With the very able help from listee Rodger Wrona, had one of these (Model 20090) installed in my least accessible bilge to replace a worn out Rule which in turn had burned out a Rule pump. Rodger rightly looked askance at this product from the get-go; here I was thinking I had a premium product. For one thing, this is only set up to be mounted to a bulkhead or stringer, none being readily available, Rodger cannibalize a bracket from an Ultra he had around (wrong voltage for me, so my next purchase). Well the gist of this rant is the darn thing won't turn all the way off. Once the bilge is drained it rapidly switches on off three beats at a time. This will mean bye bye bilge pump before long, not to mention it is right under the Wife's pillow... So I beseech Aqualarm for help. The answer I get is that the "sensitivity cannot be adjusted. Can you mount it higher so that it won't cycle as much?" To which I reply," how will that change anything...it doesn't know how deep the water is below it does it? Won't it do the same GD thing only with a higher amount of bilge water below it?" To which they have no answer. So now I gotta manually drain this bilge religiously (at least until the rudder packing is re-done, they are tightened as far as they can go) until I can get somewhere up the road and replace it Had to head on out of Brunswick, and of course it is the weekend regardless. Are Rodger and I missing something or is this (and Aqualarm Inc) the piece of ----- I think it is? I was going to spring for their water flow sensors, but can't take that risk after this experience Please someone tell us we are missing somethng! The vendor already has assigned us kite flying duties. George Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

ghechtman@aol.com writes: >Are Rodger and I missing something or is this (and Aqualarm Inc) the piece >ofe ----- I think it is? I was going to spring for their water flow sensors, >obut can't take that risk after this experience >Please someone tell us we are missing somethng! The vendor already has >assign ed us kite flying duties. My two cents: one of the first things I installed on Island Eagle (she's wooden) was a high bilge water alarm with a big, loud red firebell. I used an Aqualarm switch (not a knockoff) because they claimed a lifetime warranty. I mounted the switch about 2 inches higher than the one for the primary bilge pump. About 2 years later, on one of my first trips (it was a long refit) I had to dock the boat on a particularly tough location -- backing down a narrow channel the slipping into the berth. With 60 feet, a single screw and no thruster, this was, ummm, "exciting". I was pretty keyed-up. I had just tied up at the dock when the high water alarm went off with no warning at all. I just about pooped my pants. Of course there were about 20 people standing around around watching. I tore down to the ER and discovered that through a series of unrelated events both the primary and secondary bilge pumps had failed. I got them going within a minute, but the alarm did not go off when the water went down! It seems that the alarm switch had failed in the "on" position. No matter what I did I could not get the alarm to go off. Finally, I pulled the fuse and mercifully it went quiet. I later removed the offending switch and found that nothing I could do would make it turn off. Lessons learned: 1) Do not use the Aqualarm switches. First, they can and will fail. However, the worse problem is that they are sealed and therefor very hard to test. I now use regular float switches, and one of my normal inspection points is to reach down into the bilge and lift each one up and make sure that the pump (or alarm) goes on as expected. I keep a wooden yardstick with a pin on the end so I don't even need to put my arm down in the bilge. 2) Install a bilge pump monitor at the helm. I can now see which pumps run and when, and there is a built-in alarm if the pump runs for more then the specified time. I used this one from BEP: http://tinyurl.com/4rtdmh 3) Install a cut-off switch on all alarms. It's bad enough trying to fix a problem in a rush, having a 100 db alarm bell in your ears does not help your concentration. 4) Install bilge pump counters so you know how often your bilge pumps run. 5) Put manual override switches on all bilge pumps so you can both turn them off if the switch fails "on" and turn them on if the switch fails "off". Scott Welch FirstClass Product Manager www.firstclass.com Those who make no mistakes rarely make anything.