bilge and livewell pumps

[Colonel Angus]

I was out shopping for the boat yesterday and there are quite a few different brands out there. Any advice on brands to go with or stay away from? Faulty pumps I had were 750 gph.

 

[guywhofishes]

I bought the pumps where a guy can swap out just the bad powerhead and not the entire housing. I had a livewell pump go bad and it required removal of the entire bulkhead connecter/assembly that goes through the transom. What a freaking PITA.

Now if the pump goes bad I have a spare powerhead "cartridge" in the transom hold right next to the installed one. A 10 minute job. Swap cartridges and hook up the new cartridge's wires.

Not sure if this was the brand - but it's the concept I liked.

 

[SDMF]

Yep, Johnson Cartridge Pumps are the only way to fly. Put some sort of waterproof quick disconnect on the ends of your power source wires, have a spare wired up with the proper ends to match and a swap out is <2min. I'd swap out the bilge pump and perhaps add a float enabled auto bilge pump as well, all Johnson cartridges, that way, in a pinch you can swap out one for the other. In fact, I had it happen to me the last day I fished DL, livewell pump died. Open the hatch, spin out the livewell pump, spin in the bilge pump and back in business, just need to remember to turn on the bilge when I want livewell. Made it through the day, swapped them back and installed a new livewell pump, now also have a spare wired up to go where ever it might be needed.

 

[Colonel Angus]

I was looking at the Johnson pumps. Will likely go with them. Thanks!

 

[deleted member]

unless the boat sits in a slip, i would stay away from the float switch unless you have it rigged in such a way that you can over ride it. they seem like just another thing that can fail.

 

[SDMF]

unless the boat sits in a slip, i would stay away from the float switch unless you have it rigged in such a way that you can over ride it. they seem like just another thing that can fail.

The float switch pump is in ADDITION to your manual bilge pump. The OP had his hull fill up due to cracked housings in bilge and livewell pumps. A secondary/auto bilge would have alerted him to the problem before the entire hull was filled and starting to come over the floor.

Auto bilge warned me that I'd left my plug out one evening over the week of the 4th. Floating along and all of the sudden there's water squirting out the bilge hole on it's own. No big deal, get the boat on plane until it empties out then hop out and spin in the plug. Without the auto bilge I wouldn't have known until I tried to put the boat on the trailer.

 

[Colonel Angus]

I did spot the auto bilge float switch although I'm not sure if it is working or hooked up since the bilge pump was stuck. I was able to get the pump working but the outlet pipe was cracked so I'm just going to get a new one. I will test out the switch when the new pump is in.

 

[Aquaholic]

Yup, that sounds like a sweet deal. (Johnson Cartridge Pumps)