Small bilge pump for compartment under front seat - 360FV

echandler1971

Ida came by last night and dumped a ridiculous amount of rain on my boat. The bimini top is only mostly-watertight (as many are). I've discovered that one place the water that does come in is the port side front seat compartment. I keep life jackets in there, including 4 water-activated inflatable comfy types. I hand-pumped out several gallons of water from the compartment already. I expect that this will occur again and again. There is no drain, because it's above the aft cabin. What I would like to do is put a thru-hull somewhere inconspicuous out of that compartment and towards the helm walkway where the water would just drain out the way the boat is designed to allow. Connected to that would be some sort of small bilge pump and water detection switch. I could then build a small latticework of Starboard to raise the contents of the compartment further off the floor to keep water away from them.
With all that said, I would like to be able to pump the compartment close to bone dry, and that pretty much rules out most bilge pumps and float switches. Am I looking for a product that does not exist, or is there some sort of pump I could use that would detect the slightest bit of water and pump it out, even if it's at a trickle? Maybe something designed for a fish tank or tile saw, for example? Obviously, this all depends on where the water pools and no pump can make something completely bone dry due to priming. I just want to be able to make it dry enough that the rest evaporates in a relatively-short period of time.

YYZRC

On my boat the gas tanks are on either side of the aft cabin and the port side seat is above the gas tank. I could add a drain on the port side with lots of clearance - have you looked in behind to see what’s there?

echandler1971

https://www.amazon.com/Water-Northbear-Micro-Submersible-Motor/dp/B01NCK682L
possibly? I have a SirenMarine and could simply attach power to a relay controlled by it rather than a float switch. Then I could run the pump from the phone when it rains without needing to put a switch somewhere.

YYZRC - I could definitely pump to that corner and down into the engine bay though, rather than via an ugly-thru-hull like thing.

echandler1971

Issue I have is the water pools on the starboard side stern, smack dab over the aft compartment.

YYZRC

Does your compartment have a plastic liner? Mine does and I think if I had to, I could remove the liner and shave some off the top edge so that it could be lifted/tilted to drain forward instead of aft. 

Dream_Inn

We just talked about this on another topic.  I know there are small flat diaphragm type pumps that have a little electronic board and run off of 12VDC that will get every drop.  They work very well.  I just can't remember exactly what they are called.  But, I'd work on a better way to just keep the water out if at all possible.

echandler1971

YYZRC said:

Does your compartment have a plastic liner? Mine does and I think if I had to, I could remove the liner and shave some off the top edge so that it could be lifted/tilted to drain forward instead of aft. 

I'm not sure. I can certainly check that as well. That may just move the problem 4' in the other direction though.

Dream_Inn said:

We just talked about this on another topic.  I know there are small flat diaphragm type pumps that have a little electronic board and run off of 12VDC that will get every drop.  They work very well.  I just can't remember exactly what they are called.  But, I'd work on a better way to just keep the water out if at all possible.

Keeping the water out has been a nightmare. There are just too many places it creeps in during heavy rains. I could build up channels to force the water elsewhere, but it would look weird. I even though of a rain gutter like system along the port side of the seat opening below the cushion to catch the water and send it back, but my grill also goes there and needs every bit of width to fit in the compartment. Would love to find out what pump you were talking of though.

echandler1971

https://lifeempirically.com/2018/03/12/build-your-own-diy-arid-bilge-or-dry-bilge-system/

I'm really starting to think about killing 2 birds with one stone - put pump in engine bay and get a mostly-dry bilge while also clearing that compartment as a bonus.

YYZRC

Diaphragm pump will do a good job at getting the water out. 

echandler1971

Well, I went semi-cheap, but it works good enough. I went ahead and used my spare Rule run-of-the-mill bilge pump, even though it won't pump down to dry. I piped it upwards and found a pathway without needing to drill - to the engine room where it now drains to the channel between the engines. For power, I have it hooked up to a 12v relay hooked up to my SirenMarine Pro 3 so I can just kick it from the app when I know it's rained a lot. Saves on adding a float switch.