Automatic bilge pumps

[Porthandbuoy]

Anyone fitted something like a car clock to an automatic bilge pump circuit to give an indication of hours run?

It strikes me that an automatic pump gives a false sense of security. All's well as long as ingress < discharge, but without "counting strokes" how do you know when that persistent leak is getting worse?

 

[chuckaduck]

simple use your eyes

 

[Peterduck]

Aye, there's the rub! Unfortunately 'Chuckaduck's theory of just looking doesn't work when you are away from the boat for a week pursuing the money to keep the jolly thing in the condition that it would like to be in. There will be 'clocks' which meter the time that a circuit is alive for - they are necessary for many industrial processes. At the last resort, it is not difficult to get an engine hour meter which is alternator driven [my 'Swallow' has one] and fit this into the pump circuit.
Peter.

 

[Sixpence]

A simple hour metre connected to the wire that tells the pump to run will give an indication of hours run . The use your eyes theory only works if you can watch at all times of tide . Hope this helps .

 

[Porthandbuoy]

[ QUOTE ]
simple use your eyes

[/ QUOTE ]

If it were that simple I wouldn't need to fit an automatic bilge pump.

I think a visit to the local scrappy is in order to acquire a 12v car clock.

 

[Mirelle]

Don\'t fit one at all!

Curiously, wooden boats managed to stay afloat on their moorings, from one week to the next, for many, many decades without electric bilge pumps.

If the boat develops a significant leak, an electric bilge pump won't make any difference to it - the pump will run until the battery is flat, and the boat will then sink just the same.

On the other hand, an electric pump means having the battery "on" all the time, and the near certainty of some stray current somewhere leading to rapidly accelerated corrosion of underwater metal.

If you simply rely on a manual pump, you know where you are.

Most water entering a boat, decked or not, is rain water. It is better to fit a cockpit cover and sort out the decks, instead of tinkering with electric bilge pumps.

 

[Porthandbuoy]

Re: Don\'t fit one at all!

Hopefully this Coelan stuff will cure the deck leaks! I got the cabin top stripped back a couple of days ago (belt sander), but since then she's lying under a tarp while the rain pours down. She already has a good cockpit cover.

With no means of charging the battery on board I intended to fit a, say 60Ah, leisure battery which I could take ashore for charging. The whole thing is merely for my peace of mind while I'm away for 4 or 5 weeks at a time. People will be keeping an eye on her, so it's belt, braces and bits of string I'm talking about.

Like you say Mirelle, and as I said in the first post re. "counting strokes", at least with a manual pump you know where you are. I just wondered if anyone else had considered the risks and what they'd done to mitigate them.

 

[chuckaduck]

Re: Don\'t fit one at all!

eyes thing was only a joke

fit 2 batteries with an isolator switch between then turn the second battery off when away if battery is flat then it is not a problem you can start the engine with the second battery and charce both up and off you go

also is peace of mind when cruising as if alternator packs up you can switch batteries to get out of trouble

 

[Porthandbuoy]

Re: Don\'t fit one at all!

2 batteries = 2 complicated. Anyway, I doubt if my 4 1/2 hp Stuart Turner could spin an alternator and propel my boat at the same time.

To rephrase my original question: Has anyone ever fitted an hours-run meter, or a clock, to an automatic bilge pump????

 

[Mirelle]

60 a/h leisure battery

That's what we used to do aboard "Mytica" with her hand start Stuart P5. Battery lasted quite well. These days, a solar panel would make a lot of difference.

 

[pyrojames]

My father did this for one of his boats, but I have always baulked for all the reasons given by others. If you have a leak that is so serious the boat won't float from one week to the next, take it out of the water! If it will float for more than a week, you just have to go and visit it every week!

Anwering your question, you can do it very simply, you just have to put an analogue clock in parallel to the pump. Dad's used to clock up hours rather than minutes! Not really a battery problem as a pump only draws 2-5 amps.

 

[rogerthebodger]

Most car clocks will still run for a time with the power off as the clock is only wound up so to speek when the power is switched on.

I use a 12v mechanical counter to count the number of times the pump starts and stops giving an indication of the ingress of water.

On my old yacht after a beach and scrape down I noticed my auto pump operated more frequently on investigation found the speed log transducer was damaged in scrape down. Would not have found without pump counter