Electric bilge pump

[Craig Weis]

Yes I have both the factory manual hand pump that is mounted on the port side min-ships in my cockpit surround. Everyone has a pump mounted about here.

I used one spring steel clip up under the settee hatch cover to hold the handle in reserve [at the ready] and that handle is labeled as the "Bilge Pump Handle" plainly visible when one lifts this hatch open. The 'crew' knows what to do.
I think this is the '400' manual pump from

Surface Mount Bilge Pump  #107516  GH-400-H $69.00


Additionally I have a 12 volt DC 750 Gallon per HOUR pump. Or 12-1/2 gallon per minute: The pump from West Marine is:
Rule-Mate 750; Draw: 2.8A @ 12V DC, Port: 3/4", Dimensions: 4"H x 5"L x 2 1/2"D
#150602 RM750 $77.99


I sail with a 1000 cold cranking amp battery. So in theory I could run this pump for
about 357 minutes or 5.9 hours. Don't kid yourself she'll fag out in lets say 2-1/2 hours.
Just a guess as my battery is most likely never up to full charge, even with a solar cell
trickle of 18 volt-3000 [or is it 300] milliamps? No matter. She's done when she's done.

And the West Marine switch for this pump is: WM Model #: 215228 
Manuf. Part #: 45 $22.00 Note S/W# 43 pictured...but close. See my picture.


Comes with a handy switch plate I mounted right next to my boat's electric panel.
~Push and hold to the left: Test. I can here pump run. But she's dry.
~Park switch in middle: Automatic. Runs when I pour in a bucket of water. Otherwise no-run if dry but on 'stand-by' if water should be forth coming. A nice feature in this mode is the pump runs for 10 seconds to continue pumping the line dry resulting in less back flow into the bilge.
~park to the right: Run. I can here pump run, but she's dry.

Assembly:
1~Clean the bilge compartment of that grey paint the factory put in there. Don't want that be ingested into the pump's centrifugal fwd curve non-overloading impeller.
2~Realize that the pump will not stay put without help. What with the outlet hose, and the heeling of the hull. It's going to move around.
3~This pump has a detachable inlet grillage that acts like a pump base and the pump is snapped onto this base. So I used 3-M contact spray cemented the pump inlet base to a 3" x 3" x 5-1/2" Aluminium angle. And then 3-M sprayed the cleaned bilge fiberglass and the roughed up aluminum bottom of the angle and cemented the angle to the bilge floor. When dried the next day I snapped on the pump. Wired and plumbed.
4~Knowing that the electric centrifugal pump will not 'pump past' the manual diaphragm pump, a tee will have to be added to the plumbing down stream of the diagram pump and then this bilge pump will share the same 'scupper hole' used by the manual pump with out worry of sucking in the sea or the sea free flowing past the manual pump. The manual pump is the sea-stop.
5~A circuit breaker and wired with two 14 ga wires instead of one for each connection and soldered. I connected the pump and switch using a 'straight to the battery' connection through the circuit breaker.
The 14 gauge wire is twisted together using an electric drill then pvc taped to create the electrical cabling.

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