12 volt Emergency portable bilge pump

[Mike Banks]

I had a very large electric bilge pump rigged up on a piece of 5mm marine plywood with a slab of lead sheeting tacked under it, and a long discharge flexible hose attached to the pump. To the pump leads I had a length of heavy duty DC flex soldered to the pump leads and epoxy resined into a junction box screwed to the 5mm plywood. I had cord fitted to each corner of the plywood terminating in a ring, to which was a clip-on lanyard so it could be carried or lowered if necessary. I used it frequently. I had a Honda small gen-set with a DC 12 volts 8 amp discharge, and this would just run the pump if I wished to use it ashore or outside the vessel. The leads terminated in an Anderson plug, to which the other part of the Anderson plug was connected a pair of cheap welder's earth clamps painted red and blue and with red and blue heat shrink on the handles. It was to these I used to clip the Honda gen set leads--which were barely adequate. I often used to substitute a heavy duty battery charger and use the gen set at 240 volts--which gave about 15 amps--more than enough to run a pump.

[Rising Tide]

Originally Posted by lhuff35204

This is the one I built. Portable so you can pass it over to another boat in need. Also remember that you can close the engine cooling thru hole, remove the hose from the seacock and use it as an engine driven suction.

https://www.amazon.com/Listed-YCIND-...Y0H0QQ7ZE&th=1

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/Seaflo-Heavy-...s&sr=1-2-fkmr0

Great technique to use the raw water intake hose. Experienced sailors probably know this but I did not. My intake is right there. Thanks.

[Rising Tide]

Originally Posted by rslifkin

I just remembered: Rule sells what they call the Evacuator 8000. It's a pair of 4000 GPM pumps tied together with a common 3 inch output. It's got a carry handle and 12v clamp leads, as it's meant to be portable. Rated output at 2m / 6.6ft head is about 5900 gph.

This looks like a good emergency back up. Would you suggest the 8000 (vs 4000) for a 40 ft. Sailboat? I am thinking more than just a bilge pump failure but a lot water ingress from something like a thru hull failure? This would be an uphill run, from cabin sole out the boat.

[Bundyon]

I use a Jabsco Puppy Pp. I have it mounted on a ply board. Wired through a 50amp Anderson plug, the other end has strong clamps to clip to a battery. These pumps have Hi pressure and high head. They run a nitrile impeller which basically means you can also use it to pump diesel or other chemicals. You can attach whatever length of hose (13mm or 25mm depending on connections) you want. Advantage of that is you can shove the suction side of the hose into any tight or hidden spots and poke the discharge side outside of the cabin on the deck or over the side. I can use a small car battery that I keep relatively handy and hooked to a small solar trickle charger so it is always ready to go.

[rslifkin]

If you're going to have a portable pump in addition to fixed mount large bilge pumps, might as well get the biggest one you can reasonably use and power.

[DefinitelyMe]

Originally Posted by rslifkin

I just remembered: Rule sells what they call the Evacuator 8000. It's a pair of 4000 GPM pumps tied together with a common 3 inch output. It's got a carry handle and 12v clamp leads, as it's meant to be portable. Rated output at 2m / 6.6ft head is about 5900 gph.

Yes I used to have one. I had it to use it for salvage operations as an alternative to a petrol-powered crash pump. But to get decent performance I found that you have to use hard-wall (with wire) exhaust hose or rigid sanitation hose. The softwall exhaust hose at that diameter likes to collapse and is a pain to manage and expensive. Either way, the hose is very cumbersome and difficult to store. I wouldn't recommend it. I went back to a petrol pump, with a single 12V rule pump for smaller jobs.

[HankOnthewater]

It was mentioned to change the seawater supply for the engine cooling to divert that to the bilge, and therefore pumping out any water from there. Very easy to do with a 3-way valve or even with just one additional valve. Note, that sucking bilge water with everything in it..... might not be good for the engine mounted pump. That pump might easily fail, and in turn overheat engine, not good when in dire circumstances. Therefore a good filter/strumbox is needed.
I had such system on my previous boat, but have not bothered with my current one. Main reason is that the volume of water pumped is fairly small.

