Bilge pump not working 232

[Titaniumboy]

the bilge gets power two ways..one is a direct connection to the battery(fused/breaker) through the float switch...the other is from your helm switch.

One would think that the “direct connection to the battery” would be a cable route that was 1) as short as possible, and 2) go through a minimum of connectors, preferable none. Or that is how I would design the circuit. But that is not what Cobalt did on my boat, at least if you believe their electrical diagrams.

Cobalt inexplicably derived what they call the “bilge pump hot”, which is what powers the bilge float switch, from the hot side of the dash bilge pump switch. In other words, rather than grabbbing power for the float switch directly from the batteries (which are rather conveniently located right next to the bilge float switch) Cobalt decided to run the “bilge pump hot” wire all the way from the back of the boat all the way to the dash, and then run it all the back aft again.

And to add insult to injury, that “bilge pump hot” wire goes through at least five different connectors on it’s epic journey.

The helm switch will, of course, not work with the battery switch in the off position.

This is not true on my boat. The bilge pump switch is almost the only helm switch that is not powered by the main helm feed. The power for the bilge pump switch comes from the 30 Amp bilge pump circuit breaker located next to the battery switch. And that 30 Amp bilge pump circuit breaker is tapped from the same battery switch terminal that the #1 Battery uses.

So, at least for my boat, this means that the bilge pump power is unaffected by the position of the battery switch ASSUMING that there is indeed a #1 battery installed. If I were to remove the #1 battery, or if that battery goes dead, then the bilge pump would only have power when the battery switch was in position “1+ 2”.

I know that all of this sounds confusing using words, but it is a little clearer when you look at the electrical sketch I drew up. Does anyone have a recommendation for a simple drawing program that I could use to clean up my hand drawing?

[bruceb58]

This is not true on my boat. The bilge pump switch is almost the only helm switch that is not powered by the main helm feed. The power for the bilge pump switch comes from the 30 Amp bilge pump circuit breaker located next to the battery switch. And that 30 Amp bilge pump circuit breaker is tapped from the same battery switch terminal that the #1 Battery uses.

So, at least for my boat, this means that the bilge pump power is unaffected by the position of the battery switch ASSUMING that there is indeed a #1 battery installed. If I were to remove the #1 battery, or if that battery goes dead, then the bilge pump would only have power when the battery switch was in position “1+ 2”.

I know that all of this sounds confusing using words, but it is a little clearer when you look at the electrical sketch I drew up. Does anyone have a recommendation for a simple drawing program that I could use to clean up my hand drawing?

I stand corrected. When I bough my boat early last year, I thought I had tested that. I just went out and tried mine with battery on and then off and the bilge pump does indeed work with the battery switch in either the on or off position. My boat has the BlueSea dual circuit type switch which basically switches both the house and engine batteries at the same time with al alternate position to combine the two batteries.

[Titaniumboy]

That is interesting and good to know. I had thought that with your boat being ten years newer than mine that maybe Cobalt had changed how they had done the bilge pump circuit.

[kuntekente99]

I know this is an older post but I have a 2013 210 and I have all my gauges flickering but my fuses at the dash are good. We've traced it back to probably a bad lug or bad connection right next to the battery shut off. Does anybody know the part number for this?

[Titaniumboy]

I had a loose connection on the back of my battery switch. I would tighten all of the connections on those two fuses and the battery switch and see if the problem is solved.

[Kate]

"I had a loose connection . . ."

Did that cause a battery to drain?

One of mine is fine. The other keeps draining. (And it's new.)

[jhnmdahl]

I know this is an older post but I have a 2013 210 and I have all my gauges flickering but my fuses at the dash are good. We've traced it back to probably a bad lug or bad connection right next to the battery shut off. Does anybody know the part number for this?

Those look like shortstop circuit breakers - something like one of these: https://www.bluesea.com/products/catego ... Short_Stop or Eaton's version: https://www.eaton.com/us/en-us/catalog/ ... s-12x.html

If you're having problems with one, I'd also confirm that you don't actually have an intermittent short someplace downstream.

[Titaniumboy]

Jhnmdahl,

My two circuit breakers next to the battery switch are also Eaton ShortStop breakers. I have a pdf uploaded on these earlier in this thread.


Kate,

My loose connection did not cause my battery to drain. You might have a defective new battery.

Or you may have a parasitic current draining your battery. Do you have the ability to place a multimeter (set to the ammeter function) in series with your problem battery? This would verify the presence and magnitude of a parasitic current drain.

How long it it taking your battery to drain? Hours, days, weeks?


It looks like my Bilge Pump Circuit schematic has disappeared from this thread, so here is a new upload.

IMG_1674.jpeg