Published by Mahendra Singh in Guidelines 2 years ago

2 Important Drains in
the Ship’s Engine
Room
There are several drains provided in the ship’s engine room in
order to prevent water clogging and damage to any machinery.
Though all these are equally important, there are few that
require regular attention.

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Two most important drains in engine room are:

1. The Air bottle moisture drains and

2. Water Drains from fuel oil settling and service tanks
several mishaps happen due to improper handling and
infrequent draining of these tanks. Mentioned below are two
instances which explain the importance of these drains in
ship’s operations.

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Lesson 1

On one of our previous ships, we had an anchorage of 24 days

and in this period everyone in the engine room forgot to drain
the water from Fuel Oil settling and service tanks in the ship’s
engine room.

We then suddenly received orders to move the ship. After a few

hours, the engine slowed down and an overload alarm appeared
on the engine control room panel.
We immediately tried to find out the reasons for the overload
alarm and realized that the viscometer was showing “high
viscosity” level. After some brain-storming, it was decided to
check the service tank drains.

The junior engineer, who was assigned the task of checking the
drains, came back saying that oil and not water was coming
from the drains. However, when asked to drain more, a large
amount of water discharge was found.
Luckily the generators were on Diesel oil (D.O) which helped
prevent the blackout on the ship. Moreover, we had two settling
tanks, so removal of water was much faster, but we missed the
convoy at Suez as the engine RPM did not increase until “good
quality” oil came in the line and the viscosity reached near
normal.

Lessons Learnt:

We should have drained the tanks every day until we saw

(Collecting the drain in suitable container- half cut soft drink
can) no water coming. In our case, the drain pipe end was
ending too deep in the funnel so the contents could not
actually be seen. It is thus extremely important that what is
coming out of the drain is clearly seen.

In dry dock, while cleaning Fuel Oil service tanks, a senior

engineer must carefully check the drain from both inside and
outside. The steam heating coils must also be pressure tested at
this occasion.

Lesson 2
ship, it was found that we were draining water not from the Air
bottle bottom drain but from a drain on the filling line.

Below the filling line drain, a funnel was installed which was
quite familiar to the air bottle drain funnel. The motorman was
so sure about the drain that no senior officer bothered to cross
check. Then, one day we got a doubt about the quantity of
water draining from the funnel, which was of course not of the
quality we expected.

Upon opening the air bottle manhole door it was found that the
water was filled up to quite a high level and luckily it did not
find its way into the main engine, else there could have been a
massive damage to the engine or even injury due to water
hammer. The Air bottle was then cleaned and the defect was
rectified.
engine room is not done properly, mainly because of shortage
of crew members and fast turnarounds. Efforts should thus be
made to trace the pipelines once in a while.

While opening air to main engine, moisture must be drained

from the bottom most point of the line. Air driers and control
air line filters must also be regularly checked.

These days quarantine inspection has also become important.

The cold room holding provisions thus must be kept clean.
Meat room and fish room drains should be checked (put a
handful of salt in them), along with the unit cooler pan heater
and drain.

Related Reading

A Comprehensive list of lube oil and  fuel oil tanks on ships

Understanding sounding, ullage, and frequency of sounding

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View Comments (1)

Bev says: September 7, 2013 at 6:45 pm

Air Cooler drain is also very important especially in areas with high
humidity as water carried along with the scavenge air could enter the
engine cylinders leading to acid corrosion,washing away of the lube oil
film and so poor liner lubrication etc
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