High Water Bilge Alarm

Hello All


Reading an anchoring thread on another section - a high water bilge alarm was mentioned. It reminded me of a large capacity bilge pump I installed a year or so ago, complete with a new thru hull and larger diameter hose.
I intentionally installed this pump 6" or so higher than the original smaller pump. During the wiring portion, I ran a new wire from my lower helm horn button to the positive (+) wire coming OUT of the float switch.
My dock neighbor at the time, who had a knack of making any project extremely COMPLICATED, pointed out that design was flawed. I should install a one-way diode, or better yet, use a relay wired in to feed the horn circuit.
Of course his idea would have worked, at least as long as the additional terminal connections required didn't corrode. KISS I say. The only negative in my circuit I figured, was the pump got to spin occasionally when I blew the horn!
Was I being too hard on the dock neighbor?
Was I being too easy on myself?

-- Edited by Forkliftt on Tuesday 26th of April 2011 07:32:47 PM

KISS works as long as you understand what is happening.* What about somebody else?

You might consider installing a switch to disable the horn if the high bilge alarm/pump is activated.* It can get noisy while you're trying to figure out what's going on.


-- Edited by Jay N on Tuesday 26th of April 2011 09:52:40 PM

Jay N wrote:


KISS works as long as you understand what is happening.* What about somebody else?

You might consider installing a switch to disable the horn if the high bilge alarm/pump is activated.* It can get noisy while you're trying to figure out what's going on.


-- Edited by Jay N on Tuesday 26th of April 2011 09:52:40 PM

Click to expand...

That's a good idea Jay, and simple enough to do. I guess in an emergency it could get pretty distracting to have the horn continuously going off. Kinda like a firetruck trying to get past you at a red light. Sometimes at night on the ship I run through in my mind what it could be like if a through hull failed or the hull got breached. Chances are it would never happen in the daylight in 4' of water.
I keep a Brinkman on a clip beside the bed and it ALWAYS gets put back there after it is used. You can't fix what you can't see!

Forkliftt wrote:
Hello All Reading an anchoring thread on another section - a high water bilge alarm was mentioned. It reminded me of a large capacity bilge pump I installed a year or so ago, complete with a new thru hull and larger diameter hose. I intentionally installed this pump 6" or so higher than the original smaller pump. During the wiring portion, I ran a new wire from my lower helm horn button to the positive (+) wire coming OUT of the float switch. My dock neighbor at the time, who had a knack of making any project extremely COMPLICATED, pointed out that design was flawed. I should install a one-way diode, or better yet, use a relay wired in to feed the horn circuit. Of course his idea would have worked, at least as long as the additional terminal connections required didn't corrode. KISS I say. The only negative in my circuit I figured, was the pump got to spin occasionally when I blew the horn! Was I being too hard on the dock neighbor? Was I being too easy on myself?

-- Edited by Forkliftt on Tuesday 26th of April 2011 07:32:47 PM

Easier than that would be to use a seperate horn for the high water alarm.* And yes, have a way to turn it off while you're trying to find the problem.

Now if you want to get comlicated,*use a double pole switch and a light to tell you that the horn is in the "silence" mode.*

Click to expand...

*


-- Edited by rwidman on Thursday 28th of April 2011 10:31:55 AM

Charles
That's a great approach and SIMPLE to boot!!!

I guess I should feel lucky, because my boat came from the factory with a high water alarm that sounds if either of the bilge pumps kick in. Two alarms, one at each helm.

I have yet to figure out what would make my high water alarm sound.* I think I need to bump that up the to do list, thanks for the ideas on how it SHOULD be wired.

Pineapple Girl wrote:


I have yet to figure out what would make my high water alarm sound.* I think I need to bump that up the to do list, thanks for the ideas on how it SHOULD be wired.

Click to expand...

Thanks??

I have yet to figure out what would make my high water alarm sound.

Another question is what sound should it make?

My choice is for a stand alone system with a BELL.

When I rewired the alarm systems, went with a two-tone siren (it's very loud) for high bilge, ER heat, electrical panel heat, and smoke sensors.* Along with a*switch to disable the noise (diodes keep the alarm lights lite when an alarm condition remains).

