Should I take a Spare Battery with me? - Bilge Pump Questions Inside

[2kwik4u]

I've been reading for a few days now on the factory bilge pump in my boat. I'm somewhat overwhelmed with anecdotal evidence at this point, and have talked myself in circles.

Best I can tell the '17 AR190 has the "cycle every 3 min" style pump, and it doesn't operate without the battery switch on, and the dash switch on. This holds true in practice as best I can tell. Bilge doesn't run without the switch on that I've seen, however I rarely have the boat in the water without the switch on, so it's not really "confirmed" at this point in practice.

We're heading on vacation on Saturday morning. By Saturday evening the boat will be in the water at a private dock on the lake. I have intentions of leaving the boat in the water until the following Friday night (or Saturday morning). 6 nights on the water. If they boat is on the water, I want the bilge on. While sinking at the dock would be relatively shallow water, I would prefer to avoid that. I've done as best I can to remove as many leak points into the boat (cupholders plugged, rear tray re-sealed, couple of thru-hulls resealed, plug O-rings lubricated), and the boat will be covered when not in use. I suspect even a heavy rain will only allow a small amount of water in the boat at this point, however that is also not confirmed in practice yet.

I have also recently realized I don't have enough extension cords to get from the house to the dock. So plugging in at night (with a battery tender) isn't really an option, without purchasing more cords. I do have a spare deep cycle battery sitting around though. We're taking 101,285 things with us on vacation, and I would prefer to leave the spare battery at home if I don't need it. We'll probably be using the boat every day at some level. Some days we will be doing nothing but boating, other days it might just be an evening cruise.

My concern is draining the battery while at the dock. Worst case is thunderstorm, dead battery, no bilge pump, sunk boat. Second worse case is go to take everyone out the next day and dead battery exists. How much power can I expect the bilge, and idle stereo to draw under this usage?

My initial thought was to take the second deep cycle, and move the connections over to it every night and let the bilge drain that battery overnight, then move back to the permanently installed battery during the day. Taking the deep cycle up to the house each day to be topped off by the tender. This feels like more work than I really want to do while on vacation.

Would love it if this was a "set it and forget it" type situation, but I'm skeptical. This boat tends to "leak" a bit more than any boat I've had in the past. My previous boats were bone dry after days on the water, and the bilge pumps were always float switched, not pulsing. I considered replacing the bilge for this trip, but there are already mounting costs, and this bilge works, just not 100% the way I would like.

Can my stock AR190 battery (I think it's a group 24 Interstate, I'll verify tonight) handle the load for 6 nights with some assumption of at least a small charge being put back into it every day? Should I take the spare battery and tender, and have that setup as a "backup" in case I need it? Seems some say a few days on the water is no big deal, others have reported the cycling bilge pump draining a battery in as little as 3 days.

 

[Jack Long]

I installed 2nd bilge/with float and powered directly to the battery. No worries now.

Original bilge had to be replaced this year. Wore out. LOL

Just put another one in.

 

[fireflymedic]

Will you have a cover for boat if forecast is for rain? Most rain should go out the deck drsin. I would get a nicad battery jumper they are small and light. You may find your boat is boan dry if sitting. Most water in hull seems to be from the wave flooding swim deck. If you could test this theory before trip could set your mind at ease

 

[Julian]

Your results may vary, but my testing over repeated weeks is that this bilge takes 2 weeks to drain a battery down. Unless you have a serious leak in your boat, you will be fine. A 2nd bilge pump and battery will only buy you more time. A bilge alarm would alert you to the problem only if it has its own power source (2nd battery that the primary bilge isn't connected to).

Check your bilge. Sit on the boat at the end of the day once everyone has left and listen....you'll hear the bilge cycle. If it pumps a lot of water at each cycle...(like longer than 30-60 seconds), then go out and buy some longer cords!

 

[2kwik4u]

Thanks for the responses.

@Jack Long
That would be the ideal solution. Time isn't on my side at this point. Neither is budget (although a new bilge is certainly cheaper than a salvage operation) for a new bilge. Gonna have to take this trip with what I have. Hardwired float switch style bilge is on the list of future mods though. It's such a long list I'm not sure I'll ever get through them at this point.

@fireflymedic
Boat will be covered when not in use. Especially if rain is called for. Have a nearly new Premium Deluxe Cover, and it appears to bead pretty well with the anti-pooling poles installed. I totally expect the majority of water in the boat to come from small kids coming aboard dripping wet. We've found that the 1yr old likes to sit on the upper platform and dump buckets of water on himself. Which is fine, except my rear cleanout tray wasn't sealed worth a crap, and most of that water ended up in the bilge. I've resealed the tray, and capped the cupholders, but haven't verified how it works in practice yet. Hoping those changes will keep some of the water OUT of the boat. We leave on Saturday, and not much time to test at home before we go. Ran myself a little tighter than I would have preferred on the boat mods for this trip. We'll also have another boat with us, so hopefully all 3 batteries (he has two) won't be dead at any given time. We carry jumper cables with us all the time anyway. Been talking about getting a jump pack for awhile, but again, budgets tight on this one.

