Bilge Pump Question

[cvsa78]

I currently have a bilge pump in the engine compartment and one just outside the head. They are on switches one is labeled bilge and the other is step down pump. Apparentlly they are both tied to the master ON/OFF switch. I'm going to keep the boat on a mooring this year and would like to make them automatic by adding automatic switches. Other than rewiring them completely from the battery is there another way to accomplish this.

Thanks in advance

 

[Alibuma]

How many wires do you currently have running to the bilge pump. If you have three wires, you may already have a built in float switch in the pump. The third wire is likely wired directly to your battery and bypasses your battery selector switch. In my 1985 25' Sundancer, the step down pump has a built in float switch. The engine bilge pump has an external float switch. I can always test my engine bilge pump by just lifting the external float switch with my hand to turn the pump on. I do this periodically just to make sure nothing has lodged in the pump impeller or a wire worked lose somewhere.

Here's a picture of a float switch.

 

[cvsa78]

I'll double check tonight, but I think I just have 2 wires to each pump

 

[island trek1]

On my 270SE I have two sets of pumps in the bilge. One hooked up to the switch at the helm that are placed deepest in the bilge. The other set are automatic and are a little higher up. If the water were to get to that level they would turn on automatically. the are also higher capacity bilge pumps.