Bilge / Water tank alarm ?

[Refueler]

I am sure I am not only one who can experience those moments of overfilling a water tank ... or bilges get flooded ...

We can trundle of to the Chandlers or whatever and open the wallet and pay out significant sums to get an alarm ... Marine of course !

But being one of a diminishing world of Practical Boat Owners .... I decided to see if I could sort an alarm without cashing in my Life Insurance !

Two paths were looked at and BOTH have proved to work very well.

First : Modified Smoke Alarm.

This not only provides bilge / water tank alarm when modified but still retains its smoke alarm function.
How ? Very simple. Open up the smoke alarm and locate the TEST button contacts. Simple speaker twin core flex is good enough of a length to run from the alarm into the top of tank or to the bilges. You simply solder each wire to each of the two TEST button contacts. The other end of the lead - you strip back each wire and then fis so they are separated ... as long as they dont touch each other - the gap can be as small as you like. Now if water touches the two wires - the alarm TEST will activate. I had one on the previous and present boat for many years ... just every os often change the alarm battery as you would in the house ... and when doing that - clean the wire ends.

Second : Bath Overflow alarm.

Cheap as chips on eBay ... one I have now was about 3 quid ... with a long sensor wire. 9v PP9 battery same as Smoke Alarm ... and I can switch for Alarm Beep or Colonel Bogie Music ! Again works a treat.

 

[pyrojames]

When my water tank overflows during filling, it either flows out on deck or via the breather into the heads sink. Not sure why it would flow into the bilge?

 

[PetiteFleur]

A few years ago I started the engine after the winter lay-up, had the hatch open and noticed water pouring out of the heat exchanger... took a couple seconds before I quickly stopped the engine - the end cap had come off the heat exchanger. (Beta 25 secured with a single central bolt) I fitted a cheap battery powered high water alarm, from ebay, about £15 from memory, loud alarm and flashing red light. Tested frequently by touching the two wires together, positioned in the bilge as required.

 

[geem]

On our boat any water entering the bilge ends up in the deep central sump. We have a submersible bilge pump and float switch. When the pump runs, so does a sounder. The sounder is a reversing sounder off a truck. It is loud enough that it can be heard with the engine running or if you are outside in the wind. We only panic if the sounder doesn't stop ?
This set up has proved useful recently when we noticed the pump ran for a couple of seconds about once an hour on passage. Further investigation and we discovered a small dribble from the exhaust fitting bolts. Without the sounder we would never have known the pump was running periodically.

 

[Refueler]

When my water tank overflows during filling, it either flows out on deck or via the breather into the heads sink. Not sure why it would flow into the bilge?

I didn't say water tank flows into the bilge ....

I was illustrating use of water alarms for either tank or bilge as separate items. My water bilge alarm was in the shaft 'tunnel' being the first point that would have water collecting from the shaft packed seal. The water tank alarm being a twin wire suspended in the top of tank and then 'corked'.

But in my boat - the water tank is a stainless steel tank mounted under the port forward bunk. The tank has 3 top mounted pipes ... 2 have champagne corks in. Yep we sometimes drink Champers on my manky old boat. Third is piped to the deck filler.
If I overflow my tank then it goes into the bilge of that locker .. then out to the fwd cabin sole. Because of the tank being from a shore based system - it would be a serious job to setup a deck overflow.

 

[Refueler]

A few years ago I started the engine after the winter lay-up, had the hatch open and noticed water pouring out of the heat exchanger... took a couple seconds before I quickly stopped the engine - the end cap had come off the heat exchanger. (Beta 25 secured with a single central bolt) I fitted a cheap battery powered high water alarm, from ebay, about £15 from memory, loud alarm and flashing red light. Tested frequently by touching the two wires together, positioned in the bilge as required.

Practical Boat Owner !!

 

[Refueler]

The Heat Exchanger event above ....

Twice in the years I've had present boat - have suffered Core Plugs failure. First was proceeding downriver to the port to start Baltic Cruise ... noted water appearing on cabin sole. Basically core plug had blown and cooling water (raw) was flooding engine bilge and overflowing into cabin bilges. I have the hand hole through engine box to get at engine water intake.... and once water reaches that - its into cabin.
Pumped out and epoxy putty filled the corroded remains of the two plugs and we enjoyed a magic cruise. Once back home - ordered the new plugs (no way to get Imperial sized here !) and fitted ...

10 years later - on the river fishing .... alarm sounds ... I can hear bilge auto pump running ... waters appearing when boat rocks in the main cabin ... one core plug again !! So let the pump keep level down ... only low revs on engine as I am raw water cooled and the amount it pumps through is amazing !.
Finished fishing ... home and fit new plug. I have a bag full from that previous 10 years ago,

Why do my plugs fail ... combo of severe winters and raw water cooling. Before winter sets in - I run at least 10 litres of AF through system ... 1 litre goes in Blake toilet ... system closed off. For some reason the corrosion rate is high on the plugs despite Baltic being only brackish and most time I'm in Freshwater river.

Anyway - the cheapo DIY alarm is well worth it.

 

[Refueler]

Here's my water tank ... been in there since boat was commissioned back in mid 70's ....

The stick is my dipstick ... top of tank has gauge figures on the tape.

One day I may fit a better shaped tank to return locker to useable.