Tomorrow I'll be the owner of a 2011 Elan 444. Its a European
boat and seldom seen in the US. As a consequence, some items are not to US standards. One such item is the
electric bilge pump that can spark and should be changed.
There are two manual pumps and one
electric pump. The low point in the
bilge is so small that there is no way to use a submersible
pump, i.e. it could not rest on the bottom of the
bilge. Currently the
Jabsco pump is mounted on the wall of the bilge with its bottom about 1 foot above the bottom of the bilge and has a capacity of 250 gph.
I'd like your opinion on my thoughts and plans.
1. Possibly raise the pump up about 1 to 1.5 feet into a settee. This way there is less chance that it would ever get covered with
water. Do you think this is wise? The hose run will still be relatively short.
2. Increase the volume of this primary pump. The problem is that I am having trouble locating a non-submersible pump. I found one
Jabsco pump that would fit but it is only 150 gph though Amazon has it listed at 350 gpm. My thinking is that about 400 to 500 gpm for the primary pump that is attached to the float switch, and a 2000 to 4000 gpm manually activated backup pump. Or should the primary pump be large too?
3. Like I said, I have had zero luck locating a pump that is not submersible. Do you have any suggestions?
Marcus