This project has been a long time coming, not because of its complexity, but there had always seemed to be something higher on the priority list. Before going any further, be advised that while I know a few folks at Sea Flo, my unit was purchased retail and I have no skin in the game regarding this product. YMMV.
The first hurdle was finding a place to put it. Under the starboard settee forward seemed like a good spot with the added benefit of being a good tie-in to my bilge pump rewiring and “instrument panel” project. However, it necessitated moving the emergency anchor to under the port settee. This required some fabricating and surgery so that it would not move in a sea and possibly damage the seawater inlet valve to the head.
The unit itself can be mounted at any angle, so I settled on screwing it to a piece of King Starboard that was itself screwed into the liner at the top and anchored to the hull via a pair of weld mount nuts at the bottom. So, if you lift the settee cover, it is facing you. The suction tube is run forward far enough so that it can turn inboard in a void under the liner and down into the bilge. This is the same route as the electrical cables and N2K cable for the mast. The discharge runs farther forward under the same void and comes up through a hole I drilled in the inboard corner of the floor* that supports the sink in the head and the bulkhead that separates the head from the v-berth. The ½” hose loops up and over and “Tees” into the sink drain. The suction strainer is proving to be rather awkward to mount, so I temporarily used a series of wire ties to hold it in place until I can come up with a suitable bracket.
I intentionally left the suction line long in order to determine the best placement for the weighted sponge. It needs to be at the lowest point in the bilge and I wasn’t exactly sure where this was. Eventually, I determined that it is under the mast step cross member. It is heavy enough to not need to be screwed down to anything and besides, it is largely inaccessible with hand tools. If this does become a problem, I’ll figure out something. Sea Flow now sells a separate manifold so that you can connect multiple pickups.
Overall impressions…
Regarding build quality, I looked inside and it’s a pretty simple unit consisting of an OTS vacuum pump, a timer, tubing and some sound deadening foam. Unlike a conventional bilge pump, a vacuum can run dry all day long. Sea Flo also makes it very clear that this is NOT a substitute for a normal bilge pump. The case appears to be waterproof, but I’m not sure about the timer. Given the fact that it is one fifth the price of similar ARID system, I would say that it is a good value for the money. However, longevity remains a question.
The kit comes with a standard Sea Flo 3-way switch. This is really only to bring power to the unit, or to run it momentarily. Putting the switch into the AUTO position, does NOT put the timer in automatic mode. This has to be done via the timer itself. As an aside, I used a second one of these switches to control my regular bilge pump. I prefer it to the Rule product because of the “Carling” style switch and the fact that it has a breaker versus a similarly sized fuse.
Regarding the timer, the programing instructions leave a lot out and leave a lot to be desired. The Sea Flo folks must’ve recognized this and they have a very nice video posted on You Tube. I set the unit up to run for 3 minutes at 1300 each day.
It’s been in service since the boat went in the water in late May, and I could not be happier. Rather than have a about an inch of nuisance water from when it rains etc., the bilge is for all intents and purposes, dry. I also took the advice of the Service Manager at a local boatyard and added a solar charger to keep the house battery topped up. I believe this is a necessity if you are going to program it to run every day.
*A “floor” in a vessel is not something that one walks on, but is a transverse structural member that runs vertically across the hull bottom.
The first hurdle was finding a place to put it. Under the starboard settee forward seemed like a good spot with the added benefit of being a good tie-in to my bilge pump rewiring and “instrument panel” project. However, it necessitated moving the emergency anchor to under the port settee. This required some fabricating and surgery so that it would not move in a sea and possibly damage the seawater inlet valve to the head.
The unit itself can be mounted at any angle, so I settled on screwing it to a piece of King Starboard that was itself screwed into the liner at the top and anchored to the hull via a pair of weld mount nuts at the bottom. So, if you lift the settee cover, it is facing you. The suction tube is run forward far enough so that it can turn inboard in a void under the liner and down into the bilge. This is the same route as the electrical cables and N2K cable for the mast. The discharge runs farther forward under the same void and comes up through a hole I drilled in the inboard corner of the floor* that supports the sink in the head and the bulkhead that separates the head from the v-berth. The ½” hose loops up and over and “Tees” into the sink drain. The suction strainer is proving to be rather awkward to mount, so I temporarily used a series of wire ties to hold it in place until I can come up with a suitable bracket.
I intentionally left the suction line long in order to determine the best placement for the weighted sponge. It needs to be at the lowest point in the bilge and I wasn’t exactly sure where this was. Eventually, I determined that it is under the mast step cross member. It is heavy enough to not need to be screwed down to anything and besides, it is largely inaccessible with hand tools. If this does become a problem, I’ll figure out something. Sea Flow now sells a separate manifold so that you can connect multiple pickups.
Overall impressions…
Regarding build quality, I looked inside and it’s a pretty simple unit consisting of an OTS vacuum pump, a timer, tubing and some sound deadening foam. Unlike a conventional bilge pump, a vacuum can run dry all day long. Sea Flo also makes it very clear that this is NOT a substitute for a normal bilge pump. The case appears to be waterproof, but I’m not sure about the timer. Given the fact that it is one fifth the price of similar ARID system, I would say that it is a good value for the money. However, longevity remains a question.
The kit comes with a standard Sea Flo 3-way switch. This is really only to bring power to the unit, or to run it momentarily. Putting the switch into the AUTO position, does NOT put the timer in automatic mode. This has to be done via the timer itself. As an aside, I used a second one of these switches to control my regular bilge pump. I prefer it to the Rule product because of the “Carling” style switch and the fact that it has a breaker versus a similarly sized fuse.
Regarding the timer, the programing instructions leave a lot out and leave a lot to be desired. The Sea Flo folks must’ve recognized this and they have a very nice video posted on You Tube. I set the unit up to run for 3 minutes at 1300 each day.
It’s been in service since the boat went in the water in late May, and I could not be happier. Rather than have a about an inch of nuisance water from when it rains etc., the bilge is for all intents and purposes, dry. I also took the advice of the Service Manager at a local boatyard and added a solar charger to keep the house battery topped up. I believe this is a necessity if you are going to program it to run every day.
*A “floor” in a vessel is not something that one walks on, but is a transverse structural member that runs vertically across the hull bottom.
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