Bilge water flowing back to bilge

[steve77]

Originally Posted by Red Sky

Try a WaterWitch bilge pump switch. They’ll run the pump 15 seconds after it stops detecting water, solved the problem for me.

+1 on this pump switch.

We had the same problem of pump cycling when we bought our boat. We did two things - replaced the original centrifugal pump with a diaphragm pump and installed this switch. Completely solved the problem of water flowing back into the bilge and cycling the original pump. Two much larger bilge pumps with separate float switches are mounted higher in the bilge.

Cheers!

Steve

[GordMay]

The "Water Witch" 217, 230, 101, 230-24, 101-24 submersible electronic bilge pump switches have a Delay On of 6-8 Seconds, and a Delay Off of14-16 Seconds, which helps prevent rapid pump cycling.
However, in some cases (where there is a lot of rain water entering the bilge), the water may be too clean for the sensor to see.
The Water Witch uses a field effect detector cell to sense the presence of water in the bilge. The switch activates the bilge pump when the rising water level reaches a depth of approximately two inches. The pump will continue to run until the water level drops to 3/4 of an inch. The switch consumes power from the battery when in standby mode, however the current drain, 20 milliamps is far too low to be of concern.
An alternate approach is based on sensing the electrical capacitance of water is used in the "Oil Smart" switch made by See Water Inc.


See also ➥ http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...ews-22262.html

[steve77]

Originally Posted by GordMay

The pump will continue to run until the water level drops to 3/4 of an inch.

Gord - I believe there is one very minor correction to your excellent post. The water witch will not stop the pump at 3/4" of water, but this is the point where the time delay will kick in to keep the pump running for 6-8 seconds after the 3/4" level is reached.

Cheers!

Steve

[smac999]

Raise the pump so the amount of water in pipe does not set it off when comes back in...

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by steve77

Gord - I believe there is one very minor correction to your excellent post. The water witch will not stop the pump at 3/4" of water, but this is the point where the time delay will kick in to keep the pump running for 6-8 seconds after the 3/4" level is reached.
Cheers!
Steve

Indeed.
Thanks, Steve.

[MJH]

Originally Posted by hd002e

Thank you all for the replies. I put an inline check valve in there and observing what it will do.

However, I noticed some behavior from the RULE 500 automatic bilge pump that I am not sure is normal. When I dunk the pump in a container full of water it does not turn on. The pump turns on for a brief period every 2.5 minutes, it stops immediately if there is no water but if there is water it goes on until the water is pumped out.

Is this normal?!

These Rule automatic bilge pumps cycle to see if there is water above a certain level. If water is high enough it pumps it out, if not high enough it doesn't so some water will always remain at that lowest level. That's normal.

That said, I have one of these automatic pumps on my boat and it seems to run excessively even with an inline check valve at the pump level. I believe this is due to my large bilge area and nature of these vane pumps. So, I do not leave it on automatic as I have my main 3700GPM pump on automatic. I use the smaller pump only on manual.

~ ~ _/) ~ ~ MJH

[geoff3nebel]

Fit a one way valve in the pipe

[Tikka]

very common problem , where the bilge is narrow and deep
strict rule to follow
1/ bilge pump must be alway primed
2/ non return valve , always primed
3/ float switch positioned above all

this is very critical , if there is air between the pump and valve
waight of water in the pipe hold the valves shut,
the centrifugal pump will not pump.
It will run until burn itself/ kills the battery or boat sank.

[PutSon IV]

Originally Posted by hd002e

When the bilge pump kicks in, it pumps about a quart of water out and when it stops that water flows back into the bilge. The users manual does not recommend using a check valve but the re-flow is just enoughto trigger the sensor (fully automatic bilge pump) so the pump goes into a futile cycle (every 20 minutes or so).

Aside from cleaning out the remainder manually, how does one deal with this?

Sounds as though you're dealing with line size vs head pressure. If this is a large diameter line i.e. 1.5 Inches the head pressure is to great to overcome the vertical distance to discharge the water. The answer is a second pump with a lower GPH and smaller hose diameter i.e. half inch at the lowest point in the bilge. More water can be discharged because the head pressure is much lower.

[Namoian]

As mentioned by someone in another post, we us an Arid Bilge Arid Bilge Home system that completely removes the pool of water left by the the flow back from the hose of main Rule centrifugal pump. The Arid Bilge is a very low capacity pumping system so is supplementary to centrifugal and diaphram pumps but does eliminate all the water left behind by those pump types resulting in a dry boat.

Tried a check valve but the Rule pump did not produce enough pressure to operate it.

The Arid Bilge is probably the most expensive, lowest capacity bilge pump one can buy but it has worked very well for the past 5+ years. The pump is located centrally and has 1/8" hoses to the main bilge and the bilge under the engine. Actually installed it to eliminate water from the latter compartment which was a problem due inaccessibility.

Anyway, it runs automatically every 20 minutes or so and sucks out every last drop.

[stormalong]

Originally Posted by Namoian

As mentioned by someone in another post, we us an Arid Bilge Arid Bilge Home system that completely removes the pool of water left by the the flow back from the hose of main Rule centrifugal pump. The Arid Bilge is a very low capacity pumping system so is supplementary to centrifugal and diaphram pumps but does eliminate all the water left behind by those pump types resulting in a dry boat.

Tried a check valve but the Rule pump did not produce enough pressure to operate it.

The Arid Bilge is probably the most expensive, lowest capacity bilge pump one can buy but it has worked very well for the past 5+ years. The pump is located centrally and has 1/8" hoses to the main bilge and the bilge under the engine. Actually installed it to eliminate water from the latter compartment which was a problem due inaccessibility.

Anyway, it runs automatically every 20 minutes or so and sucks out every last drop.

I couldn't find a price on Arid. Please tell us what you paid for it.

[Namoian]

Hi Stormalong, We purchased the Arid Bilge system seven years ago so it would be good to inquire directly but it was approximately $1,500 for the two zone "Nano" unit.

[stormalong]

Originally Posted by Namoian

Hi Stormalong, We purchased the Arid Bilge system seven years ago so it would be good to inquire directly but it was approximately $1,500 for the two zone "Nano" unit.

Namoian thanks for the info. Pricey little devils. I can see that with an aluminum hull you would want your bilge to be dry.

While I like the design they are out of my price range but they give me some design ideas for water pickups and maybe an Arduino based pump controller.

[jtsailjt]

Originally Posted by stormalong

Namoian thanks for the info. Pricey little devils. I can see that with an aluminum hull you would want your bilge to be dry.

While I like the design they are out of my price range but they give me some design ideas for water pickups and maybe an Arduino based pump controller.

There’s info I saw a couple days ago online about how to build a similar system, but with a timer rather than water sensor and with a sponge to soak up water that is then sucked up by tubes leading to a diaphragm pump, all supposedly for about $100.

[jtsailjt]

https://www.google.com/amp/s/lifeemp...ge-system/amp/

Here’s the link to the DIY system I referenced above. For $100 it seems like it might be worthwhile to give it a try to me.