Auto bilge pumps. Are they all crap nowadays

[oldgit]

Its a lot easier and cheaper to replace a float switch than to replace a integrated pump and switch.
First get those ancient jubilee clips undone if you can get you and a screwdriver in there and at the correct angle,then remove that rock hard old water piping from the now old defunct pump body. .
Hope against all common sense that the new pump bracket securing bracket holes line up with your existing holes.
Hope your new pump water outlet in "mm" is the same as your "imperial" hose diameter.
Boil the kettle and hope to force the old pipe on or worse be able to tighten the jubilee clip sufficently to get it to stay on the pump without leaking.
Resort to cutting of a few inches of pipe to find a bit still flexible enough to seal on pump outlet.
Try to reroute the pipe after finding removal of couple of inches of hose now makes it impossible to attach hose to pump.
Make up some sort of Heath Robinson extention to hose using whats lying around in your lockers.
Or is that just me ?

 

[Chiara’s slave]

Good points, oldgit. However, if the bloody thing breaks down every year, it’s much easier to replace as it never gets into a state!

 

[Supertramp]

I added a Johnson Ultima solid state switch to replace a float switch 3 years ago. It is a sealed unit and I mounted it on a pipe in the depths so I can retrieve it for an annual clean and set it's height to be above the pump inlets (otherwise it will never switch off!). The pump is mounted remote and accessible with a recleanable gauze filter and manual override. Hidden things rarely get checked enough and run to fail is not a good approach on safety items. I am not looking forward to replacing the strum boxes but maybe they'll do another 30 years....

 

[coopec]

I'm surprised at some of the comments here as they are contrary my understanding. I have followed David Pascoe's (Yacht Architect) advice. He says most yacht that sink do so at their berth/mooring!

My two bilge pumps are wired to the battery bank. Each has a Manual/Auto/Off switch. Whenever I leave the yacht they will be left on auto. Both pumps are 24V Rule. The largest one is supposed to move 4000 US gallons per hour



DAVID PASCOE -Marine investigations

 

[fredrussell]

Coopec. I think the general feeling is that regardless of what make you have, an electric bilge pump and/or float switch should be regarded as consumable, and certainly checked regularly. Living in a dark,dank place not being the best for an electronic device.

 

[Supertramp]

The real worry with a bilge pump as a consumable is whether you know when it passed it's use by date.

 

[Chiara’s slave]

The real worry with a bilge pump as a consumable is whether you know when it passed it's use by date.

Which is why I replace mine, still working, after a year. They get recycled into mine and other people’s RIBs, where failure is blatantly obvious, and of course RIBs don’t actually sink. They just subside a bit and look very sorry for themselves.

 

[geem]

Which is why I replace mine, still working, after a year. They get recycled into mine and other people’s RIBs, where failure is blatantly obvious, and of course RIBs don’t actually sink. They just subside a bit and look very sorry for themselves.

I keep waiting for my bilge pump to fail. 11 years later and still waiting. Being liveaboards the shower sump pump gets used everyday. The main sump less frequently but the anchor chain locker drains in to it so a bit of sailing normally sees the pump run for a moment. Maybe the regular use helps to prelong life?

 

[Chiara’s slave]

Warm dry conditions generally help I should think. As well as properly functional electrics and charging generally

 

[jwilson]

Float switches are the second most rubbish bit of kit. The worst one is lifebuoy lights.

Personally I don't believe any modern GRP boat has ever been ".... saved from sinking" by an auto electric bilge pump or one on a float switch. If the leak is bad enough it will just just sink with flat batteries.

 

[geem]

Float switches are the second most rubbish bit of kit. The worst one is lifebuoy lights.

Personally I don't believe any modern GRP boat has ever been ".... saved from sinking" by an auto electric bilge pump or one on a float switch. If the leak is bad enough it will just just sink with flat batteries.

Unless you are onboard when the main sump pump turns on and sounds an alarm. Then you wonder why the pump never stops running and you investigate. You start the generator or engine to keep your batteries topped up whilst you find the source of the leak. Not so new worthy as boat sinking but possible. The important bit is fit an alarm to your sump pump so it makes a noise everytime the pump runs

 

[Chiara’s slave]

Float switches are the second most rubbish bit of kit. The worst one is lifebuoy lights.