Went with a bell for engine sensors (oil, water, exhaust temp), activated by ignition switch.* As above, can disable the noise when needed/troubleshooting.

FF wrote:
I have yet to figure out what would make my high water alarm sound.

Another question is what sound should it make?

My choice is for a stand alone system with a BELL.

Click to expand...

*Oooooogaaaa, oooooogaaaa. (As in dive! dive! dive!)

A good way not to lose the key for turning off the alarm.

Forkliftt wrote:Pineapple Girl wrote:
*

I have yet to figure out what would make my high water alarm sound.* I think I need to bump that up the to do list, thanks for the ideas on how it SHOULD be wired.

Click to expand...

Thanks??

LOL.* always looking*for ideas.*

well the float switch that turns*on the bilge pump does not turn*on the alarm, which is a bell BTW.* We couldn't find a second float switch*so it appears we*have a problem!**ok, that is now item #... oh... 347?* we'll have*to work on our prioritization at some point...*

From personal experience, I can highly recommend the Ultra Pumpswitch series of bilge pump float switches. They are more expensive than the "flopper" type, but made for easy servicing and longevity (I know of one that has been in continuous service since 2003). At least one model has a built-in hi-level alarm circuit.

http://www.wolfwire.com/tefgel/pumpswitch.htm

We use the*the Aqualarm system for high water (2 sensors/2 bilges) and 4 other paramters.* It is an easy and simple system to*install.* The bell/alarm goes off at 100 dB.*

https://www.aqualarm.net/comerus/store/comersus_listCategories.asp

I second the Ultra switch. I've converted all of mine to that. Results? A worry free system.
My high water pump/alarm went off a week ago. Somehow my on/off/auto engine room bilge pump switch had been bumped to off. 4 a.m. I awoke to the alarm going off while the high water pump was operating. Checked the switch and set it back to auto, no problem. I have no idea how long it was that way, but the secondary system did exactly what it was supposed to. Highly recommended for any boat.

** Eucalyptus Fly Ball said KISS.

However he did not say *KISS what or who !

*Did he mean just plain simple ?

*I wonder how many electrical gadgets that Eucalyptus has on his yacht .

Another prominent Yachtsman said " if you cant fix it" !*

Where will it end, a switch for this and a fuse for that and more wire than Ma Bell.*

*Welcome to the age of the push button .

You may add as many gadgets *as you so may please , you know it all becomes just one more item to fix.

*i am not waiting for some *party noisemaker that may not *go off to tell me that there is water in *the *bilge , I prefer the" Golden Eye".

*

I have a complete second bilge pump mounted higher than the first (pimary) pump.

I bought two loud 12v annunciators from Radio Shack. Wired them each in parallel with the float switch of the second (higher) bilge pump. One annunciator is mounted on the fly bridge and the other is in the engine room area. This gives me the opportunity to know that the water is flooding while I am running the boat on the fly bridge, and also if I am sleeping in the aft cabin.

A second method is to use a remote camera to look at the bilge, seen here on my old engine

[url]http://tinyurl.com/4m5cewf[/url]

This allows me to visually monitor the bilge even before it gets up to the high water float switch.

R.

Over the years I have added extra wire, multi stand,*between the pilot hour and engine room so it would be easy to wire the float switchs to the horn, which is on my to due list.* We still are having cold/rainy/cloudy days and have not*in the*To Do mood yet.*

Man,
All these ideas are great. I'm not sure if my simple way is the way to go.........

Simpler is always better! Less chance of a ****up. :-0 Now, let's see how the auto-editor deals with that!

I'm not sure if my simple way is the way to go.........


Simple is ALWAYS the way to go.

For boats that basically don't leak, a simple alarm that operates with the bilge pump works fine.

Keith -- what caused your high water alarm to go off?

My insurer loves*our*highwater bilge alarms (4), as does AYBC.

