sb in gp
Active Member
I’m on my 4th Searay and all have had a little residual water in the bilge. I realize that the ideal situation is to find all the sources of water intrusion and fix them, but I’ve never been able to find them all. I’m not talking about a lot of water, my pumps do not run regularly. I’m talking about the last inch of water that sits in the bilge after the pumps have done their job. I’d like to have a dry bilge to avoid mold and general scum that accumulates with the small amount of bilge water.
There are several systems designed to address this problem, and I’ve researched them and thought I’d give one a try. I ended up buying the low cost Seaflo Dry Bilge system from Amazon.
My main question is: how to wire it? This is a 12V system and it comes with a 3-position toggle (auto-off-manual) and a built in timer so that it can be scheduled to run at regular intervals.
Option #1: I could run a new 12v run all the way to the interior panel and mount the switch on the interior panel, but this would be a lot of work (I’d have to pull fridges and punch through the bulkhead, and cut the panel).
Option #2: I could splice into one of the existing 12V sources in the bilge. I was thinking of splicing into the wires that are powering the secondary bilge pump, as this would provide constant power, and I’d mount the switch somewhere in the bilge. The downside of this is that if I forgot to shut it off, I’d have a draw on the batteries that is not stopped when the 12V system is shutdown at the panel.
I’m leaning towards option #2, as I don’t usually spend a lot of time without some sort of AC power charging the batteries. Any thoughts? Is there a better option?
Appreciate any thoughts or alternative suggestions.
Scott
There are several systems designed to address this problem, and I’ve researched them and thought I’d give one a try. I ended up buying the low cost Seaflo Dry Bilge system from Amazon.
My main question is: how to wire it? This is a 12V system and it comes with a 3-position toggle (auto-off-manual) and a built in timer so that it can be scheduled to run at regular intervals.
Option #1: I could run a new 12v run all the way to the interior panel and mount the switch on the interior panel, but this would be a lot of work (I’d have to pull fridges and punch through the bulkhead, and cut the panel).
Option #2: I could splice into one of the existing 12V sources in the bilge. I was thinking of splicing into the wires that are powering the secondary bilge pump, as this would provide constant power, and I’d mount the switch somewhere in the bilge. The downside of this is that if I forgot to shut it off, I’d have a draw on the batteries that is not stopped when the 12V system is shutdown at the panel.
I’m leaning towards option #2, as I don’t usually spend a lot of time without some sort of AC power charging the batteries. Any thoughts? Is there a better option?
Appreciate any thoughts or alternative suggestions.
Scott
