16C Bilge Pump

B

boodalu

New member
I am on the Lake of the Ozarks (lake oz) with my new 16 cruiser and having fun getting to know the boat and breaking in the 50hp Mercury bigfoot(its running like a honda so far). I noticed when I powered the bilge pump from the helm panel in doesnt run then kick off (there is no water in the boat except a "spit" in the pump indentation) as specified in the manual. I let in run for awhile (5 minutes or so) but turned it off as i was concerned i would harm the unit). Any thoughts?

The TomCat somes to Oz in a few weeks when the new dock gets put in. Still struggling with what kind a lift to use in the shallow water cove my house is on

PS: thanks to all who contribute to this site. You are making this newbie less of one every day.
 
Boodalu, you wrote:

I noticed when I powered the bilge pump from the helm panel in doesnt run then kick off (there is no water in the boat except a "spit" in the pump indentation) as specified in the manual. I let in run for awhile (5 minutes or so) but turned it off as i was concerned i would harm the unit). Any thoughts?
Click to expand...

Do you have the 'new' Rule 500 automatic bilge pump? The one that does not come with a float? Does the manual say it turns itself on and off every 2 1/2 minutes to check for water?

IF NOT, I'm no expert but it is my understanding that the helm switch is a manual over-ride of the automatic function of the bilge pump. There are times when you see some water in the bilge that you want to send overboard, yet it isn't enough to automatically turn on the bilge pump...those are the time (just one example) of when you'd want to manually turn on the pump. In that case you also have to manually turn it off.

If you want to test the automatic functionality of the bilge pump when safe to do so, pour some water into your bilge. At a point it should kick on automatically. You need not worry about turning batteries on, or switches, the bilge should be hot-wired to the battery and kick on automatically.

Anyone more knowledgeable than me, please add to my statement or provide a correction.
 
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