It is easy enough to check for water in the bilges when tied to the dock, but it is another matter to do so when under way, especially if single handing. Richard Bertram have a nice arrangement: Each bilge pump has a red indicator light on the flybridge which tell the "driver" when the pump is running. A continuous red light could mean a flooding bilge or a stuck float-switch - investigation required in either event. A short red every now and then might be stern glands weeping or other - YMMV. There are hi-bilge alarms too. Worriers like me find this system very reassuring.

Jay N wrote:
When I rewired the alarm systems, went with a two-tone siren (it's very loud)

Click to expand...

*I"ve never subscribed to the "louder is better" school of thought (unless your talking about rock and roll, Ducati's, or F18's that is).* Most commercial boats I have run or been on that had loud alarms have had tape over them, or some other method of cutting down the ear splitting noise.* When ever I have installed an alarm system (other than a burgler alarm) I've simply used a piezo electric sounder of about 80db.* That's plenty loud enough, and will wake almost anyone (and I"m pretty deaf).* Once while my boat was stored in Ketchikan, the high water alarm went off, and was loud enough to be heard by someone walking by the boat. I got a call about it, but I was in Washington.* So I told him to simply ignore it, as I wasn't really worried.* Why?* The boat was on the hard, so it had to be rain water.*

The point is, even my little piezo sounder works fine, and if it does go off it doesn't scare the heck out of me, it simply notify's me to find the problem.* ..........Arctic Traveller

Arctic Traveller wrote:Jay N wrote:
When I rewired the alarm systems, went with a two-tone siren (it's very loud)

Click to expand...

*I"ve never subscribed to the "louder is better" school of thought (unless your talking about rock and roll, Ducati's, or F18's that is).* Most commercial boats I have run or been on that had loud alarms have had tape over them, or some other method of cutting down the ear splitting noise.* When ever I have installed an alarm system (other than a burgler alarm) I've simply used a piezo electric sounder of about 80db.* That's plenty loud enough, and will wake almost anyone (and I"m pretty deaf).* Once while my boat was stored in Ketchikan, the high water alarm went off, and was loud enough to be heard by someone walking by the boat. I got a call about it, but I was in Washington.* So I told him to simply ignore it, as I wasn't really worried.* Why?* The boat was on the hard, so it had to be rain water.*

The point is, even my little piezo sounder works fine, and if it does go off it doesn't scare the heck out of me, it simply notify's me to find the problem.* ..........Arctic Traveller

*The two-tone alarm indicates fire or flooding, two good reasons to get the adrenalin flowing.* And it is loud*because of the desire to alert others at some distance from*the boat.* The alarm condition is acknowledged by turning off the noise,*red lights continue to indicate an alarm condition.

Many commercial boats have numerous similar sounding piezo single tone alarms, and it can be a*challenge to find the alarm that is actuated.* An alarm that is frequently engergized means that it is soon covered with tape, especially one that is difficult to cancel and continues to sound too frequently.

Even ships have a fire alarm bell/siren that is several order-of-magnitudes louder than less important alarm systems onboard.

Click to expand...

*The two-tone alarm indicates fire or flooding, two good reasons to get the adrenalin flowing.* And it is loud*because of the desire to alert others at some distance from*the boat.* The alarm condition is acknowledged by turning off the noise,*red lights continue to indicate an alarm condition.

Many commercial boats have numerous similar sounding piezo single tone alarms, and it can be a*challenge to find the alarm that is actuated.* An alarm that is frequently engergized means that it is soon covered with tape, especially one that is difficult to cancel and continues to sound too frequently.

Even ships have a fire alarm bell/siren that is several order-of-magnitudes louder than less important alarm systems onboard.

*No disagreement about similar alarms, or frequently energized ones.* As for a fire alarm on a ship, I also agree loud is good.* My point is that on my small boat, a loud, heart stopping alarm is not needed to get my attention.* Should the flooding or rate of rise* heat detector go off, it has my full attention, despite being at a reasonable volume.* On the other hand, my burglar alarm is so loud both inside and outside the boat, it will clean the wax out of your ears.* Hopefully it caused hearing damage to the scum who broke into my boat last winter, but at a minimum it caused him to run prior to getting anything.......Arctic Traveller