bilge pump on/off status

[Boat Babe]

Excuse me if this as this is a basic question. I'm not currently at my boat (cal 28-2) so I can't experiment around but should my bilge pump be wired so that it is always "on" so that the float switch activates it when the level gets high, even with the battery selection knob in the off position, and if not hooked up to shore power, will this eventually drain my battery...or is it wired so that it only runs when batteries are on? Thanks

 

[Don S/V ILLusion]

should be direct wired to bypass selector switch

it will only drain the batteries if you have a worse problem

 

[Calif. Ted]

The alternative being your batteries having a

nice full charge when the water gets deep enough to short them out.

 

[sailaway78]

Do You

Do you have an on board charger. If so you shouldn't have to worry about the batteries being run down should the bilge pump run. On my boat I have two pumps, the primary is direct off the house bank, and the secondary is wired through the battery selector. A good on board charger should be wired direct to each battery bank, and as long as you have shore power batteries will stay up. If your on a mooring, or don't have shore power, you might want to think about a small solar panel to keep the batteries fully charged.

 

[Don12364]

Please Yourself - BUT

Always on seems the best option to me.Note:- Bilge pumps can only cope with small leaks. Even the largest (and most powerful) do not handle something like a pipe off a thru hull.Having a giant heavy current pump would only cope until your battery went dead.Not a nice thought if you are miles from the boat! Sorry

 

[BobW]

Yes and Yes and it depends....

to answer the three questions you asked.Yes, your bilge pump (at least one of them, if you have more than one) should be wired through the float switch and not through the battery selector switch. This means that as long as you have battery power you have a bilge pump. The float switch is unlikely to short out, and as long as you don't have loose stuff in your bilge to get stuck under the arm, you can count on the pump to start when there is water in the bilge and quit when it's gone.Yes, in the circuit I described above, if the bilge pump stays on (either because of a leak or something malfunctions) and there is no source of charging for the battery, the battery will go dead. Here you have to prioritize between draining the battery and perhaps letting the boat sink. It depends on how the pump, battery switch and float switch are wired - you can wire them so that the battery selector switch will disable the bilge pump if you choose. Consider, however, that this is one MORE item to check when you leave the boat unattended.Now, on the subject of batteries and unattended boats: it is not good to leave a lead-acid battery without ANY sort of charging, even if you think it is is 'open circuit' because you have turned everything off. There is often SOMETHING still connected, especially in an old boat with multiple previous owners. Even if you pull the cables off the battery - NOT recommended - the battery will STILL discharge at a rate anywhere from 1% to 15% per month.And since a battery's life is measured in 'charge-discharge' cycles more than any other factor (commercial batteries that get little use, like in telecommunications sites, can last 20 years or more), it just doesn't make any sense letting your battery discharge any deeper or more often than really necessary.If you're in a slip, keep the shore power connected. If you're at a mooring, or your slip doesn't have shore power, get a small solar panel (WM sells them starting at about $50) and your battery will last a lot longer.Cheers,Bobs/v X SAIL R 8

 

[Red]

Would you prefer a dead battery or a wet boat?

I'd rather have the bilge pump hooked up all the time--at least to the house bank/battery--and come back to find the battery is dead, but the boat is fairly dry and floating.If there's that much pump use, your floor boards would be wet (saturated and now ready to delaminate, rot, and mildew) when you came back if the pump had not been working.I'd rather jump start the engine if I had to.But, I have good friends who would rather come back to the rising bilge and be able to start the engine to pump it out. Personal choice.You can also get a low battery cut-off switch, they are sold in both marine and auto supplies, and that will cut off all power from the battery once it gets down to a pre-set level like 11.9 volts, leaving enough juice to manually override it and start the engine, but otherwise giving "most" of the battery power for things you've left on intentionally--like a bilge pump. Price is maybe $50 for that.

 

[BarryL]

my thoughts

Hello,IMHO, the bilge pump should have two switches. One is a float switch wired directly to ONE battery. The other is a manual switch (in the DC panel) that connects to the pump and bypasses the float switch.The first 'big' boat (Newport 28) I bought had the pump wired like that. This way you are protected if water gets in the boat. Since there are two batteries on board, one should be able to start the engine. The second big boat I bought (O'day 35) had the float switch powered through the DC panel. I found this out when the bilge was full and almost over flowing. When I left the boat I turned the battery selector switch off, and a few days of steady rain allowed the bilge to fill up (leaks through the keel stepped mast). I have since rewired the bilge pump the way I like it.One other comment - if you are on a mooring and use the boat on a regular basis, you don't need a solar charger. I am on my boat at least once a week, but even if it is once a month the batteries will stay just fine.Barry