Good (but cheap) 12V bilge pump?

[ChasB]

I'll be turning over the engine for the first time in a while, and will check the stern glands (stuffing box) with a view to adding some packing if it looks neccessary.

Been getting a lot of advice on this - including some excellent tips here. One thing someone has just suggested is getting new bilge pumps. The old ones work perfectly well, but they are... rather old.

Any suggestions? And is it better to have pumps with internal float switches? The current arrangement has external ones.

Many thanks.

 

[Refueler]

Internal ... external ... all depends on where and what size you can get in there. There is no real advantage of one over the other.

As to good but cheap .... I have excellent results from the Chinese 'Seaflo' copies on eBay .... having had one apart - I cannot tell the difference from the ***** at 3x the price - which incidentally did not last any longer than the cheapie and failed for same reason ... shaft seized - motor burnt ..... but it was after years of use.

 

[Gary Fox]

If the old ones work ok, why change them? The old ones have lasted until now, which proves they are 100% reliable. Any change could only be for the worse. You would be adding risk of unpredictable failure.

The seamanlike course would be to check the wiring and hoses, which might have deteriorated with age, and keep the old pumps.
Pumps are simple, and a *new* version probably means they are made with cheaper materials, reduced scantlings, lower-skilled labour and dare I say it, built-in obsolescence...

 

[V1701]

It's pretty obvious if you look closely that an awful lot of significantly more expensive branded stuff is rebadged Chinese manufactured product. The better Chinese stuff gets (and it's improved a lot) the more likely that this will be the case...