bilge switch/monitor/counters?

[DeepFrz]

Canibul, its not a good idea to run the cable to the helm without fusing it near the battery. Run your DC to the motor directly from a fused bus bar near the batteries and your control wiring (fused) to the helm to your displays. You should have the same info available to you at the helm.

[Canibul]

I'm trying to avoid having to leave the cabin, go outside into the cockpit, and open a hatch and climb down a ladder into the engine room to check a fuse. I don't have access to the engine room where the batts are from inside the cabin/helm. I'm trying to avoid having to leave the helm unattended, and in heavy weather I don't want to open the hatch. this would expose all boat electrics to the weather.

I was thinking of using heavy duty, insulated bright orange ac extension cord for the run. the wires are individually insulated, then doubly insulated by the orange polyurethane jacket. AC cord has three wires so there would be a spare, albeit it green. the orange color would allow me to instantly trace it visually and I'd run it apart from the others and secure it well from chafing and kinking etc.

[Colin A]

The fuse at the battery just needs to protect the wire. I would wire a heavy feeder up from the battery to your panels (with a fuse to match the heavy wire) than have a smaller fuse at the switch panel (or a breaker) that protects the pump it than becomes highly unlikely that the fuse near the batteries will fail.

To take this a step further you could have two feeds from the batteries both with separate fusing at the battery and again at the panels (maybe two pumps on each feed) You could than wire an indicator LED to the load side of each fuse to the panel as a ready light (you of course will now have a small constant draw)

Basically you don't want to create a new safety problem solving an old one.

Regards

[Neptune's Gear]

Ok, I said I'd update this yesterday, but I got stuck on something else...

Anyway, firstly my apologies - the BSW1000 does NOT count cycles - you have to go to the next model up for that function.
It DOES however, indicate status - power, pump on etc, with LEDs. It also has an alarm output if the pump runs for more than 1 min, or if the high water float (optional) is triggered.
You can program this controller so it will run for X many seconds after the float switch turns off - great if you can't (or don't want to) mount the float switch at the bottom of the bilge, or to get out as much water as possible.
You can, mount a remote LED and or Alarm from the BSW1000 to your switch panel or other remote location.

Sorry about the cycle counter error, it's available, but only on the BC4000 and up.

I'll put a PIC showing the LEDs on the BSW1000 on my site now...

[Auger01]

No fuses in the wire(s) is a bad idea. Fuses (or circuit breakers) are there to prevent fires. If the wire is going to fail, its going to fail, the fuse hopefully just keeps it from getting hot enough to start a fire and burn the boat down around you. No kidding.

Keep the pumps on independent circuits and fusing them properly is really the way to go. If you really need all four pumps, install 2 or three extra so your not having to troubleshoot pumps underway. Fix the broken ones at your leisure. With the monitoring hardware, you shouldn't have to go visually inspect anything.

As for the extension cord, I guess it would work, but they do make boat cable with two or three conductors inside a protective sheath, which is really more suitable to a boat application.

Thats my 02 cents. Hope it helps with your situation.

[Canibul]

Thanks for all the input. Some good advice. I've got some spare cables that are the power leads for the SSB, which I am planning to remove from the boat. I could easily use those for power directly to the helm. I've got a decent assortment of heavy fuses in the 30-300 amp range and I'll figure out worst case for the pumps. The two main ones are larger than the engine room ones.

This is a better idea than running extension cord. While there is certainly marine equivalent available, it's something I would have to import and I'd just as soon not have to rely on things not easily obtainable outside the USA.

And I want the counters. I have to sometimes tweak one or both of the stuffing tubes to get them to drip just the way I want them while motoring. This is an old boat with old original hatches and windows. The rigging hasn't been rebedded in a long, long time. If ever. I've been chasing leaks, but rainwater still gets into the bilges. Especially in hard storms with driving rains. and tis the season. I see the counters as being very useful to tell me where leaks are developing. The leaks that happen when I'm not there to hear an alarm are more important for me to know about than the ones that happen when I am there.

And if I ever came back to the boat one evening and found it level full of water to the bridgedeck, with the batteries submerged, I think I'd appreciate being able to see which pump turned on the most before they all went dead.
I wonder if these things keep the count in memory?

[Canibul]

Originally Posted by bstreep

We've been toying with the Aqualarm systems too. Do note that they can and will customize a solution for you, including a panel.

Bill, I've been looking into building my own setup from components. Basic desire is 3 way switch, fuse or circuit breaker, indicator of power available, and audible and light alarm, and a counter.

Found electronic event counters with reset function in the $50 range in acceptable quality, or "coin counters" in the $ 10 range. I found a number of switch panels with fuses or breakers, and various separate audio alarms. After playing with the numbers, I'm finding that for me personally the Aqualarm with all those functions seems to be the best deal. Defender has them for $125, which price I have taken to West Marine to see if they'll match it ( I don't buy from Defender). Can put one together for about $90 in parts, but for that extra 35 bucks I think I'll go with a finished looking product and save the effort.

I did rule out ( no pun intended on the Rule) anything that requires a microprocessor or needs a functioning LCD in order to use.

I'm awaiting a quote from Aqualarm on putting together a four pump panel for me, but in my experience, standard products are the best bet when they can be made to fit the application.

How's things in Port A? My old stomping grounds back when my van, surfboard, 8 track tapes and Popeyes in Matamoros were of huge importance in my life.