rule bilge pump

[tomcat]

Hi

I have just bought a ribcraft 585 and the last owner has had the automatic feature of the bilge pump diabled due to battery drain and the boat being stored on racking.

any idea's how he may have done this? I have the boat in a Marina now and would like the pump working when required.

He did mention that "a wire may have been cut" it was my understanding that the auto pumps worked on a float switch.

is it just a case of replacing the pump or could a wire have been cut in the console for example?

cheers

Tom

[codprawn]

Assuming it's the type that pulses every 2 mins to check for water then there should be 3 wires. Black and Brown are normal feeds - the other brown should go straight to the battery via a fuse. I assume it's this brown wire that's been cut - just splice another wire straight to the battery.

[Andy Moore]

Our bilge pump drained our battery, no trouble.

[codprawn]

My battery is fine - it's a new 120amp/hr - the old one was useless but it was knackered anyway(thanks Jason).

Obviously a bilge pump will drain a battery if it has lot's of water to pump. When mine wasn't working the boat could easily fill with about a ton of water in just a day of torrential rain. That's 1000 litres which takes about 40 mins to pump out so that is about 4 or 5 amps a day if it's very wet.

If there is NO water to pump the cycling on and off uses a tiny amount.

[Andy Moore]

I would prefer to leave our on, but its all rather disapointing when one goes down for a whizz and the engine won't turn over.

To be honest, I don't understand about amps and hours etc.

[Polwart]

Originally Posted by codprawn

My battery is fine - it's a new 120amp/hr - the old one was useless but it was knackered anyway(thanks Jason).

Obviously a bilge pump will drain a battery if it has lot's of water to pump. When mine wasn't working the boat could easily fill with about a ton of water in just a day of torrential rain. That's 1000 litres which takes about 40 mins to pump out so that is about 4 or 5 amps a day if it's very wet.

If there is NO water to pump the cycling on and off uses a tiny amount.

[pedantic mode = ON]
Codders - normally you are such a stickler for units . The correct unit for battery "size" is Ah, rather than A/h . Similarly I assume you mean 4-5 Ah per day.
[/pedantic mode = OFF]

[codprawn]

No I meant it uses 4 to 5 amps of current per day in total or to put it another way 48 to 60w - of course these are very approximate figures as rainfall is rather erratic to say the least!!!

[codprawn]

Originally Posted by Andy Moore

Our bilge pump drained our battery, no trouble.

Yes but that's cos it was draining your bilge - the only solution is an overall cover or a windmill.....

[Lawrence]

On my Ribcraft the automatic bilge pump can be isolated by a switch on the console so it doesn't cycle when not required. I know you will have checked it's not just a switch, won't you?

[BogMonster]

How about a little solar panel, like you find on agricultural electric fencing units, to keep the battery topped up?