Electronic Bilge Pump Switch

[Bruce Bogdanoff]

Has anyone have the electronic bilge pump switch go bad on their boat. It seems my switch will activate the pump,  but will not turn it off. To turn off the bilge pump I need to manually move the bilge pump circuit breaker on the panel from auto to on then and then to off. This resets the switch until it turns on the pump again. 

I took it out of the bilge this morning and washed it down with soap. It work fine in the horizontal position, but when I re installed it in its vertical position, the same problem,. 

Any ideas as to how to fix it, or time for another new one.

It has a SPX label on it and is 12/24 v up to 15 amps, I think.

Can't find this model in any of the stores.

Bruce

[Mike Brown]

I have a Water Witch installed in our 43 and find I have to keep the contacts clean or can experience a failure to sense water. I've never had it fail to turn off though. I see you cleaned it. Perhaps do so again focusing on the contact points? Good luck and let us know what you find.

Mike

[Chris]

I had the same problem.

The pump would engage every three hours and we had to turn it off manually.

The sensor engages the pump but the line in the bilge connected to the pump is not drawing any water because the sensor engages the pump with a small amount of water present. Not enough to draw out.

I bought one inch extenders and longer screws  to heighten the sensor.

Now the pump only engages when there is enough water present to be sucked out through the pump.

Success!

Chris 
B40

#197

[clayton curtis]

I had to replace mine as it failed a couple of years ago. I got a new one from Beneteau. Funny because as soon as I ordered a new one the old one started working. I watched it for a few weeks and it did not fail, but went ahead and replaced it. Kept old one for a backup.

I also took the opportunity to upgrade to a Johnson 2200 gph bilge pump. I converted the stock Jabsco pump that is best for shower drains to a back-up that I can power off the cigarette lighter plug or alligator clips. That pump is severely under the recommended capacity according to Calder. I think it is around 600 gph.

By the way, when I called Jabsco because of poor auto priming, they seemed to know about the problem and sent me a free replacement with the newer model (I paid shipping). The old one seemed to just "suck then drool" for lack of a better description, when the amount of water was small.

/cc

[Andrew Landis]

Just going through the site. I have a 2011 40, when my pump was on auto it woudnt shut down unless I turned off manually. Dealer replaced pump under warranty . Works fine

[Bruce Bogdanoff]

The dealer replaced my solid state float switch and the bilge pump. The float switch works most of the time. Occasionally I need to wipe it dry/clean it. The bilge pump is a different story. After numerous taking it apart, cleaning it and putting it back together, it still does not reliably hold its prime or suck out the bilge water. I replace it with a Rule 2000 bilge pump and check valve and now all is good. FYI, rule did not want a check valve in the hose. Without it, the backflow after the bilge was emptied would start the pump again and again. There for the check valve.