Bilge Pump re-wire

[britinusa]

I'm installing a Bilge Pump Counter and had to look carefully at the wiring for the Bilge Pump System



Rugly!

The existing wiring is a hodge podge of colors, sizes, butt connectors, twisted wire connections covered in household/auto electrical tape. Wow, That's Fantastic

So, I'm ripping it all out and starting over.

Here's my new Wiring diagram and schematic.

Plan is to install a new terminal block (bilge pump bus bar) to reduce the number of crimps in the system. The only butt connections will be at the Float Switch and the Pump, all wires will be single run, all terminals and the 4 butt joints will be crimped with heat shrink, the butts will be further covered in heat shrink - belt & braces.

Any Gotchas?

[scgunner]

    OK, I'm impressed, very professional looking schematic. What's the counter for?

[britinusa]

Counter will show how many times the bilge pump ran since it was last reset, does not require power to keep last count value.

[rmbrown]

Excellent intel!  This is on my list.  I always have water in my bilge... always pretty much as low as the pump can take it.  Question is, has it not run since last weekend or has it cycled once per hour since I left!

[britinusa]

Egsractly!

[KWKloeber]

Any Gotchas?

Paul, some comments (I can't say "only" because I haven't studied it 100%) is that the feed from the float switch and to the pump from the manual switch should be brown, which is designated for switched pump feeds.  Red is for constant power feeds, such as the red lead which is (in a typical 3-wire red/brown/black bilge pump cable feeding a pump w/ a pump mounted float) the constant-on power supply to the auto float switch. The brown wire in that cable runs from the manual switch to the pump.

A while back I had searched for and sourced a counter/timer I intended to put in to a new panel when I do mine over.  It not only displayed counts, but also run time (I can't recall if it was the longest run time or total run time.)  When you check the boat after a tropical rainstorm, a 1-count looks great (unless that 1-count actually lasted for 6 hours.)

A trick I use if heat shrinking a 3-way butt splice in a bilge (i.e., splicing a wire into another wire run)....  When I HS over the AHS butt itself, I extend the HST  beyond the butt a good inch on one side and two-inches on the double-wire side.  On the end of the HST, I use a small (lightweight, 4") zip tie around my HST, so that the adhesive mashes into and fills the space between the double wires.  On the side of the butt w/ the double wire I'll put a second zip tie 1/2 way on the HST.   They make (expensive) AHS clips that fit onto/in-between double/triple wires (which puts more adhesive between them,) but I found them unnecessary so long as I zip tie the HST to mash the adhesive well into the wire space.  It also keeps the wires from spreading the space open before the adhesive fully cools.  I used to clip the zip ties once the HST cooled, but now I just leave them on there (more belt/braces.)  That's just my triple belt/braces for really bad/wet locations, not every location that I do a splice into a wire run.

Another way to make waterproof connections, especially useful for equipment that might have to get replaced or changed out down the road -- connections are waterproof, but instead of butt crimped, are terminated on a strip.   Easier to replace/change out equipment down the road.

http://c34.org/wiki/index.php?title=(Moisture-proof)_Alternative_to_open-type_terminal_strips

Some owners have put the pump feed through a 12v power plug and located the plug in a dry space or waterproofed it up with self-vulcanzing silicone tape (Rescue Tape).  That makes a pump change out easy, as they carry a spare with the plug already on it.  But I don't like the idea of running a high amp like a bilge pump thru a 12v power plug to add in more V loss.

Run the numbers to make sure the V loss is within limits.


ken

[britinusa]

Thanks Ken, just the kind of info I was looking for.

[britinusa]

Thanks Ken, just the kind of info I was looking for.

I'll leave a little slack in the Pump wires for replacement.

For those butt joints, I typically put a sleeve of smaller HST on each wire prior putting the full size HST (for the butt joint which is also HST). Once the crimp is made, then I slide the two small HST's info the butt end and shrink the Butt and small sleeves, then slide the full size HST over the whole thing. The small HST fills the gap between the shrunk outer HST and the wire.

[britinusa]

During the install I had to remove all of the existing bilge pump wiring.

It consisted of a nice butt joint about 2' from the pump to a wire about 1' long, onto a twisted wire covered in sticky tape to a one of a pair of sheathed wires, that went under the floor into the holding tank locker, about another 2', there, a twisted wire joint covered in sticky tape joined it to a 3 wire cable that went up to the electrical panel. Now, each wire has one butt joint by the pump and a ring terminal at the other end in the electrical panel, same concept for the float switch. If I every have to replace the pump or float switch, they will come with pig tails that are longer than the cut off ones in place now.

The pump runs with either the manual switch or the float switch and the counter works great.

Thanks for the feedback folks.

http://www.sailingeximius.com/
Paul

[Noah]

This may be obvious...but make sure your float switch goes directly to the battery/or constant on power circuit, bypassing your main DC power off/on switch.

[britinusa]

Thanks Noah,
Good Point!
I used the original Circuit Breaker and that does go to a Bus Bar and I believe that may be supplied by the Off - House - Both Standby switch.

Our practice is to leave the switch in the 'House' position. It's only turned off for Battery replacement - rarely.

Other than the risk of leaving the Battery Supply switch in the Off Position, is there another reason for wiring the Bilge Pump system directly to a battery?

Paul

[Noah]

I am not an expert, just play one on TV (and the Forum) but IF you ALWAYS leave the main battery switch in an "ON" position, it shouldn't be an issue. Many sailors shut their boats "OFF" entirely, which would present a problem. This issue also applies to older stereos that could lose their presets.

[britinusa]

Sounds reasonable.

Our Stereo is 2 years old (at least that's when we purchased it from WM) and it requires a fused, 2nd power on cable to an always on supply else it looses it's presets - Annoying! That's getting rewired to the bus bar.

Thanks.

Paul

[KWKloeber]

Thanks Ken, just the kind of info I was looking for.

The small HST fills the gap between the shrunk outer HST and the wire.

NICE INSTALL pics, Paul.
None of the original mess as it unfolded??

What you described on the butt HST, I also oftentimes do (depending on the shrink ratio HST I am using and the relative size of the butt and wire.)  No condescending parentheses implied!

What I was referring to in my 1st post, was using the zip-tie when multiple wires enter one side of a straight butt or a step-down butt, again depending on.... factors.

Say a bilge pump float switch pigtail and#10 manual switch v+ lead to the pump's v+ pigtail.  In that case we have #10 V+ on one side. and (2) #16 on the other side.   Or say tapping off two fixtures from a lighting run.  One might have a #12 straight run, and on the other side of the butt, a #12 and 1 (or 2) #16 fixture pigtails.  When there's multiple conductors the wire tie ensures the adhesive mushes between them and the wires don't separate before the HST cools or afterward (as I said there are also separate adhesive clips made to fill those spaces,)  NCPI.  :-)

ken

[britinusa]

Thanks Ken, no confusion about your earlier posts. 

I took a couple of pics of the old wires.

Paul