New to boating

Thanks! Good advice. 1st time pulling into marina/dock, the dock master talked me into backing up into slip. It was a little difficult because of current but i managed. It was great that other boaters at marina helped with securing boat onto slip. Fixed another problem. Shower bilge pump would not shut off. Moved float swith up/down multiple times but pump would not shut off. Turned off breaker and picked up and installed float switch. All working now.View attachment 57707

Can you flip the float switch around, so that if something lodges on the strainer it won't interfere with the movement of the float? from the picture it looks like the float lever is right up against the strainer.
 
Get to know your boat. Sit and look at thinks and have beer. Look at things like the engine room. You will see things that need doing and you will see places to store tools. Figure out what you can and can not do then budget your time to do things and your money to get someone to do the things you cannot or will not do. Most important item is make sure the engine is in good working order then next is the head.
 
I did check float movement to make sure it does not touch strainer. Pretty close but not touching. I'm not planning on using shower at this time (showers at marina) but you never know when and where it would be needed. Old float appears to have been shorted because there was hardly any water inside. I filled it with water multiple times to check new float/pump operation. I agree with working on items I could handle and leave questionable items to the experts.
 
it is always best to test a float switch for a sump pump by filling the sump with water to activate the switch.....most people will test a float switch by manually raising the float to see if the pump activates....the problem with this is there could be something that is preventing the float from raising in water and activating the pump when the sump is full....so even if the pump/switch activates during the manual test it could fail during the water level test.....

I saw this happen just last week....a dock neighbor just bout a nice used Sea Ray 270 and had a thorough survey done prior to purchase....the boat seemed to be well maintained and passed the survey easily....a couple days after docking the boat in his wet slip he was becoming familiar with the dash switches....when he flipped on the bilge pump switch he heard water being discharged from the through hull....he thought this amount of water should have been discharged by the bilge pump....the water in the bilge came from the owner using a hose pipe to hose down the ER to clean it a little....on further investigation to bilge pump would work when the float was manually raised but not when the bilge was full of water.....the owner contacted the surveyor and the surveyor said he tested the pump by manually raising the float....

cliff
 
it is always best to test a float switch for a sump pump by filling the sump with water to activate the switch.....most people will test a float switch by manually raising the float to see if the pump activates....the problem with this is there could be something that is preventing the float from raising in water and activating the pump when the sump is full....so even if the pump/switch activates during the manual test it could fail during the water level test.....

I saw this happen just last week....a dock neighbor just bout a nice used Sea Ray 270 and had a thorough survey done prior to purchase....the boat seemed to be well maintained and passed the survey easily....a couple days after docking the boat in his wet slip he was becoming familiar with the dash switches....when he flipped on the bilge pump switch he heard water being discharged from the through hull....he thought this amount of water should have been discharged by the bilge pump....the water in the bilge came from the owner using a hose pipe to hose down the ER to clean it a little....on further investigation to bilge pump would work when the float was manually raised but not when the bilge was full of water.....the owner contacted the surveyor and the surveyor said he tested the pump by manually raising the float....

cliff

That’s not unusual. No other way to test the pump other than flood the bilge and I doubt any surveyor would do that. Maybe he missed and obvious hole in the float, but other than that, I would blame the surveyor.
 
That’s not unusual. No other way to test the pump other than flood the bilge and I doubt any surveyor would do that. Maybe he missed and obvious hole in the float, but other than that, I would blame the surveyor.

you are absolutely right....I would not blame the surveyor either....my intent of the post was to test the pumps by flooding the sump or bilge once you have ownership of the boat on a regular basis if you want to be absolutely sure it is in good working order....

cliff
 
you are absolutely right....I would not blame the surveyor either....my intent of the post was to test the pumps by flooding the sump or bilge once you have ownership of the boat on a regular basis if you want to be absolutely sure it is in good working order....

cliff

Right you are. And if you keep a nice clean bilge by cleaning it up peridically you will be testing the pumps each time.
 
As a side note I stopped using float switches a few years ago and started using The Water Witch
101series.jpg

No moving parts and in 4 years never had one fail.
 
Hello all! I'm new to boating and just purchased a 2000 Sea Ray 240 Sundancer. Any advice on new boat ownership? I am looking to travel on the Hudson River in the Hudson Valley NY.
Hey, I’m new too! I just purchased a 1991 180. I live on the Hudson. Albany. I’ve been laughing out of the Henry Hudson Park.
 
Welcome! There’s a lot of great advice here At Club Sea Ray. I haven’t reached Albany yet but one of my next destinations. Looking into NYC and the the Statue of Liberty soon.
 

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