Bilge pump karked it, what brands?

[FishHunter]

My 1100gph bilge pump has given up the ghost and I am in the market for a replacement AFAIK Johnson and Rule are the go to brands any others worth a look?

I am looking for at least 1500gph.

[FishHunter]

Found a "Hella" brand one which is a fair bit cheaper than the Johnson and Rules. I know the Hella brand is pretty good but does anyone have experience with their bilge pumps specifically?

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/12V-Hella...item1c2d4b0367

Too good to be true?
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/TRAC-Mari...item415f450d5b

[cormorant]

Are they really original Hellas? I'm sus as well that it mght be a copy of something printed with Hella on it? .

[FishHunter]

it seems like they are the real deal, based on the price of most other Hella stuff it does seem a odd.
http://pdf.nauticexpo.com/pdf/hella-...1248-_112.html
http://www.furneauxriddall.com/acata...lge_Pumps.html

[deckie]

I rely on word of mouth for bilge pumps. The least whinges and complaints. Even though many probs are self inflicted i'm happy to rely upon a brand getting a good name for itself from the marketplace for these things. Have been using rules for a long time and as long as i dont expect them to go beyond a sensible use by date, or abuse them, or run gritty water thru them consistently...i;m happy with them and trust them to work.
Maybe there are better brands around now i dont know...but still dont hear too many complaints re manuf quality even tho they;re probably made by cream of sum yung guy in shitsville china, i dont know. probably silly, but i kind of trust them, and they're not the sort of thing i want to switch brands with because some fat dude at a boat show is being paid to flog another brand...a bit like using exit mould when you know its just bleach anyway. Probably dumb but noone said i was smart..

[cormorant]

Is this for the yak? Just looking at your photo.
Have you considered one of the manual foot pumps?


I've had a good run out of attwood sahara ones in large sizes with the auto bilge on moored boats . I still don't like the way a lot of them get mounted and the attwood was OK. We ran 2 pumps with one at lowest point in bilge and one a few inches above it. If the first failed you then had a 2nd that had not done work and we used to flush it with a container of fresh water now and again to know it worked.

I always seem to get corrosion in the wires on the moored boat but was getting 5 years in a very clean bilge and no real water to pump. Cleaning chemicals were the other thing I blame for a couple of my failures hence the reason I put the big expensive back up at a slightly higher height. If both pumps ran I knew I had a biiiigggggg issue - only happened once a big toilet hull fitting snapped off . No bilge pump was going to keep up with that hole until we got a plug in it.

The attwoods were really expensive but with the Aussie being stronger they have come down a little. Half price overseas like so much other stuff and pretty good value at that.

I had a bad run with a couple of brands and the really small pumps are hit and miss and friends do such a crap job at wiring them up , using crap batteries , let hair, grit scales weed in em I think a lot of failures are user driven.

I have a stainless mesh about 10 inches around mine that I can lift out to clear all the solids so the pump has clear water even when there is crap washed in the bilge. The other thing is to use smooth bore pipe , stainess pipe clamps and the larger size and don't have restrictive fittings and as low a rise as necessary so you keep closer to it's real capacity ( yep halve what the packet says to start with)

[bluefin59]

I have the Sahara and its 7 yrs old automatic and still works a treat ...Matt

[FishHunter]

Cormorant its for my boat, There is a Johnson in there which was in when I got the boat. I think its pretty old and it's now dead.
Thanks Deckie I have been looking at the Rule pumps, will have a look at the Chandlers when I get to brisvegas in a few weeks.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

[rayken1938]

Dinga.com have jarvis walker 2000gph for $15 with free postage.
Cheers
Ray

[thylacene]

We picked our boat up the first week of January 2010. Fitted with a 1250gph johson auto bilge pump, a Johnson 500 bait pump and johson deckwash.

At 20 months both the bait pump and the bilge both died. Initially I thought it might be crap quality, but upon thinking about the circumstances, I have come to the conclusion that there were reasons for each failure. The bait pump failed due to the installation the thru hull fitting deprived it of water underway, resulting in the pump overheating and eventual melt down. Admittedly, we turn it on when we are getting bait and it runs until we have run out, so it does plenty of duty, and we regularly get bait 20k's from where we fish to avoid 10kms of additional travel to the other bait grounds. Tried doing a trip without the pump running and our slImies died, so bait pump cartridges became a consumable in my mind.

The bilge pump failure I attribute to the mildly acidic product I was using to clean the floor after each trip. It appears to have reacted with the seals and allow water ingress. It's occurred unintentionally, but a bit of pilchard is all it takes to block the bung during washdown.
It also gets regular use with blood in salt water from the deckwash we some unlucky pelagic has a bad day.


I replaced the bilge pump with an 1100gph Rule auto pump, changed brands only because that was all that was available on the day, and our boat doesn't have drainage, so wasn't keen to go out without one.

For the bait pump, it is a cartridge design, and I scored replacement cartridges for $20 so I just bought four of them. I also fitted a scoop to the thru hull fitting to preent the starvation problem in the future. All pumps like to run cool and in water.

Whatever your choice, I woudl recommend that you consider the pumps that have cartridges, swapping out a pump cartridge is so much easier than actually swapping the whole pump body, as you don't valve to fight with hoses. If you use waterproof connector, you can have a cartridge on board as a "quick fit" replacement if the installed one fails.

If I had more bilge space I woudl consider fitting a couple of the high volume cheap bilge pumps. And spend the difference on a couple of spares. If 20 months is all we are to get out of a pump then the cheapness only have to last four months or so to work out at same value, if they last longer I might end up in front.

Just my 0.02

Cheers

Thy

[cormorant]

Never hear of dings before . Have you used them and are they OK? Going to give a mate the stainless screw selection for his birthday as I can steal stuff of him for a change!!! Rather than be the chandler everytime he needs a screw or nut.

Thanks

[rayken1938]

I have brought quite a bit of stuff from dinga and it has always arrived within 2 to 3 days. ( am in REdland Bay.)
Anyone in the market for a watersnake leccy should have a look at their prices.
Cheers
Ray

[FishHunter]

Dinga.com have jarvis walker 2000gph for $15 with free postage.
Cheers
Ray

Figured I had nothing to lose so I just bought one. Thanks