bulkhead at mid point of it's slide distance and also making sure it has an even fall the whole length.
We seem to have fixed any kinking problems by taping the food grade water hose to the drain also.

[Tomfoolery]

Think ours had problems at the start but fixed it by using a larger hose and routing it out the back of the galley and down through the bulkhead at mid point of it's slide distance and also making sure it has an even fall the whole length.

I was going to suggest something like that. Is there any reason not to just put a thru-hull fitting at the midpoint, and run a generously sized drain hose? A metal thru-hull isn't expensive, nor hard to install, and should take care of the slow drain. Unless I'm missing something, which is entirely possible (probable) since I have an and don't know what it looks like in there.