Water pressure switch?

[Colin]

My 89 Hunter 335 does not have a pressure switch on the house water, is this the norm and if it is has anyone retro fitted one? I would also like to know if a pressure reservoir is required to keep a reserve of pressure so that the pump doesn't turn on with the slightest leak. With the system the way it is, the pumnp runs whenever the breaker is turned, this has happened accidentaly once resulting in a flat battery, very quickly!

 

[Sam Lust]

Very Odd

The system you describe makes very little sense. All of the water pumps I've seen have pressure switches incorporated as part of their design. Yours does not sound like a fun system. It sounds to me as if this not the orriginal pump and aomeone just slapped in whatever was at hand. If you can support a 33 foot boat, I would think you could pop for a new pump at about $125 on sale, which they usualy are. Installation is not that big a deal.As far as the accumulator tank goes, check any house that draws water from a well, and you'll find an accumulator tank. They reduce the frequency of pump cycling. I had a Jabsco tank on my 33 that did work for a while, but it was really just too small to be much use, and it broke itself anyway. (England has never been noted for it's fine plastics!) I'm in the process of fabricating one now. It's 4" PVC pipe about 20 inches long, capped at both ends with a hose barb fitting at the bottom. It will be mounted behind a drawer inside the head vanity in an otherwise unusable space, completely out of the way. If I get energetic I'll post photos of this and other items in the Photo Forum.

 

[Peggie Hall/HeadMistress]

Pumps shouldn't run continuously...

...whether you have an accumulator tank or not (I don't have one). Ergo, leaving the breaker on should not drain your battery. Something is definitely wrong here. Either you have a defective pump, or--as Sam suggested--somebody replaced the original pump with the wrong pump for this application.

 

[David]

33.5 water pump

Colin, My 88 H33.5 is equipped with a Jabsco pump and internal switch. It only runs when there is a substantial drop in pressure or if I am running a water faucet continuously. I have not had difficulty with the system draining the batteries. There must be a pressure component in the pump that has failed.

 

[Colin Campbell]

Faulty switch

Thanks to the responses here, a little more research has shown that as the pump is a Shurflow, there should be a pressure switch built in. Now I have to either rebuild the switch/pump, or what is probably cheaper and easier, buy another complete switch from West Marine and leave the pump alone.