How High Do You Mount Your Bilge Alarm ?

[rebel heart]

I'm installing a new bilge alarm (and bilge pump; two separate items). My (mono) hull is fiberglass, so there's no good way to stick the sensor on the side of the bilge.

I was planning on putting the bilge alarm on the top of the pump housing itself, with the idea being that if enough water is getting in there to over power my bilge pump, I'd like to know sooner rather than later.

Thoughts?

[Palarran]

That's a great question. I've got a bilge alarm but haven't looked at where it is and how it's wired. Do you mind answering, do you use an additional float to activate the alarm?
If so, on my boat the primary float is mounted off a metal bar and I'd just mount the other one 3" higher. I'd be worried about putting a screw through the top of a Rule pump casing as I don't know what's under the plastic.

[fishwife]

A very large hose clamp works well to attach something to the body of a bilge pump

P.

[AnchorageGuy]

We almost always mount the alarm switch on the top of the bilge pump. WG

[rebel heart]

Originally Posted by Palarran

That's a great question. I've got a bilge alarm but haven't looked at where it is and how it's wired. Do you mind answering, do you use an additional float to activate the alarm?
If so, on my boat the primary float is mounted off a metal bar and I'd just mount the other one 3" higher. I'd be worried about putting a screw through the top of a Rule pump casing as I don't know what's under the plastic.

Yep, I bought this monster (I really want to know if we have high water):

Bilge Water Level Warning System

I think I might just use a big hose clamp as someone else recommended and mount it like that. I'd like to keep it out of the regular bilge water as to not let oil and general bilge gross-ness get the switch too dirty and risk plugging it up.

I'll make a blog post when I switch out the exisitng one and mount the bilge alarm. I might rig the electrical stuff first to separate out the wiring and disgusting plumbing jobs into two steps.

I hate to admit it, but I haven't cleaned the bilge in years.

[tallyhorob]

could mount a square chunk of foam to a stick and mount the alarm up high and use the stick when it floats up to set off the alarm. mount a couple guides to hold the stick and that way no water or oil on your alarm. also could work for a pump switch to keep it out of the oil and water also.

[Minggat]

I installed a second, much larger bilge pump and the float switch is basically at the top of it. Clean and accessable. I wired the alarm thru the float switch for the second pump. If the little main pump gets overwhelmed I get my alarm when the second pump kicks in.
I test float switches/alarms often.

[cal40john]

My boat came to me with a manually switched pump that goes to the bottom of the bilge. It is a 6 gpm diaphragm pump mounted in an accessable place. The bottom of my bilge has poor access. I added a 2000 gph centrifugal pump on an automatic switch with an alarm on top of the lead in an accessable part of the bilge. So my alarm goes off whenever my high water pump is operating. The only time the water gets that high is when I'm doing a test, like flushing my water tank and letting it drain into the bilge.

I can also test the float switch and pump operation with the knob on the pivot of the float switch. I can reach down and operate the float switch by hand and hear the pump running and the alarm sound.

John

[Laidback]

The Alarm should be mounted where it best be heard

[White Feather]

In the Cal that I had the bilge was almost 6 feet deep and a foot wide by four feet front to back. No way could you get into it. I put the bilge pump and alarm on a flat bar aluminum rig that I could lower into the bilge with the pump at the bottom and the alarm about 6 or 8" above it. If crossing open water and I needed to flood the keel for stability I could turn the pump and alarm off. There was a secondary system with both pump and alarm that was mounted below the cabin sole.

The boat I have now has a separate bilge pump in each of the 10 watertight compartments but only 4 have high water alarms. The Front and back on each side of the boat. If any of the other compartments flood they will not sink the boat, just soak everything stored below deck. Another problem with multihulled boats.... Way more bilge pumps than other boats. You worry about one or two. I've got ten plus 4 high water alarms. However, these are very easy to jump down into the compartment and work sitting on a stool or box.

[barnakiel]

Plastic boat.

The alarm wired to the lower bilge pump switch.

The bilge is dry in anything but accident / wipeout, etc.

b.