Bilge Pumps Not Working

[sdowney717]

And the discharge hose needs to rise up high enough to prevent back flowing, as in sea-lake water flowing back into boat through the hose. 18 inches maybe. See if your boat is taking on water, it goes to low, it will take on a lot more water through the bilge pump hose. Pump may quit pumping. what you going to do then.

 

[sdowney717]

And when you raise the hose, you lose flow volume of gph. So to compensate for it, install a large pump.

 

[cyclops222]

How much larger ?

 

[sdowney717]

How to Calculate Actual Bilge Pump Capacity​

A 1-inch hole below the waterline of your boat could allow over 1,000 gallons of water per hour to pour into the hull. So if a thru-hull fitting fails, you could have a fatal amount of water entering your boat.

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https://www.boats.net/blog/bilge-pump-capacity-how-to-calculate

Calculating Bilge Pump Capacity Loss​

Example - A typical bilge pump rated at 1,100 GPH (gallons per hour) operating on 12 volts:

Calculating Pump Head Loss. The GPH rating given to a bilge pump by the manufacturer is based on its capacity to pump water horizontally and doesn’t account for head. However, bilge pumps are located at the bottom of the bilge and the discharge pipe outlet is well above the waterline, so the pump has to use some of its energy lifting the water up.

The loss of pumping capacity from pump head varies from pump to pump, but typically a rise of 3 feet in head reduces a pump’s flow rate by 20%-30%.

• A 25% loss of flow with a 1,100 GPH bilge pump equals 275 GPH.

 

[sdowney717]

If the boat fills with too much water, it is going down.
Boats can sink at the worst times when other things may be going wrong, and it will overwhelm your ability to bail out the water. Then the costs of the sinking can be catastrophic life, limb, dollars. So bilge pump systems are no joke.

 

[scarpint]

UPDATE:

After spending some time tracking down why we had no power at the switch on the console, we located the Hour Meter/Breaker Box screwed to the rear of the boat with two breakers for the front pump and bilge. Both were popped.

We effed around trying to get the front pump working, looking for a fuse, not realizing there was a breaker box for these. The front pump is now working with the float, but the bilge pump is toast. Looks like someone left the switch on the console on and the pump burned up. Can't show you here, but you can see a burn mark with the plastic melted on the side of the pump.

Figured that's what popped the breakers.

Thanks to those who responded with helpful replies, and to those who happen upon this thread who, like me, may not be as familiar with your boat as others, the pumps on this particular boat don't have fuses, but breakers.

Cheers and good luck,
Renegade X