What are you using as a bilge pump fuse holder?

woodster · May 26, 2014

Rusty123 said:
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.

and it is powered by the one power wire coming from the battery to the switch power source wire

mitiempo · May 26, 2014

sully75 said:
The question was simple enough I thought. Is wiring the manual bilge pump switch into the regular switch panel unwise versus using the dedicated bilge pump switch mentioned by Maine Sail above? I understand that the float switch needs to be directly wired to the battery. Just not sure why there needs to be a dedicated bilge pump only switch? I hear you about it being a sprung switch but I also feel like it's pretty unlikely for me to leave it running if I switched it on.

The manual bilge pump switch is commonly wired into the main panel on powerboats. The wire to the float switch comes through a fuse directly from the battery. I don't see anything wrong with that.

mitiempo · May 26, 2014

sully75 said:
Thanks. That was the way it was set up originally and it works well. I just was thrown by the picture of the bilge pump switch above.

Just another way to accomplish the same result really.

When wired into the main panel often the switch is not momentary like the dedicated switch is. This means it can be left on. Interestingly Steve D'Antonio thinks this is the best way to have it. His point is that when the bilge pump is needed and the float is not working (jammed for example) there are much better things to do than keeping ones finger on a switch.

Maine Sail · May 27, 2014

mitiempo said:
Just another way to accomplish the same result really.

When wired into the main panel often the switch is not momentary like the dedicated switch is. This means it can be left on. Interestingly Steve D'Antonio thinks this is the best way to have it. His point is that when the bilge pump is needed and the float is not working (jammed for example) there are much better things to do than keeping ones finger on a switch.

The argument can go both ways, and I don't disagree with SD on that point, but having replaced thousands of dollars in batteries due to non-momentary manual bilge switches I still generally prefer the momentary ones at least for nuisance pumps.. My argument is that your bilge pump system & float switch should ALWAYS be in good operational order so you would never have to sit there with your finger on the switch.

You could/should alternatively wire in an emergency pump, with much higher capacity, and this would get a non-momentary... The smaller pump would be the nuisance pump which always seems to be the one to destroy a 2k bank of batteries....:cussing: Last year alone I had to replace three house banks due to the manual switch being left on. Two sailboats and one power boat. One bank had been dead for at least two weeks and was only three months old..... Many builders used always on manual switches. The only time I replace dead banks for momentary switches is when people use cheap bilge pump float switches (eg: Rule).... The days of the RELIABLE old mercury float switches are long gone....

An override of the momentary bilge switch can also be wired to a panel breaker marked EMERGENCY BILGE....