Been thinking about this for awhile now, but never done anything about it.
Has anyone run a drain line from their Nordic cooler to the bilge? I want to put a vinyl line on it with a PVC ball valve that drains to the bilge.
I am not a big fan of the removable cooler. * *And I think the stainless one is worse than the plastic ones. Have you ever tried to lift it out of its hole at the end of the day? It is a *****! * *I would rather drain the water and fill it again with ice the next day.
Does anyone here ever take it out of the boat each night?? *
I would rather have an under the back seat cooler and move the stupid batteries to the engine compartment. *
Thoughts??

I use a big softsided cooler and just set it in the ice chest. Since it's double insulated it stays cool much longer and when your done just lift it out. You lose a little capacity but it sure beats trying to lift that cooler out.

Riverracer,
That cooler is big and heavy when it's full of beer and ice.
Kind of a squeeze to get past the bolsters and through the cabin door.
I got the same idea since I discovered my sink on the port side just drains on the backside of the stringer and into the bilge. It would certainly be easier to turn a valve and then just pump the water overboard, and then put in fresh ice! You might even pick up a mile an hour or two not carrying all that water in the cabin.
I called Lonnie and asked him if he thought it would work (you know the old carpenter's adage "measure twice, cut once") and he said it would work OK. I checked the stringer on the starboard side and sure enough it has a drain near the transom like the other side. Haven't drilled the hole yet. If you do your's 1st let us know how it goes.
Regards,
Steve

RIVERRACERX
You could also tie into the sink drain, with a T fitting, and drain everything outside. Just a thought.

Dail

Ive been looking for a 12 VDC powered cooler the same as the 48qt I have now and not use ice ...but no luck

I don't have a sink.
I have the open bow (with the new fiberglass cabinets) I was thinking about just dumping it into the floor, hoping it would find it's way to the bilge, but wasn't sure? It would certainly fill up fast if it led to nowhere.

I don't want to be the guinea pig.

RIVERACERX:
I got the idea of just dumping the cooler via a hose into the bilge from the sink, after realizing that's where it goes. If you have the drain hole in the starboard (I'm sure you do) stringer near the transom, your cooler will drain into the bilge. So says
Lonnie.......
Regards,
Steve