shower sump
Seems to me that there should be a way of getting rid of shower sumps.
The trouble with a switch activation is it is one more thing for guests
to deal with and needs attention while showering. Maybe there is a pump
that can be activated by a head of water for direct discharge overboard?
Ron Barr
Lady Brookhaven Hatteras LRC 42
Presently lying RI Yacht Club, Narragansett Bay, RI
KB1LFX
Ted Kelley wrote: Why have a sump?
I installed a close system with a "water puppy" impeller pump hooked to
a
momentary switch near the shower.
It been there for 9 years and never given me a problem.
You could probably use a switch that senses water (conductivity I suppose?)
like some of the bilge pumps. The problem would probably be that it would
still get gunked up and need to be cleaned occasionally. That wouldn't be
too hard to design, as long as you had access to it. Just put it in the line
leading to the pump.
Keith
Artificial Intelligence is no match for natural stupidity.
----- Original Message -----
From: "ron barr" rwhb@msn.com
Seems to me that there should be a way of getting rid of shower sumps.
The trouble with a switch activation is it is one more thing for guests
to deal with and needs attention while showering. Maybe there is a pump
that can be activated by a head of water for direct discharge overboard?
Five years ago I got rid of the shower sump and plumbed the shower water
right into the bilge sump. When showering, the bilge sump fills, the
automatic pump switch turns on and pumps the shower water over the side.
Ralph Salerno
M/V ANCORA
Warm and sunny San Diego
Seems to me that there should be a way of getting rid of shower sumps.
The trouble with a switch activation is it is one more thing for guests
to deal with and needs attention while showering. >
dumping shower water in the bilge is usually considered a source of
headaches and odors in the long run... soap scum, hair, etc... will cause
the same problem on your bilge pump and switch as it would in a sump, except
that by then it is a slightly more critical component that needs to be
cleaned or replaced.
soon after i got the 53 1/2 years ago, I had to replace both atwood shower
sumps, by rule sumps. no problem since... I havent' had to clean the
forward sump yet (my son's) but need to clean the aft shower sump (shared
by both aft heads) every 3 months or so, seems like my daughter sheds more
hair...
cleaning the sump take a couple of minutes... no big deal.
pascal
miami, fl
70 hatteras 53my
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ralph" ancora@cox.net
To: trawlers-and-trawlering@lists.samurai.com
Sent: Tuesday, January 17, 2006 12:23 PM
Subject: Re: T&T: shower sump
Five years ago I got rid of the shower sump and plumbed the shower water
right into the bilge sump. When showering, the bilge sump fills, the
automatic pump switch turns on and pumps the shower water over the side.
Ralph Salerno
M/V ANCORA
Warm and sunny San Diego
Seems to me that there should be a way of getting rid of shower sumps.
The trouble with a switch activation is it is one more thing for guests
to deal with and needs attention while showering. >
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The thread on shower sumps and float switch failures brings up another
issue.
Why and how do float switches fail?
When mercury was banned as a hazardous substance the manufacturers had
to scramble to find a suitable substitute. Many chose to use a rolling
metal ball and finger contacts inside the traditional float. Sadly the
ultrasonic welded seam seems to have a less than perfect quality track
record because I have seen many such floats fail after a short time.
In most cases the cause was water ingress into the float chamber.
Typical life span was under 24 months.
In many more cases, the fine flexible wires running past the hinged
joint failed, again due to water penetrating the wire insulation and
causing the wire to corrode and fail.
So far the only long term reliable switches I have seen are the style
used by Aqualarm and the electronic models with no moving parts.
The buna float with a small magnet buried inside (Aqualarm) that
triggers a reed switch which in turn operates a relay has the
electrical parts placed well above the normal water level, so corrosion
is not an issue here. The sealed magnet and reed switch cannot foul on
soap, oil or hair etc. The auxiliary relay contacts can handle the high
current and arcing associated with switching an inductive motor load.
I can't speak for the electronic models because I have not seen any in
service long enough. However there are now some that can detect oil in
the bilge water and will not operator and dump oil overboard. That's
good from a pollution prevention perspective but now requires a separate
switch or alarm to let you know the bilge is flooding and has oil in it
as well. Once again a justification for the hourly engine room check.
I'm not impressed with the Rule company Super switch that cycles
frequently and looks for a load to tell if water is present or not.
Seems wasteful of electrical energy and those frequent cycles to switch
an inductive load cannot be good for longevity of any semi conductor.
i.e. - how many thousands of cycles before a random failure develops?
Regards
Arild
elnav@telus.net writes:
The buna float with a small magnet buried inside (Aqualarm) that
triggers a reed switch which in turn operates a relay has the
electrical parts placed well above the normal water level, so corrosion
is not an issue here. The sealed magnet and reed switch cannot foul on
soap, oil or hair etc. The auxiliary relay contacts can handle the high
current and arcing associated with switching an inductive motor load.
Arild,
I thought this too, so on Island Eagle I used one of these switches as the
switch for my high bilge water alarm (a 6" fire bell). Last summer, while I
was making a particularly complicated docking in Brentwood Bay (did I mention
that Island Eagle is 60' and single screw with no bow thruster) the switch
failed... in the "ON" position! Talk about heart-stoping, but I could not
leave the pilothouse to investigate.
I removed it and seems that the reed switch had become stuck. Very strange.
Basically, I think that we need to more or less accept that all float
switches fail.
Scott Welch
FirstClass Product Manager
www.firstclass.com
"The person who makes no mistakes usually doesn't make anything"