[Public-List] Bilge Pump

[gregr at nethere.com]

I see that lots of folks have responded so I'll keep this short.
The purpose of the Automatic pump is to save the boat; not keep the bilge
bone dry. Set it up so some water is left in the bilge after the switch
turns off. This will buy you a clue that you have a problem and you will
not have to make the control loop so sensitive. The pump is lifting the
water "up hill" and there will be water left in the tubing. Make sure the
pump runs long enough that when it shuts down and the water runs back down
it doesn't trigger the switch (the hysteresis...). This test should include
rocking the boat to verify the remaining water doesn't trigger it when a
boat passes by. One-way valves are not a good fix for this issue as the
water will almost always slowly leak through. A nice side effect of having
an automatic pump can be a phone call from a neighbor. You did share a beer
with the nearby live-a-boards didn't you...

Greg

 1278534581.0