What are you using as a bilge pump fuse holder?

[sully75]

I'm rewiring my bilge pumps. They were fused with these holders. They seem a bit...chincy to me. Not sure what else to use though.

http://www.defender.com/product3.jsp?path=-1|328|2290021|2290030&id=50638

Is that what the standard is?

 

[Maine Sail]

I'm rewiring my bilge pumps. They were fused with these holders. They seem a bit...chincy to me. Not sure what else to use though.

http://www.defender.com/product3.jsp?path=-1|328|2290021|2290030&id=50638

Is that what the standard is?

The battery bus fuse holders I use are an ATC waterproof holder; Blue Sea 5065.. This fuse holder gets a fused size for the wire from the battery to the bilge switch.

Blue Sea 5065

For the bilge pump switch I like the Blue Sea 8263 this switch gets the size fuse recommended by the bilge pump manufacturer and NO LARGER.

 

[Benny17441]

Those fuse holders are OK for the job at hand. They purport in appearance to be water proof and are likely hardly water resistant. Since the fuse position in the wiring is as close to the batteries as possible and not be submerged in the bilge it will perform an adequate job at low cost. Use a quality fuse of the right size as it is the fuse itself and not the holder which will primarily protect your boat and the equipment. Do understand that you usually get what you pay for and that the useful life of that holder will be shorter than of a better quality one.

 

[sully75]

The battery bus fuse holders I use are an ATC waterproof holder; Blue Sea 5065.. This fuse holder gets a fused size for the wire from the battery to the bilge switch.

Blue Sea 5065

For the bilge pump switch I like the Blue Sea 8263 this switch gets the size fuse recommended by the bilge pump manufacturer and NO LARGER.

That's great. I found two of them at West Marine.

Do I need to have a seperate bilge pump switch? Currently the bilge pump switch is wired through my regular 12v panel. I will check to see if it's fused. If not I can add a fuse to the circuit. Any reason it shouldn't be wired in that panel?

 

[heritage]

The bilge pump switch that Maine Sail recommends is an On, Off, Auto type. It allows you to run the pump without pulling the floorboard and raising the float switch.

 

[woodster]

That's great. I found two of them at West Marine.

Do I need to have a seperate bilge pump switch? Currently the bilge pump switch is wired through my regular 12v panel. I will check to see if it's fused. If not I can add a fuse to the circuit. Any reason it shouldn't be wired in that panel?

you can wire it in the panel if you choose to do so but most wire them directly to the battery side and fuse it at the battery this way no matter what goes on with you panel your pumps are live all the time...by this i mean its ok to wire them direct to the 12v source feeding the man/off/auto switch and then wire your pump wires to the switch there should be directions for wiring the pump if not google how to wire a bilge pump and you will get lots of diagrams that fit you setup...i have a breaker on my panel marked bilge pump but i don't use it i wired it direct to my 12v source (either battery or house bank on the 1 both 2 switch) remembering to fuse it there

 

[sully75]

Not totally sure I understand what's being said. I have three wires coming off the smaller of the two pumps I'm going to install. One wire (brown and white) turns the pump on and off without the float switch. I'm planning on wiring that to the control panel (I think I will fuse it though).

The 2nd wire (brown) is controlled by the float switch. I'm planning on putting an inline fuse in that and then connecting it directly (through a crimped circle) to the terminal of the battery. The third wire (black) I'm going to put on the negative terminal of the battery.

Still not sure what the difference would be to running the brown and white wire through the main control panel would be.

Could I fuse the negative (black wire) and thus not have to fuse both brown wires individually?

 

[woodster]

are you using a switch for the bilge pump manual -off- auto

 

[sully75]

There's two pumps. The smaller one (placed lower) has a float switch built in.

The larger one I'm just going to wire straight to the battery.

 

[woodster]

how are you going to turn them on and off

 

[sully75]

The larger one has an automatic sensor.

The smaller one has a float switch, plus I'm going to connect the other lead to the control panel (at least, unless I find a compelling reason otherwise).

 

[woodster]

here is a diagram of the switch for bilge pumps with a float switch and and automatic one




http://www.ehow.com/how_5025934_wire-bilge-pump.html

read this and it may clear things up some for you

 

[sully75]

I think that refers to pumps without a built in float switch, as mine has.

Regardless, I'm just wondering what the advantage of not wiring the switch into the main control panel is.

 

[woodster]

I think that refers to pumps without a built in float switch, as mine has.

Regardless, I'm just wondering what the advantage of not wiring the switch into the main control panel is.

the automatic ones wire up the same way both have 3 wires brown...brown and white......and black

as for wiring direct to your batts if you leave the boat and turn off the battery
switch you disarm the bilge pumps if they are wired to the panel...this way they will be on all the time and ready to pump water when needed

 

[sully75]

ok you're not getting my question but thanks.

 

[Squidd]

You can tie to the panel for the manual (switched) operation of the pump, because you would be there to make sure the panel was energized...

The automatic side of the pump should be direct wired (fused) so it's always ready to work.

 

[woodster]

You can tie to the panel for the manual (switched) operation of the pump, because you would be there to make sure the panel was energized...

The automatic side of the pump should be direct wired (fused) so it's always ready to work.

why would you have 2 power sources to the same pump

 

[sully75]

So you can turn it on manually and still have float switch control.

 

[woodster]

are you using a bilge pump switch that works on auto...off...manual if so you have total control over your pump with that switch

 

[Rusty123]

Not sure I follow the question here, but I believe standard practice is to connect bilge pumps (and perhaps a very few other loads, like radio programming lead) to an "always hot" supply. This way, you can turn off your main panel master switch when leaving the boat (which is a easy way to make sure all loads are deenergized), while maintaining bilge pump operability.

The bilge pump itself is usually fed with an "on-off-auto" switch, which allows manual operation without manipulation of the float. This is usually a "spring return" switch to prevent accidentally leaving the pump on. This type of switch requires three conductors between the switch and pump/float: two positive ("on" feed to pump and "auto" feed to float), plus ground.