Another minor "hamlet" moment.

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Happily anchored, I get curious and lift one of the floor panels to waggle some seacocks, and have a nose around.
I see the shower sump box (medium sized plastic box with a clear perspex lid) has some slightly murky water in the bottom, so I decide to turn on the shower and give it a good flush through.

What is meant to happen:
- Water enters the box
- Float switch activates (Attwood part 4202A - For replacement information please call Attwood customer service at (616) 897-2290 ... the fact that a part has such a sticker should have been a warning)
- Pump empties the sump box with a pleasing whirring sound

What actually happened:
- Water enters the box
- Float switch (Attwood part 4202A - For replacement information please call Attwood customer service at (616) 897-2290) goes "clonk", and separates into two parts.
- The part intended to float, does indeed float, but it's left behind the rest of the switch, which disintegrates in a cloud of rust as the water submerges it.
- The box fills rapidly, and I am mesmerized for a few seconds, as I watch the level of the rusty water and the floating switch head towards the perspex lid.
- The pump is sulking, it's silent
- I am jolted into reality as the float switch hits the perpex lid, and water starts to come over the side of the box into the bilge. I rush back and turn the water off.
- The boat is bobbing gently in the swell, and I spend the next 20 minutes removing the perspex lid and emptying out the rusty water into a pan, and then to the sink.
- One Float switch (Attwood part 4202A - For replacement information please call Attwood customer service at (616) 897-2290) is ordered.

It got me thinking that I'd be no good in manufacturing: I'd be figuring out how to make things work properly and last a reasonable amount of time in normal use, whereas here is a business that is thriving ($93 million revenue) on customers replacing their broken products.

.
 
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It happened to me too ,some 100 miles away from home birth.
Any old float switch - (that fits ) can be wired in and attached to the base inside the sumpbox .
You don,t need to swell Attwoods sales .
 
Our shower doesn't have a float switch. Just a manual switch.

After showering, pull the switch, turn it off when you hear the pump get louder / sucking air.
OK the sump is effectively the size of the shower tray, duck board sits on top of it so capacity is a bit bigger.
But might be worth you thinking about fitting, to eliminate a recurring problem?
 
Had similar problems, started a thread last year (http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?355131-shower-sumps-specs-and-operation-Q&highlight=) on the topic and now am the proud owner of a 16lt Whale grey box thingy with a gulper 220.
Being running perfectly for the year and a half (I think) it's installed, only needed to clean once (some slime on the metal contacts of the electrowhatever float switch)
I'm pretty sure if the boat was actually in the water for some of that time, with all the bobing about it would self clean from soap and much.

It's also the ONLY one I've found that is sealed so if the gulper fails (you'll understand by the luck of the sound!) water will come up the pipe and into the shower tray rather than filling up the bilges with dirty waters...

cheers

V.
 
Hi David, I too had the experience of a bilge full of shower water last week, the wife's hair was wrapped around the pump impeller, while I was in there I noticed the float switch had been changed to a normal jabsco float switch that was too long for the box, they had removed the tube filter allowing all the debris into the pump. The boat was previously looked after a " Pro " company I'm told, pro my arse the filter was in the bilge next to the shower box. New switch req.
 
See the previous thread on this subject, a matter close to my heart, plastic boxes, bile pumps and float systems are Shiite.

Bin said system and fit a whale gulper in line pump it will shift all,, debris and all.
 
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