Maybe a superfluous comment, but I would not use such setup with a raw (sea) water cooled engine.

Some time ago there was a long thread on this subject here:
https://www.cruisersforum.com/forums...mps-91962.html

I think it was mentioned in above thread: a pump that mounts straight on the propshaft.
Fast Flow Emergency Bilge Pump

I thought this to be a very nifty idea.

[lhuff35204]

When you use the hose directly off the seacock it is in front of of the strainer so the engine is protected.

[Frank999]

Originally Posted by lhuff35204

This is the one I built. Portable so you can pass it over to another boat in need. Also remember that you can close the engine cooling thru hole, remove the hose from the seacock and use it as an engine driven suction.

https://www.amazon.com/Listed-YCIND-...Y0H0QQ7ZE&th=1

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/Seaflo-Heavy-...s&sr=1-2-fkmr0

Or you could do as I did and install a tee fitting immediately above the intake seacock, connect a ball valve to the side arm of the tee, and connect a hose to the other side of the valve. If the seacock was closed, and the ball valve was open, the engine raw water pump would pump from the hose. I installed it to make winterization quick and easy, but I put a strainer (without hose clamps) on the end of the hose stowed it in the bilge.

[rslifkin]

Unless you have very large engines, don't bother diverting the raw water intake. It just doesn't move that much water. Even my big gas engines are only speced to move 1800 gal per hour and that's at high rpm.

You'd be better off with an engine mounted emergency pump, it'll move more water.

[Disailor]

Perhaps a bit off topic but re engine raw water suction as bilge pump: 1. A Y valve mounted in the raw water suction hose will eliminate having to get a screwdriver & wrestling the hose off the filter fitting. 2. A strum box mounted at the end of the hose will prevent crap from clogging your engine's cooling supply. If your in a situation where you need your engine to bail you out, the remedy should be simple.

[RaymondR]

We'll get you working on a real water mover mate.

I notice many big irrigation pumps are axial flow with a shaft driven propeller mounted in a pipe which slants down into the reservoir. The point, you can pump an awful lot of water with a propeller in a pipe providing the head is not too great.

Now this suggests that if you build a receptacle for your 15 hp outboard into the hull of your boat with a flapper type check valve on the discharge end you could just drop the old outboard into it, crank her up and move massive amounts of water with it. Hell, if you pointed it aftwards you could even get some propulsion whilst bailing the boat out.

I ponder deeply on matters such as this on slow passages.

[Pizzazz]

You need an emergency plan that takes multiple factors into account. First, what kind of damage are you protecting against? If it is a through hull, that you can partially block, any bilge pump will manage. If it is a lose keel that starts to leak, it is more tricky. If it is major hull damage then any pump will be useless or not buy any meaningful amount of time.

Then, how to power the pumps. Here golf cart batteries are more useful because you can easily lift them to a higher ground in an emergency. Another option is to have a small AGM battery (35 AHrs) that can sit high on the boat and will give you the time to sort out the rest of the electrical system. On boats where you have a manual waste pump you can easily route the pump as a manual bilge pump (may be messy but it is a matter of priorities). I would not go to a very large pump but it should be boat dependent. Any 2000 gph plus pump should do in my opinion.

[HankOnthewater]

Originally Posted by lhuff35204

When you use the hose directly off the seacock it is in front of of the strainer so the engine is protected.

Yes Lhuff, you are right, thank you for adding that.
This comment was in regards using the sea water that cools the engine, either directly or via a heat exchanger.
Still, I would not really install such setup again, main reason: for the relatively low flow rates.

[AKA-None]

And when you pump strainer gets clogged then you have no pump and soon no engine. If you’re that concerned then get an actual pump designed to move a lot of water.