Have Osculati improved their bilge pump float switches?

[KompetentKrew]

Does anyone have experience of either or both of these float switches, please?

I have this design of Osculati switch which empties my grey water tank:

Eco-friendly automatic switch for any bilge pump​

This above design may have been on the market for 30 years for all I know - I bought my boat 5 years ago, and this float switch failed, so I bought the same kind because it was an easy replacement. There are a pair of bolts epoxied in the bottom of the sump and the new one just bolts in.

I'm a bit disappointed that it only lasted 5 years, and wondered if this model might be more reliable:

Automatic switch for bilge pumps​

Has anyone used this design? I would need to fit new mounting points were I to choose this instead, so will only do so if I can expect it to be more reliable.

 

[KompetentKrew]

As per another thread, I also tried a cheap £10 float switch from AliExpress - if anyone is interested, it's rubbish for bilge pump purposes. I think it would be very good if you wanted to handle a larger rise of water - of at least a foot deep; it would be fine for a tank a meter deep. But it lacks the "sensitivity" for my grey water tank, which is only about 8" deep.

 

[KompetentKrew]

Other candidates?

Trac Bilge Pump Switch​

SEAFLO BILGE PUMP FLOAT SWITCH - 2022 model (SFBS-12-04B) marine yacht boat​

 

[Sticky Fingers]

As per another thread, I also tried a cheap £10 float switch from AliExpress - if anyone is interested, it's rubbish for bilge pump purposes. I think it would be very good if you wanted to handle a larger rise of water - of at least a foot deep; it would be fine for a tank a meter deep. But it lacks the "sensitivity" for my grey water tank, which is only about 8" deep.

Why? Surely the switch ‘floats’ in a few cm of water? Flooded under 8” or more before it triggered wouldn’t be a normal use case

 

[KompetentKrew]

Why? Surely the switch ‘floats’ in a few cm of water? Flooded under 8” or more before it triggered wouldn’t be a normal use case

With the blue and yellow switch I posted a pic of in that thread, it just requires too much movement between activating. and deactivating.

I think it's the same inside as this one - the big ball bearing inside has too much inertia, so with the pivot at the bottom of the tank it gets enough movement to trip on when the tank is full, but it doesn't trip off when the pump is sucking air; with a higher pivot point the pump will empty the tank and switch off, but it won't activate until the tank is overflowing.

It's quite big and would probably be fine for most household or agricultural purposes. It would maybe work for me with only an inch or two more depth, but I don't have it (and I tried!).

 

[Sticky Fingers]

Wow. Ok. Poor design imho.

 

[Refueler]

I have built in float switches to my pumps .. having got fed up with separate float switch / pump setups. I also have no faith in sensor switches ... the Watermaid I had ended up discharging a good battery and damaging it .. when it failed to switch off.
The Sureflo with sensor is just so unreliable - I even put it overside and it didn't start every time ..

The Seaflo cheapo Chinese copies of the all in one Rule seem to work good enough for me .. I just wish that they would keep to one size of discharge pipe !! I have a bunch of the same pump - but there are two different pipe sizes !!

 

[vas]

I have built in float switches to my pumps .. having got fed up with separate float switch / pump setups. I also have no faith in sensor switches ... the Watermaid I had ended up discharging a good battery and damaging it .. when it failed to switch off.
The Sureflo with sensor is just so unreliable - I even put it overside and it didn't start every time ..

The Seaflo cheapo Chinese copies of the all in one Rule seem to work good enough for me .. I just wish that they would keep to one size of discharge pipe !! I have a bunch of the same pump - but there are two different pipe sizes !!

a few hours ago, I bought a seaflo chinese one to replace a rule (possibly also chinese copy?) in my engine bilge.
on the shop they explained to me that the 600/750gph has 20mm dia outlet, the larger (circa 1100gph) have 25mm. Hope mine is 20mm...

24V 750gph at 17euro was impressively cheap though!