Do I need an auto bilge?

[fishNtails]

Looking to put my boat in a marina for the 1st time. My bilge pimp is jus wired into a dash on/off switch. Do I need to install a float switch or auto bilge?

Thanks

[wakina]

That would be a good idea. If your switch does not light up when you turn on the pump manually then I would replace it with one that does.

When you install a float switch it will feed power back to the outlet side of the dash switch and light up the light on your dash when it powers up from water in the bilge. It will give you a warning something is amiss in your bilge.

[LEfriend]

Additional story... last summer saw a boat in the dock across the channel from mine that kept puking out water from the bilge outlet. Figured something wasn't right, so drove around and headed over to check it out. The guy had left his washdown pump on by accident. The wash hose had then split and was spraying all over the inside of the boat. Then the bilge was pumping it overboard. I headed to the office and we rounded the owner up. There probably wasn't any danger of sinking, because it likely would have quit pumping same time the battery powering the bilge ran down. But what if that bilge hadn't had an auto switch? Or what if it was a drain plug leak, or some other live well hose failure, or such, which eventually would have run the battery down. At least two batteries gives you a little longer chance for someone to see it.

[The Baron]

I would highly recommend an auto bilge. Last year was my first time at keeping my boat docked and i learned the hard way very early in the season. I had no auto bilge and when i showed up after a couple weeks snow and rain had got into my boat and completely submerged my one battery and both 2 cycle oil reservoirs. Needless to say i had quite mess. I ordered a sahara 750 auto bilge and wired it directly to the battery. I ran it through one of the manual pump hoses with a 3 way y pipe and now have 3 bilges . Problem solved but not after having to deal with a big mess.

[M.A.D. Eyes]

FishNtails I too am in the same situation as yourself. I am leaning towards docking perfectly this season rather than towing back and forth. Not sure exactly which marina yet bit that's beyond the point. As far as a float on your bilge pump I believe that it would be in your best interest to install one. I'm going to have to do the same. When at dock we need the security of knowing the pump will kick in when the water level rises from heavy rain from storms. I live 2 hours south of the lake and would want that added insurance. I will probably be adding an extra battery as well. We always hope that our dock mate will be there to keep a watchful eye or someone in the marina bit why take a chance. I just purchased a new boat last spring, what a dumb move, should have got the float system installed originally. Live and learn. Lol.

[fishNtails]

Thanks for the input everybody. My next question is should I just install a float switch or put it in an auto bilge?

[branhamautomotive]

Not all docks have shore power, or boats have built in chargers. Under normal conditions neither of those should be needed. A standard boat battery that is in good state should have plenty of power to run the pump. Now if you will be gone a few months might be differant. If you boat does not have 2 batteries this would be a good time to think of it. I leave 1 on and keep the other off so if my battery is dead the other will start it.

Now if your top does its job correctly, you have it good and water proofed and sealed up, your boat should not get tons of water in.

Every bildge is differant in size too. My 19ft er only holds a few gallons before it kicks on. My 27 ft er will run for 5 mins at a time when it turns on.

[miso_ohio]

With no shore power it is good to get to know a few people in your marina. I get asked quite a bit if I could go to so and so's boat to turn on all batteries and run it for 15 minutes or more to give the batteries a little boost if the owner is not going to make it up for a few weeks. I got no problem with that as long as you bring me some nice delicious Keystone Light when you do make it back up.

I agree with everybody here about the auto bilges, I do differ though on the fact that I do prefer the manual float switches over the internal auto switches. In a lot of installations you have no choice and have to use those self contained auto switches. I find I need to replace those internal switch ones a whole lot more then a basic manual bilge with a separate manual switch. Yeah you got to get in there and clean the float off ever once in a while but I find when certain undesirables get up into those auto bilges they get really messed up.

The good news is just about every decent bilge has a good warranty on it, so basically when they do go bad it is normally no money out of pocket, just the time and labor to replace it. Depending on the location of said bilge though, time and labor could be a real issue.

[branhamautomotive]

Either one works. The float might be easier to install seeing your just piggybacking the electrical and can be installed basicly anywhere in the bildge you can get to. With the float it's 1 wire from the battery 1 wire tied into the existing power wire, now it will work from float or switch, but might not feedback to a light on the switch if you even have it. The benifit to installing an all in one pump is if you t into in the hose rather than replace your existing pump, you will have 2 pumps incase on water and 1 fails. But it might be hard to access the hose to t into

[wakina]

Please compare switch types, a float switch will have a tendency to stick over time from the crud that some how always seems to find its way into the bilge resulting in a dead battery as they always seem to stick in the run position. There are sensor switches with no moving parts to stick that will only power up the pump when it senses water and will not power up with petroleum products (gas or oil). There is a simple test to determine if the switch will power a light on the dash with the power out wire on the switch. But I don't think the bilge switch and pump circuit has a relay in it as most pumps use so little power that there is no need for it. Note~~ If you decide to add the light if not already there then you would also have to ground the newly installed light, should be plenty of places in the dash to do that.

The whole installation sounds a lot worse than it really is. The hardest part is most often bilge access to perform any work that you might want to do.