@Julian
Thanks for the info. 2 weeks to drain the battery sounds very promising since I'll have nearly daily engine run time. On our last trip with the 1yr old dumping the water out on himself, the bilge was cycling on and pumping water out about every 15 minutes or so. Woudl pump for maybe 10 seconds and then turn off. I had the cleanout tray inspection ports open for a bit, shined a light into the bilge area, and didn't see ACTIVE water coming in or flowing in the area's I could readily inspect. Same in the engine compartment. Nothing noticeably actively leaking. I chocked that day up to the 1yr olds bucket dumping antics and the leaky cleanout tray and cupholders. I know the best test for leaks is to fill the boat with water on level ground and see where it comes out. Not sure if I'll have that amount of time before we leave though.

Definitely feeling like I should've made some time to address this issues sooner than now. Although I'm also feeling like I'm most likely NOT going to drain a battery to dead AND fill the boat at the same time.

 

[Bluewater272]

I also vote for the second bilge pump plan. You can do it in 2 hours for less than $100. Barring some sort of calamity, it's highly unlikely that you'll kill the battery in a day or two between use, and you shouldn't be taking on enough water to sink the boat in any conditon, absent a newly formed hole in your hull. That being said, a hole in your hull can nearly kill your battery overnight, as I found out.

 

[Glen]

Your results may vary, but my testing over repeated weeks is that this bilge takes 2 weeks to drain a battery down. Unless you have a serious leak in your boat, you will be fine. A 2nd bilge pump and battery will only buy you more time. A bilge alarm would alert you to the problem only if it has its own power source (2nd battery that the primary bilge isn't connected to).

Check your bilge. Sit on the boat at the end of the day once everyone has left and listen....you'll hear the bilge cycle. If it pumps a lot of water at each cycle...(like longer than 30-60 seconds), then go out and buy some longer cords!

I'm with Julian.
Take 'the boat sinking' off your list of things to worry about. The boat and being on the water needs to be a blessing, or it needs to be gone!
I have a 2nd bilge and battery but only upgraded when was heading to Bimini.
If you are going to be covering your boat when not in use, you have nearly nothing to worry about.
I like the idea of getting one of those small lithium battery chargers/starters, just in case. And will be useful long after this trip is over.
Go enjoy your family, the water and the boat too.

 

[Brad_Ct]

I had my boat docked uncovered for a week a couple of years ago, it rained for five days straight with the same style pump you have and the battery still had enough left to it to start the boat. It was not a very nice week for a boating vacation ):

 

[MidnightRider]

I'll add that I have the cycle 3-5 minute type pump and we take it to a cabin every year and its tied up to the dock. It sits there for 7 days with the house battery switch on, once through a night of rain. Never even noticed a the battery drain down, if it did the next day running brought it back up. One thing to remember is the decks on these are self bailing so even in a rain storm it doesn't take on water like a typical runabout as a lot of it runs out the scupper.

 

[2kwik4u]

Thanks so much for the responses guys. Sounds like I'll be in fine shape to let her sit on the water for the week. I'll be sure to report back on how it goes.

I'll bump the bilge pump upgrade towards the top of the list for next years "must do mods". Probably scour the local Wal-Mart and Sams Club during our grocery shopping for an inexpensive jump pack to keep on board as well.

 

[DavisAR195]

Over the summer we camp at a few different lakes here in Oregon and keep the boat at the moorage each night. I would only run the bilge in the morning when we went out for the day. I never had any issues and very rarely had water in that haul.

 

[Scottintexas]

I faced this question a few years ago when we rented a house and wet slipped the boat for a week,
I chose to close my eyes and ignore the possibilities and won (I did have a jump pack on the boat, always do),

I would tell you to dock the boat and turn the bilge off for two hours, then turn the bilge on and see if it pumps anything, if not turn it off again for 4 hours and then bilge on again to see if there is a real issue,

I didn't have any water pumping so I turned the bilge off over night and back on in the morning and by the end of the week I was comfortable leaving it off when docked,

I also left my cleanout plugs in and they swelled and became stuck, be sure to remove them when you get done for the day,

 

[2kwik4u]

Wanted to come back and update this thread. We had the boat on the water for 6 straight days while on vacation, and the bilge never ran once. Not a single time. The battery stayed on the entire time, and the bilge pump switch was in the on the position the entire time. We launched on Saturday afternoon, and retrieved the following Friday evening. Here's a picture of the dock at the cabin with the boats.



A few things I did while there, and before helped the situation I think.

I completely resealed the rear clean out tray area. Well, maybe not completely, but pretty close. I took the inspection covers off and put a bead of silicone under them, then reattached. I also ran a bead of silicone around the edge of the cleanout tray "insert". I also capped every single cupholder in the boat (which we have found we hate, but it keeps the water out).

Boat stayed covered when not in use. We got one day of an absolute monsoon level of rain. The Deluxe Premium Mooring Cover did it's job rather well. The carpet wasn't even damp when we uncovered the next day. The anti-pooling poles did the job, and the cover is beading water pretty readily. I think this was a obvious, but important, detail to keep the water on the outside of the boat.



As to the battery drain......it wasn't an issue at any level. Boat started easily every single time. We didn't boat on Tuesday or Wednesday at all, boat just floated there. No issue at all with restarting on Thursday morning, even after running the stereo at the dock for an hour while we got uncovered, packed, and ready to go. I'm only running a smallish interstate battery as well, so that is somewhat surprising for me, as I fully expected to need a jump to get moving that morning.

Overall a good week, and making this thread was much to do about nothing. Battery held fine. Bilge didn't drain the battery, and the resealing kept most of the water out.

I have a new thread coming on the "resealing" I need to do again......I've got questions

 

[Glen]

Congrats!