How many gallons can your bilge pump pump?

[Franklin]

My boat only came with a Rule 1500 in the bilge. I just bought a Rule 2000 yesterday. I may get another/two Rule 2000 just to be on the safe side. I also got a high water alarm for the bilge. I've been trying to decide where to put the speaker...cockpit or cabin...I wish they came with two speakers. I think it's a small price to pay to keep her afloat if you run into something or a thru-hull breaks or the packing gland goes.Do you know how many gallons can your pumps pumpout per hour?

 

[Steve Dion]

Do not believe what they tell you.

Franklin:Do not believe what they tell you when you purchase these pumps.Practical Sailor did some tests several years ago on this subject and the results were quite revealing.

 

[Ross]

1Gallon per stroke with no electricity

and no engine!

 

[Landsend]

The ratings drop on most bilge pumps...

By the height of the discharge opening, voltage at the pump, wiring, the size of the hose, if the hose has a smooth or spiral bore. To compare pumps, all tests basics have to be the exactly same. Usually bigger is better.

 

[Ross]

Bilge pumps and sump pumps

are the same and all are rated for GPH at 5,10,15,20 feet of head. No suction lift. Elbows count as several feet of pipe and straight horizontal pipe counts as head. All specs presume smooth pipe.

 

[Franklin]

True True True

but one can't redesign the boat easily. One can try to put as much of pump power down there as possible. I'm just trying to figure out how much pump power I need to keep up with a busted thru-hull or something similiar. I've read many articles where the boat had a leak but they couldn't find it to plug it. My guess is by the time they found they had a leak, the cabin was already knee deap and therefore hiding the leak. I would like to have a small pump as the primary pump that could handle the simple pumpouts of normal use but would be overrun by water easily from a unusual leak. That way, the water would rise and the high water switch would kick on the rest of the pumps and also sound the alarm. If those pumps could keep up then it should make finding the leak much easier and of course less stressful because you know your not sinking. It would also help smooth my fears that something terrible will go wrong while I'm at work and I come home to find only my mast sticking our of the water. It makes it a little more intense when you have all your possessions onboard as a live-aboard. I was told that I could tie in the backup pumps into the same hose as the primary pump. I'm sure that would decrease the effectiveness of each pump but it would increase the force of the water going through the hose. What I'm thinking though is that if one pump is working and the other isn't, the water is just going to flow back into the bilge through the non working pump. Right?

 

[Benny]

It could go from totally adequate to...

completely useless in the time it takes you to say "holed". Bigger is better but but there is no substitute for a well motivated person with a manual pump. We keep a 1000 GPH automatic and there is a manual pump with an attachable handle in the cockpit.

 

[Franklin]

Manual pump

I have one too. The emergency pump has a very nice size hose to it and if I remember rightly when I tested it, it pumps water pretty good. But that doesn't help if I'm single handling and I need to find the hole and fix it. It also doesn't help when I'm at work and a thru-hull hose goes.

 

[NYSail]

auto - manual

With my new to me P36-2 I had the same concerns, so I installed the Rule 2000 with all smooth hose and bought a big manual pump, the Whale Gusher Titan (28 gpm). I also have a spare Rule 1500 that has a 15 foot hose connected to it and 30 feet of wire with alligator clams to attach to the battery so I can move this one around if necessary. I am getting the water alarm also as the bilge in this boat is very shallow.

 

[Franklin]

Manual

If the Whale Gusher is a hugh manual and it only pumps 28 gpm, then isn't that the same as the Rule 2000? The Rule 2000 is supposed (since we are talking about ratings and not actual ability) to pump 2000 gph which comes out to about 1/2 a gallon a second. I pulled the plug on the knot meter transducer and it looks like I take on about a gallon to 1.5 gallons a second. I think I can get close to that if I replace my current pump hose with a bigger one and have a Rule 3700, two Rule 2000 and a Rule 1500.

 

[NYSail]

Well.......

Yes, based on factory specs. they are about the same at 33 gallons per minute for the Rule 2000 and 28 for the Whale Gusher Titan. A manual pump is a necessity on a boat and for my boat the Gusher Titan fit just right. According to your math, theoretically you would only need 3 Rule 2000 at 1/2 gallons a second to keep up with a 1.5 gallon flow of water.I would like to protect the boat as much as reasonably possible, which includes continual checks of all through-hull fittings, hoses and hose clamps and shaft log....one can only do so much.I am not going to load the boat down with 4 auto pumps plus a manual pump....it seems to be going overboard a bit. If it was considered to be that much of a risk, I am sure the boat after market would have catered to this by now. Remember, if you are on the boat and start to take on water that the pumps can't deal with, you can always take the sea water cooling hose leading to your engine off of the through hull (shuting the valve of course) and put that hose in your bilge as well.

