86 4207 Galley Bilge Pump Replacement Help

[Morningstar4207]

Happy New Year Carver family, we have an 86 4207. We're looking to replace our galley bilge pump, it has been replaced 3 times in the two years that we've owned her. What is your favorite pump and what capacity pump do you recommend? I do not have a freshwater bladder in my galley floor if that's helpful. My layout has a larger forward head/shower and my freshwater tank is under our bed in the aft cabin. Thank you in advance!

[Midnightsun]

3 times in 2 years is excessive to say the least. Are you referring to your potable water pump? You do say bilge pump but you are confusing me when you start talking about bladder, shower and fresh water tank.

[Morningstar4207]

Midnightsun, I'm referring to the bilge pump. It may be an electrical issue, or possibly that the capacity of the pump is not high enough to keep up, or a combo of both. I only brought up the bladder, etc b/c the 4207 has several different layouts/models and mine seems less popular. It makes me wonder if perhaps other 4207's have a smaller bilge in the galley than I do. My galley bilge is fairly large.

[Midnightsun]

IMHO the galley bilge pump should never really start up unless you have a rather large leak in the boat. I can tell you not one of my 4 bilge pumps has ever gone off except the rear bilge due to couple of shower box failures leading to an over flow. I need to test them yearly to make sure they all work just to be on the safe side if something dramatic were to happen. My point is if yours are failing that often they must be going off at very frequent rate. Solving the leak will probably fix the premature failures and personally I would start there. Have you checked your shower box pumps lately?

[Viper]

What type of failure is occurring, motor won't run at all, or is trying to run but just hums? Or is it running but just not moving water? What brand and model has failed, same one all the time or different brands/models? Were they smart pumps (contain circuit board modules)? The most short life failures I've encountered have been with smart pumps. Also, are you adding any harsh chemicals into the bilge for cleaning like bleach? Bleach for example will eventually ruin pump seals.

Have you done any diagnostics yet? Before installing another one, I would do a voltage drop test with the same load as the unit that failed to see if the voltage drops below acceptable levels. If it does, the unit would still work albeit at reduced efficiency but it's life would be shortened.

Are you taking on enough water that's causing the pump to cycle more often than expected?

[Morningstar4207]

Midnightsun, agreed. We do have a freshwater leak that empties into that bilge. We're getting ready to repair it and will replace the bilge pump at the same time. Thanks for your quick response.

[Morningstar4207]

Viper, thanks for your response. We do have a leak. We thought it was repaired properly and replaced the bilge pump the last time we believed we repaired the leak, but maybe the volume of water it continued to take on burned it out? With the current leak we are filling our bilge every two weeks. We have been using a 1500 Rule Automatic (that's what the previous owner had & left back ups onboard). The pump just completely stops working, as if it's getting no power.

[Viper]

I would do some diagnostics before buying another pump. The first thing you need to check is if there is power at the pump. You say it's an "...Automatic..." pump, will it work if you switch it on Manual? There should be bilge pump breakers on your breaker panel or elsewhere, ensure they are not tripped.

[Morningstar4207]

Viper, yes we checked, it doesn't work manually either. There is no power at the pump currently. Thank you!

[Viper]

Looks like you need to trace back and find why you have no power to the pump. If it's a 3 wire setup, you'll have a ground wire, one wire that has continuous power (for the float), and one wire that supplies power when you turn the pump switch to manual. Again, make sure bilge pump breakers haven't tripped.