Bilge pump switches Ultra safety?

[rsmith]

Just had the last of my Par Hydro air switches bite the dust. I know people have raved about these ultra safety switches. I see there are several different types and level ranges depending on the depth of the bilge. My main pump lies in a very deep sump just forward of the center fuel tank. I get a lot of back flow when the pump shuts down. Any problems with these short cycling? I saw several reviews of the company now replacing bad switches.
We used similar intrinsically safe switches for tank monitoring of flammable liquids back in the day but wondering if anyone has a report on these.

 

[jim rosenthal]

I have several of them. The original one, which is over twenty years old, is still working fine. If you call them, you will get the engineer who designed and builds them and owns the company. They are very well made. I recommend them highly, and I have not found that they short cycle.

 

[bobk]

Just had the last of my Par Hydro air switches bite the dust. I know people have raved about these ultra safety switches. I see there are several different types and level ranges depending on the depth of the bilge. My main pump lies in a very deep sump just forward of the center fuel tank. I get a lot of back flow when the pump shuts down. Any problems with these short cycling? I saw several reviews of the company now replacing bad switches.
We used similar intrinsically safe switches for tank monitoring of flammable liquids back in the day but wondering if anyone has a report on these.

Is the back flow just the water remaining in the discharge line, or is there some back siphoning? The former can be eliminated with a check valve which I wouldn't like to see in a bilge pump system. A better way, if the layout permits, is to run the discharge hose straight up to a point higher than the waterline and then route the hose on a slope to the waterline.

If you are siphoning water back, that's a potential serious problem that needs to be corrected with a siphon break or move the discharge up above the water line.

Either way, frequent running is going to shorten the expected life.

Bobk

 

[rsmith]

No it's the volume of water in the hose. Check valves in the discharge hose are a bad thing. Your creating a restriction in the hose and they ger clogged with debris. All my discharges are well above the water line with a loop that goes up about a foot above that. A 12' 1-1/4 corrugated hose holds a lot of water
The attached is from the camera I have that monitors the bilge. As you can see the pump is in a deep well that is close to 30" deep. I can barely touch the pump with the tips of my fingers. The sump dosent hold much water before the pump switch trips.

 

[Cricket]

Been using the Ultra switches for years, some have to be over 20 years old. Thought I had 1 go bad on my CC. but it was just dirty. I'm using the regular switches, have 2 pumps in the bow, center, and aft, 1 pump mounted on the bottom, the other about 6-8 inches above, all tied into the high water alarm system. If you call Ultra let me know what they say about a really deep sump.