My 2013 Oceanis 41 has a Rule Mate 1100 automatic bilge pump. The pump operates with the switch in the on position, but will not kick on with the switch in the auto position. I suspect a blown fuse near the battery, but I am not sure where the fuse is located. There is no wire coming directly from any of the batteries. Is the fuse on a relay near the battery, or somewhere else?
Automatic bilge pump question
- Thread starter DaveWants2Sail
- Start date
The 2014 37 has a pair of glass fuses in the battery switch compartment in the aft cabin. A small wire comes off the output side of the large red house battery switch and goes into one of the fuses. The fuse leads to one wire going to the bilge pump and another to the memory-hold circuit of the stereo. The second glass fuse fuses the negative of those circuits.
As a result of the shared fuse any fault in the stereo (like damage from lightning) also disables the auto part of the bilge pump
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As a result of the shared fuse any fault in the stereo (like damage from lightning) also disables the auto part of the bilge pump
.Checking the fuse is the cheapest first step. Don't be surprised if the fuse is good as float switches frequently fail. There are better alternatives to the float switch. The Ultra-switch and electronic switches are less prone to failure.
................. especially when there is water in the bilge. That, and the smell are reason enough to want to keep it dry.
Not trying to dumb this down, but do you have enough water in the bilge to trip the float? The On position powers the pump regardless of how much water is in the bilge. In Auto, the float switch control power to the pump…f the switch isn’t seeing enough water, the pump doesn’t turn on.
Greg
Greg
Oh yeah. Plenty of water in the bilge after a water tank hose failed. The pump was covered, as were my floor boards. That's how I learned the automatic switch wasn't working.
The way Beneteau wires the pump (at least on the 37 of similar vintage) it could still be a fuse. Beneteau wired the electronic “float” to power the pump in auto mode through a fuse directly off the main battery switch. The manual switch on the DC panel bypasses that fuse and powers the pump directly.
Didn't realize that, Beneteau seems to use nonstandard wiring, like the switch on the DC-.
I certainly agree with that. Ours actually has a both an “auto” and “on” mode for the pump on the DC panel. The “on” mode bypasses the water sensor and runs the switch manually as you’d expect. The “auto” side is deceptively useless - the output of that isn’t actually connected to anything, since the sensor wire bypasses it completely.