Personally I don't believe any modern GRP boat has ever been ".... saved from sinking" by an auto electric bilge pump or one on a float switch. If the leak is bad enough it will just just sink with flat batteries.

I agree. The argument has some merit with the wooden dayboats I race. My plastic boat is not going to sink anyway unless someone cuts it up with a chainsaw on its moorings. Then all the bits will still float, being foam sandwich.

 

[Tamar]

My auto bilge pump still works after 9 years.
It's a commercial boat and I mustn't leave it in auto according to the surveyor. I have to have a sign above saying just that, but of course we do when we leave the boat.
It's a SeaWorld pump

 

[Refueler]

As another suggests ... the auto pumps failing is often lack of use.

My Seaflo in main boat - maybe 2 or 3x a year - I lift sole and take of bottom filter part of case from pump ... give the float a clean to make sure it stays free ... and maybe 1x a year - the pump does not turn when switched on ... lack of use causes motor shaft to stick ... so I just turn impeller by hand and then give it 12v .. spins up fine .... put back ... leave till months later .. lift and check.

No hardship at all ...

 

[Chiara’s slave]

As another suggests ... the auto pumps failing is often lack of use.

My Seaflo in main boat - maybe 2 or 3x a year - I lift sole and take of bottom filter part of case from pump ... give the float a clean to make sure it stays free ... and maybe 1x a year - the pump does not turn when switched on ... lack of use causes motor shaft to stick ... so I just turn impeller by hand and then give it 12v .. spins up fine .... put back ... leave till months later .. lift and check.

No hardship at all ...

Good plan, rather than just leaving 12v on it and burning it out. I daresay that’s the death of many of them.

 

[Refueler]

Good plan, rather than just leaving 12v on it and burning it out. I daresay that’s the death of many of them.

Mine stays on auto when boats in water ... only in winter do I lift out the pump and switch off..... just in case heater stops on board and it freezes.

Being on Auto ... it rarely actually runs and that I believe is why pump does not work occasionally. I wonder if some of the nay-sayers actually tried - they might find similar.

 

[steveeasy]

I think it a crucial to have a fully functional auto bilge pump on the boat with sufficient power to operate the pump.
So the expensive cheap auto pump will be returned as it would not switch off. Ie float would not drop sufficiently.
I’ll try and source a good one with independant float switch. O I’llll be fitting a solos Panal that can charge the battery for this. I suspect I need to decide the pump first.
Steveeasy

 

[Commercial Dave]

My auto bilge pump still works after 9 years.
It's a commercial boat and I mustn't leave it in auto according to the surveyor. I have to have a sign above saying just that, but of course we do when we leave the boat.
It's a SeaWorld pump

Interested to know why this is the case.

We have a single Whale auto bilge pump in our commercial RIB, it lives in the bottom of the transom well which inevitably gets full of water on every trip. It has a solid state water sensor which switches on when it detects it is immersed in water. The auto mode had not worked for about 3 years and I suspected the sensor had failed, because the manual mode still worked fine. It's only when I got around to replacing the whole pump (a relatively easy job) that I realised the wire for the auto mode had broken in the loom. I installed the new one anyway and the auto mode works. We now leave the pump on auto while we are underway and switch it off while berthed (the RIB lives in a floating dock and has elephant trunks).

 

[jamie N]

My wooden boat has 2 auto bilge pumps, one's with the most basic type of float switch, which I've had to modify. Here's the thing, it's SO light, that it floats up OK, but then won't sink as the most minor of crud stops it descending, thus it runs & runs. I've added weight to the float in wrapping some 'polymorph' plastic melted onto it to get it to have more mass. Polymorph is very slightly heavier than water, but doesn't interfere with the float being able to 'float', but does give the float enough weight to fully sink with the bilge water.
The other pump is with a magnetic ball, and (thankfully) has never been functioned.

 

[coopec]

Warm dry conditions generally help I should think. As well as properly functional electrics and charging generally

All the electrical joints are soldered/heat shrinked and enclosed in plastic electrical junction boxes.

After I installed my Rule I found a guy offering the same model Rule at half the price "never used". I contacted him and he said he was selling it because under his insurance contract he was obliged to replace it every 5 years.