Salt water washdown pump reccommendations

I'm looking for suggestions for a good DC water pump to use for a salt water washdown application.

Our boat is equipped with a large Jabsco AC pump that pumps salt water from its own throug-hull and seacock to gate-valve outlets in the bow and stern. It's intended for hosing the deck down, cleaning the anchor chain as it comes aboard, etc. The pump is mounted in the front of the engine room with hose runs to the forward and aft deck valves.

The pump runs but I suspect the impeller is shot, plus the pressure switch that's supposed to shut off the pump doesn't work and the whole rig is fairly rusty. I'm sure all these things could be corrected, but to me having a washdown pump that needs AC makes it less than convenient to use. To use it away from groundpower means we'd have to start the generator when we were raising the anchor, for example, if we wanted to clean off the chain.

So it would seem to make sense to replace this big AC pump with a DC pump. There are a lot of choices, and I'd be interested to hear what people have found to be a good, powerful DC pump for this washdown application.

Thanks,

-- Edited by Marin at 13:12, 2007-11-10

Marin
*** Come check out mine. I believe it's a Jabsco or one of the other principal offerings. I'll let you try it out.

To replace an AC pump with a DC pump , and get the same performance is Really E$pensive.

It will require wiring for 10X the amperage

Cheaper by far to simply get a newer AC pump, and continue as before.

The top of the line (to me) is Obendorfer , which will have whatever you need.

Sureflow at about $150 has a deck washdown unit , but if you regularly need to blast 150 ft of smelly chain , the AC would be the choice.

If a large AC unit is used it can backup as a bilge or Fire! pump, with an extra valve or two.


WE do use a DC pump, but its 1/2 hp , hooked up with #6 wiring and was only affordable because it came from Dania Marine Flea Market , so a $250+ item was $40.

FF

My AC pump moves over 6000 gallons per hour. I have valves to use as bilge pump (each compartment), fire pump (bow or stern outlets), and deck/anchor wash (bow and stern outlets).

The bilge function works in two ways:

*For normal bilging you pump sea water through an orifice to overboard. The orifice creates a suction to draw bilge water and debri from each compartment. This way, debri does not pass through the pump itself. This is how they pump fish through pipes at a fish processor.

*For emergency bilging you pump directly through the pump.

What I have wanted to do was to keep the AC system but add a DC pump with more valves so that I can use the same plumbing and run either pump depending on what I need to wash.

Then, the DC pump can be used for normal anchor washing but when the really yucky stuff comes up on the chain, I can fire up the AC pump.

I installed one of those variable flow Shurflo pumps with a Perko twist-in flush deck fitting. The pump is powered from the windlass power switch. In operation, I have a short length of hose with a "suicide nozzel" and shut-off valve to wash off the anchor. The Perko fitting on the boat end of the hose half twists into the fush-deck fitting, which has an internal spring-loaded valve which prevents flow until the half-twist fitting is inserted.

When I open the nozzel valve, the water pressure is initially a bit of a dribble but quickly gains pressure to 65 PSI and blasts off anything the anchor has ever collected.

Based on the advice of Bob Lowe, the GB guru on the GB Owners forum, I've decided to overhaul the AC pump we currently have. All it should need is a new impeller and a new pressure switch plus some paint to make it all look nice again. It's a real big pump, so as Fred noted it should do a good job of cleaning off the chain and anchor, hosing down the (teak) deck, etc.