What do you think of these water alarms?

Otter

Otter

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I was buying some stuff from Screwfix and found these by accident. Placed high up in the bilge they could be a great way of alerting you to a broken skin fitting or other major leak?

http://www.screwfix.com/p/honeywell-wd4sesf-water-leak-alarms-pack-of-4/9595f

ae235
 
But only a two year nonreplaceable battery life for a device you would hope will never be used in the lifetime of your boat. Can you see yourself making replacing these a regular part of your spring fitting out routine? I'm sure there are similar alarms which could be wired into the boat's power for a more "fit and forget" solution if you did want such a thing.

Cheers
Patrick
 
Interesting idea.

On many boats the auto bilge pump is noisy enough to serve as a bilge alarm in its own right.

But I have once been on a boat where the log transducer popped out of its hole, and with the hatch pulled across to keep spray out we didn't notice until the water was sloshing over the bunks. I don't think there was an auto switch for the pump. What actually alerted us was the gas alarm, complaining about its sensor being immersed. An alarm like this on that boat would have warned us earlier, and probably saved us from having to dry a lot of upholstery and bedding :)

Pete
 
After seeing what happened to a MOBO when its exhaust hose split on passage and hearing from its owner (mate of mine) how fast and how silently the water came in and filled his boat before one engine cut out which told him someting was wrong, I followed his advice (I had a MOBO at the time) and fitted a loud screamer bilge alarm (float switch) and a powerful extra bilge pump. When I got my latest saily boat, this was the first extra I specified - bilge alarm beeper, control panel, electronic switch and automatic pump start. The one I have goes through a small 3 second alarm and and pump test routine every time its switched on.
 
I had an alarm a bit like that. Trouble was, when the leak occurred, I was away from the boat. So the alarm got drowned. Luckily, the bilge pump kept up with the leak until I arrived to fix it. I ditched the alarm and fitted a second bilge pump.
 
Ripster said:
After seeing what happened to a MOBO when its exhaust hose split on passage and hearing from its owner (mate of mine) how fast and how silently the water came in and filled his boat before one engine cut out which told him someting was wrong, I followed his advice (I had a MOBO at the time) and fitted a loud screamer bilge alarm (float switch) and a powerful extra bilge pump. When I got my latest saily boat, this was the first extra I specified - bilge alarm beeper, control panel, electronic switch and automatic pump start. The one I have goes through a small 3 second alarm and and pump test routine every time its switched on.
Click to expand...

Your set-up sounds interesting, can you provide some more details? Supplier / make, price etc?
 
prv said:
Interesting idea.

On many boats the auto bilge pump is noisy enough to serve as a bilge alarm in its own right.

But I have once been on a boat where the log transducer popped out of its hole, and with the hatch pulled across to keep spray out we didn't notice until the water was sloshing over the bunks. I don't think there was an auto switch for the pump. What actually alerted us was the gas alarm, complaining about its sensor being immersed. An alarm like this on that boat would have warned us earlier, and probably saved us from having to dry a lot of upholstery and bedding :)

Pete
Click to expand...

That's the sort of scenario I was thinking of, replacing every two years is an issue, but having had two auto bilge float switches fail, one a solid state, the other a pinball flipper type, I don't trust them much!
 
I don't understand why flood sensors are not more common on boats. It seems that the way we are supposed to find out if our boat is sinking is when we go down for a cuppa tea and find water over the cabin sole or, if at the marina, when we turn up and find only the mast where the boat once was. I would rather they were integral and I would like some text message function to warn you if not on board. In general if you spring a leak a bilge pump will not keep up so the most important thing is to know about it and to stop it. Then the bilge pump can get to work clearing out the remaining water. I am planning on building a boat and part of my plans are to have multiple sensors for water so that I know immediately of any leak and also where it comes from. That way I can isolate it rapidly. My other more radical plan is for multiple watertight compartments so that any leak is only likely to flood a small area even in a worst case scenario.
 
I had a similar worry so built myself a bilge alarm that also tells you if the bilge pump has been running on auto while you were away. I posted this before but got a bit of a snotty response to be honest but it can be built for a few pounds compared to the sophiticated box of tricks some other forumites were recommending. Here is how.
http://www.boat-angling.co.uk/Hints_and_Tips/bilgemonitor.htm
 
salar said:
I had a similar worry so built myself a bilge alarm that also tells you if the bilge pump has been running on auto while you were away. I posted this before but got a bit of a snotty response to be honest but it can be built for a few pounds compared to the sophiticated box of tricks some other forumites were recommending. Here is how.
http://www.boat-angling.co.uk/Hints_and_Tips/bilgemonitor.htm
Click to expand...

Its always satisfying to build your own gadgets and it is true that snotty, snobbish types never believe you can do a better job and for much less dosh. It is where the old adage 'more money than sense' comes from and this is one the marine industry is only too please to exploit!
 
For boats with a manual pump on/off switch in addition to / in parallel with a float switch, a possible and very simple way to add a water alarm is to connect a piezo buzzer between the switch output and ground. That part will be +12v if either the switch is on, or the float switch gets triggered i.e. whenever the pump is running.
 
Couldn't you just use a proprietary hours run device.?
salar said:
I had a similar worry so built myself a bilge alarm that also tells you if the bilge pump has been running on auto while you were away. I posted this before but got a bit of a snotty response to be honest but it can be built for a few pounds compared to the sophiticated box of tricks some other forumites were recommending. Here is how.
http://www.boat-angling.co.uk/Hints_and_Tips/bilgemonitor.htm
Click to expand...
 
I had on my previous boat 3 sensors ( thru hull, bilge and engine compartment ), self built from kits with soudn and red LED.
Now I have a collector for all sinks with a little pump to Transport the waste water into the holding tank.
This pump with afloat Switch sometimes gets clogged by bread crumps and other stuff. As a result the little reservoir overflows
and you waste water ends up in the bilge. It is made by ABUS and has sensors. I just replace the 9V block battery as routine
work when launching in spring. You can also hear it when the engine is running. This year I fitted a 2nd one c.lose to the hull transducer.
 
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