 

[Don s/v Tellico]

Several articles I've read..

suggest having a smaller submersible pump down in the bilge to take care of normal flow. Then having a higher cap non-submersible type pump mounted up higher with separate float switch that would kick in in the event of a real crisis. Those suckers can really move water, provided they have power. Seemed smart to me.Also, if you're aboard with a big leak some folks disconnect the engine raw water intake and use the engine as a big pump. I'd guess that takes planning ahead of time, maybe plumbing in a "T" with a hose for such use.

 

[Franklin]

please

"you can always take the sea water cooling hose leading to your engine off of the through hull (shutting the valve of course) and put that hose in your bilge as well. "why does everybody keep saying this? I haven't seen a boat yet that put out that much water through the exhaust. It's not worth the time. If I had spare time to mess with something like that I'd spend it with a 5 gallon bucket.4 Auto pumps weight about 15 lbs and they are in the bulge where weight is good so don't be talking like that's a big deal. It will only cost you about $200 too. $200 to keep a $100,000+ boat above water is cheap INSURANCE and I bet a $1,000 the crew of the boat in the article wished they had more pumps. It really is sad to think that Hunter ships a $200,000 boat with just one rule 1500 in the bulge. Talk about going cheap!Yeah, you can inspect your hoses and thru-hulls and clamps, but if your thru-hulls are corroding, they will corrode on the inside first and good chance you don't know it.

 

[Franklin]

Now that would make sinse

"maybe plumbing in a "T" with a hose for such use. "That wouldn't hurt.

 

[Franklin]

Now we are talking

Rule 8000 GPH Bilge Pumps Rule's Largest Capacity SubmersIble Pump. Thoughtfully designed, it incorporates two 4000 GPH pumps which discharge through a common 3" discharge outlet. Since the two pumps function independently, if one pump fails, the other eill continue to operate providing back-up pumping capability.I was looking for a non-submersible pump. I couldn't find any that was rated more then 1500 GPH but I found this. 8000 GPH would do the trick 3" hose though...not sure if I got room to run one of those.

 

[rsn48]

Bilge pumps

I just went through the exercise of installing bilge pumps in my Catalina 27. The best resource I found, along with other good ones, is linked below so you can peruse it. Below I have included from the site, an illustration of roughly how many bilge pumps a boat at a certain size should have. As you look at the graph, no where will you see that it says only to have one.I just finished installing three bilge pumps in my C27, I'm considering a fourth. I also have an electrical portable sump pump available in the boat. Now about those manual pumps you guys talk about. Some of them are on the cheaper side. When I was out on a boat that was slowly filling with water from a mystery leak, the handle snapped in two as I was pumping the sucker.Manufactures, by and large, are incompetent when it comes to installing relatively cheap bilge pumps. Each isolated compartment should have its own bilge pump. In some instances on my boat where two isolated compartments were back to back, I drilled a hole between them and install a bilge pump in one of them, letting the other isolated compartment drain into the bilged one.Twice I have had boats fill with water from mystery leaks. After this experience I've become very conservative on water evacuation from my boat. Boat Length/No. Pumps/Total Capacity - GPH 16 - 20 2 2500 21 - 26 2 3000 - 3500 27 - 35 3 3500 - 4500 36 - 42 3 6000 43 - 49 3 - 4 8000 50 - 59 4 - 5 9000 - 10,000 60 - 60 4 - 5 10,000+

 

[Franklin]

Thanks rsn48

Now I know I'm not nuts and overly cautious.I think I'm going to get that Rule 8000 and combine the rule 2000 in with it and put all that on the high water switch/alarm. I'm also thinking of adding a hose with a T for the Refrig pump and the AC pump so all I have to do is flip two levers and now have two more pumps working for me. They are only like 360 gph combined but every little bit helps.What got me to thinking about this a lot lately was that this weekend I was cleaning my AC filter and realized that the thru-hull wouldn't open or close. The handle works fine but the water flows about half way. Then I thought about that 3/4 million Hinkley that sunk in our marina because of a thru-hull that busted.I think all boats should be able to handle a busted thru-hull.