[Public-List] Bilge pumps redux..

[Kris Coward]

So having just had my third failure with my trusty diaphragm pump
(previously, a line which fell into the bilge got sucked into the pump,
where it jammed the valves open and made the pump impossible to prime.
Also, last spring the diaphragm cracked from age. I haven't fixed this
one yet, but from what I can tell, it looks like a repeat of the first),
I'm starting to have misgivings about this (and a bucket) being the only
means to rapidly remove water from the boat in an emergency.

Since I have an electric bilge pump kicking around (and also have a
circuit left open for it on my DC panel), I'm planning to install it,
but wanted to ask first whether siphon prevention on one of these things
would be best done with a vented loop, or with a check valve (or both,
if they can be set up to be redundant instead of presenting two single
points of failure). Anyone here have much experience with failures in
either form of siphon prevention they they care to share?

Also, any comments on the wisdom of attaching a strainer to the end of
the hose feeding the diaphragm pump? Right now, it's looking like it
could save me some bothersome failures, but then it might just move said
failures right to the bottom of the bilge where they become even more
difficult and unpleasant to fix. Thoughts?

Thanks,
Kris

-- 
Kris Coward					http://unripe.melon.org/
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