Does the bilge pump switch in the console force the pump on? Or does it switch it to auto mode?
After I bought the 2556 and played around with all the switches, I noticed the bilge pump switch didn't cause the bilge pump to turn on. I assume that meant the switch turned the bilge pump from off (never runs) to auto (runs when there's enough water in the bilge for the float switch to turn it on).
Halfway through a shake-down cruise yesterday (first time I got to take the boat out since buying it), I heard a pump running after I shut down the engine. After I narrowed down the location to under the engine, I guessed it was the bilge pump. There was no water coming out the bilge pump thru-hull, but flipping the bilge pump button off caused the noise to stop, confirming it was the bilge pump. But now I see two possibilities for what's going on:
[ul]
[li]The switch toggles between off and auto as I originally thought. It did not turn on when I flipped the switch because there wasn't enough water in the bilge to trigger it. Some time during yesterday's trip, enough water came in to trigger the bilge pump. But its float switch got stuck high leaving it always on, and I need to fix the float switch.[/li]
[li]The switch toggles between auto and on. Putting the console switch to off puts the bilge pump into auto mode - it is always powered and ready to run when the float switch triggers it. Moving the switch to on forces the pump to run regardless of whether any water is present.. The console switch was broken when I first got the boat, which is why I didn't hear any noise when I originally turned it on. But after an hour of pounding on the waves, something shook back in place and now it's working correctly.[/li]
[/ul]
So which is it? I'm used to these types of pumps having a 3-setting off / auto / on switch.
After I bought the 2556 and played around with all the switches, I noticed the bilge pump switch didn't cause the bilge pump to turn on. I assume that meant the switch turned the bilge pump from off (never runs) to auto (runs when there's enough water in the bilge for the float switch to turn it on).
Halfway through a shake-down cruise yesterday (first time I got to take the boat out since buying it), I heard a pump running after I shut down the engine. After I narrowed down the location to under the engine, I guessed it was the bilge pump. There was no water coming out the bilge pump thru-hull, but flipping the bilge pump button off caused the noise to stop, confirming it was the bilge pump. But now I see two possibilities for what's going on:
[ul]
[li]The switch toggles between off and auto as I originally thought. It did not turn on when I flipped the switch because there wasn't enough water in the bilge to trigger it. Some time during yesterday's trip, enough water came in to trigger the bilge pump. But its float switch got stuck high leaving it always on, and I need to fix the float switch.[/li]
[li]The switch toggles between auto and on. Putting the console switch to off puts the bilge pump into auto mode - it is always powered and ready to run when the float switch triggers it. Moving the switch to on forces the pump to run regardless of whether any water is present.. The console switch was broken when I first got the boat, which is why I didn't hear any noise when I originally turned it on. But after an hour of pounding on the waves, something shook back in place and now it's working correctly.[/li]
[/ul]
So which is it? I'm used to these types of pumps having a 3-setting off / auto / on switch.
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