Has anyone added an additional bilge pump to there boat? If so, did it help?

My boat sank at my dock last season during a wind storm that over-whelmed my boat with water. That led me to look into what can be done to prevent it from happening in the future. I read in a artical (link posted below) that its usually the electronics that fail and not the pump. Another interesting item was that a boat my size (22 ft center console) should have two bilge pumps. Your thoughts?

http://www.yachtsurvey.com/bilge_pumps.htm

Hi Stone

With a name like that, you're bound to sink again.
Sorry, can't resist stupid jokes sometimes.

There was a thread a while back about adding a 2nd bilge pump to a bow rider. I didn't read the entire thread, so don't know if it has any helpful info for you, but it might.

HERES THE LINK

We are going to leave our boat on a mooring in Lake Tahoe this summer. Mostly 1 nighters but maybe for up to a week.

I thought about adding a second auto-bilge. I don't know if it's really necessary. Batteries and wiring would be a shared component, so I guess the pump would have to burn out for it to be necessary. I don't know if you can just put a Y-connector in the hose without causing a flow problem.

Stone,

what size and type boat was it? Did the water come in from the stern over the transom? Was the bilge pump working?

Rbarbot2,

With a 256 I can't see you having any problems, especially if you are on a mooring ball where the boat can move to be bow into the wind. Lots of boats left out there all summer and though the water can get rough in the afternoon, generally not enough to cause problems.

Hockey Family lol @ sink like a Stone. I should have known that one was coming! Thanks for the link also. It was helpful.

Silverbullet, its a 22 foot center console. Its made by Triton, they have since discontinued the model. It has a cut out in the transom for the motor. Water came thru there and also over the stern. I have a 30 foot dock, the boat is tied to the 4 mooring poles. Water was hitting my bulkhead and splasing right back into the boat. I am in the last stages of getting a permit for a longer pier (100 feet) and a boat lift. One lesson I learned from this is to avoid buying a boat with that type of transom. The bilge pump was hot wired.

A properly secured and supported mooring cover might help prevent water splashing in. The cover may be a better strategy than trying to pump water out faster than it can splash in.

Forgot to put the drain plug in the other day - only 2nd time in 14 years! Bilge kicked in but couldn't keep up. Got me thinking - Would it be unreasonable to expect the bilge pump to be able to keep up with a hole the size of the drain plug? I got the wimpy stock bilge pump that came with the boat installed - never really needed it to run heavy duty (other than rain, etc.). Any opinions?

turn the boat around so motor end is to land.
then a hole the size of a drain plug must be handled with bilge pumps (I think) so if not then you nee either a bigger pump or two.
h

If you add a second bilge pump, it should have everything separate, separate pump, switch, fuse, hose, and thru-hull, and ideally battery - if you have two batteries on board.

Also the hose usually gets routed in such a way as to put in a "p" trap of sorts so that water cannot run into the bilge from the thru-hull. This is important, even if the thru hull is above the waterline, because if the boat is sinking, it might no longer be.

A wye will not only interfere with the water flow, but it will also make it harder to have a good "P" trap.

If you add a second pump, it should be on the other end of the boat. So if your current pump is in the stern, put the other one in the bow.

Also you might want to increase the size of the pump. Seein' that you have been reading Pascoe, he I think mentions some boats do not have a sufficient sized pump.

That Pascoe read is an eye opener. My 20' open bow comes standard with a very nice 500 GPH Rule bilge pump. Pascoe cut it to shreds. He said 16 - 20 footers need 2500 GPH! At first blush, my thinking was that Four Winns knows what they're doing, but then I gave it some thought. I've seen the water stream that 500 GPH pump puts out the thru hull. Turning it around, I think I could use it to pump water into the boat for an hour or so and not be in danger of harming any engine components. If I pull the drain plug while the boats in the water, I think I'd be in trouble in 10 minutes or less. From this I'm guessing that Pascoe's numbers could be conservative for my boat. I never travel very far from shore (smallish lakes), even so I'd like to get back to shore with my boat. Looks like another project to add to the rapidly growing list.

Bilge pumps are rated at 0' total dynamic head, which is completely unrealistic. Given these pumps are open impeller type the flow rate falls quickly in relation to tdh. Also, these pumps are rated in GPH, gallons per hour. A 2500 GPH pump will move about 40 gallons in a minute, at 0' tdh. 40 gpm should have around a 1.25 to 1.5" line. How many bilge hoses do you see bigger than 3/4 or maybe an inch? This smaller line now creates even more tdh on the pump. Add up the resistance due to piping, lift from the bilge to the exit (even higher if you use Al's reverse P trap, which you should) and you knock off the available flow quickly. A Rule 2000GPH pump at 10' tdh (an easy number to get up to if you undersize your lines) falls to a 1100 GPH pump. Take a 5 gallon bucket and put a garden hose in your bilge, then time how long it takes your pump to fill the bucket once it comes on. Compare that with your rating. It will give you an idea of what your pump can do.

Mr. watermutt is right on. As far as hooking the 2 discharge lines together, I've never seen a bilge pump with a check valve, and even if it had one, it would eventually get stuck open or closed anyway. If the discharges are tied together without check valves, when only one pump runs, some of the discharge will be pushed backwards through the other pump and into the boat. Somewhat counter productive.

Wouldn't two discharges into one thru hull work (without check valves) provided each line has a riser loop a good amount above the thru hull coupled with a Y going into a 30 degree fitting angled downwards to the thru hull? Just exploring the concept - I'd drill out the existing 3/4 thru hull, replace it with a 1 1/8, and add a second 1 1/8 thru hull for the second (bigger) pump. Having said that, I'm a bit undecided on whether to go chrome plated or plastic for the thru hulls.

If you have one blige pump in the front, and one in the rear, seems you would be using a lot of hose. I think you would want as short a hose as possible.

That probably would work. Just remember that any kind of restriction on the down stream side (like the kid on the boat tied up next to you that sticks his hot dog in that neat round hole) of the tie in will cause a problem. Of course, restriction in that line is a bad thing, regardless of how many pumps you have.