My bilge pump is wired directly to my panel so I have to leave my battery on when I leave my mooring. In speaking with a lot of other sailors (albeit not nonsuch owners) they have told me that their bilge pumps are wired directly to their battery.
I had my batteries drained down in a prolonged absence (2 weeks) and seems that there would no draw unless it is pumping and thus a better setup.
Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Eric Baker
Elle NS30U #280
Greenwich Cove, CT
Wire it directly to a battery or just a cable coming from a battery to that panel. Get yourself a solar panel with a regulator and you’ll never have to deal with a dead battery/s when you go away. You should be able to easily find one for under $100.
Joe Valinoti
S/V iL Gatto NS30U #221
Sea Harbour YC
Oriental, NC USA
Eric -
Unless you have some stray current running down your batteries, whether the bilge pump is running from the panel vs running directly from a battery will not make a difference, assuming all the other switches are off. I prefer running it straight from my house battery bank because I don’t want the bilge pump switched off (although the bilge pump controller switch has an ‘off’ setting when needed). I agree with Joe - get a couple of 100W solar panels and a charge controller (Renogy makes a very simple combo) and keep your batteries charged on a mooring. Even better, add a battery combiner (I use a BEP) and it will keep both your House and your Start batteries charged.
Bob Gehrman
NS30U #396 “Quickbeam”
Baltimore, Maryland
Yes defiantly direct to battery. There is a device , I’m not sure where, that will give a count of the bilge pump starts. It can’t be very expensive.
Brian Cayer
Spirit ~Wind
N30U 419
Deep River, CT
Here is one foe an example;
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Brian
Good call, Brian - I have one of these on my boat, too. Very useful especially if you are away from your boat a lot. I like to know how often my bilge pump is cycling to know if I’ve got a problem somewhere.
Bob Gehrman
Do not omit proper fusing.
Ward Woodruff
N33 #8 Margery
Niantic Bay, CT
We’ve had a ARC controller for years and it sure makes life easier. Last spring I replaced the main switch with this one and its much easier to manage. I have the head fan and bilge pump wired to always on , and breakers for the DC panel and the winch breaker …
https://www.bluesea.com/products/8686/Dual_Battery_Bank_Management_Panel
https://www.bluesea.com/products/7610/SI-ACR_Automatic_Charging_Relay_-_12_24V_DC_120A
Thanks to everyone for all the help, this group support is fantastic
Eric Baker
Elle NS 30 #280
Greenwich, Cove CT
There was an excellent presentation at the last PNWNN gathering on the impact of stray current in a bilge. Nearly destroyed the keel bolts.
Defective float switches, carbon dust from bilge pump motors, old wiring.
Actually the acronym for our group is NNNWA, Nonsuch Niagara North West Association.
It was a good presentation. The problem was a separate float switch for a Rule Bilge pump. The switch can start to fail after 2 to 3 year. One of the symptoms of the failing switch is a small amount of electrical current leakage. If there is any salt water in the bilge the current travels from the switch through the water and to the closest keel bolt and out through the keel. It caused the antifouling to flake off of the keel in one area. The washer used on the keel bolt was a lower grade stainless than the keel bolt and was eaten out by the stray current. The problem was caught in time and the keel bolt was okay. The switch was about two years old, the owner still had the purchase receipt, so with some hard work and persuasion the insurance company cover the costs of repair. The keel had to be dropped in order to check the integrity of the keel bolts.
An early warning of a failing switch is intermittent operation. If when you test the float switch you notice that it might take one or two tries to trigger the pump it can be a sing that the switch is failing
Mark Powers
