I was getting my boat ready for winter, so I ran out most of my gasoline that had ethanol in it so I could fill up with ethanol free gas.  When I pulled my boat out of the water, I opened the drain plug and water ran out of it, a lot of water.  Thinking I just didn't put the plug in securely, I went back the next day to finish running out the old gas.  I made sure the plug was in tight and ran the motor for about 30 minutes.  When I pulled out again, more water ran out.  This was unusual because I have had my boat for over 6 years and never had more than a tablespoon of water run out.  When I got home, I ran water into the boat with a hose and watched for leaks.  The pump for the livewell had water running out around the nut on the outside of the boat.  I removed the drain and decided to make things go a little faster, turned the bilge pump on.  Nothing.  I began checking the line and the spout going from the pump had broken off.  Now, if I hadn't had the bad leak and while checking it out found the bilge pump wasn't working it could have had disasterous results.  I don't have any idea how long the pump had been broken, but you can bet I will check it throughout the year from now on.

That's a good point goinfshn. I have a bilge pump that may be used twice a year if I leave the boat in the lake and there is heavy rainfall. Otherwise, no need to use it as the boat doesn't leak. However, my starter battery weakened and I had to jump off my trolling motor battery to start the big motor (90hp Evenrude). Puzzled by this because the starter battery was less than 1 yr old, I searched for reasons that the battery was being drained. It was then that I realized that the bilge pump wasn't working either. I pulled it out and tried it again on a healthy battery, and still nothing. I think the bilge pump may have been constantly sucking power from the starter battery and in turn burnt out the pump motor. Not certain that was the cause, but as goinfshn says - check it from now on!

Had a similar situation with my old boat. Somehow the bilge switch was left on and burned out the bilge motor. This caused a dead short and kept draining the battery. I couldn't figure out where the drain was coming from, so I installed a 50 Amp marine-rated rotary switch to make sure that there was no draw on the battery. After pulling the boat out of the water, I could turn the switch to off, and it broke the ground circuit, so there was no chance of draining the battery. The switch cost a few dollars, but after never having a dead battery again, it was well worth the price. My new boat came with a breaker for the 24 volt trolling motor batteries and a pretty cool switch for the cranking battery. You push a button on it and it kills all of the accessories, but the motor starter and tilt/trim circuit is still live. Works nice in case I forget to turn off one of the fish finders, radio, livewell, etc.

A bilge pump should always be wired to power all the time. If there is a disconnect, sure as shootin' you will turn it off one time while the boat is in the water overnight and it will rain cats and dogs! Tom

I have two bilge pumps on my boat, one auto and one manual. The auto one will only come on if I forget to put the plug in which I have done or if I get a lot of rain while on the water. The manual one I check each time I'm on the water just incase the auto one fails. Another good thing to do is check the area around the pump and make sure there isn't any old line, baits or other foregin objects that could jam the pump and keep it from operating. And like mcopeland said never run them witout water.

Harry

One year while checking out my boat in the spring, I filled the bilge with water and turned on the pump. It pumped, but nothing near as much as it should have. It turned out that the problem was the crimp connections for the bilge power were laying in the bottom of the bilge and in the water. This caused a resistance short through the water and reduced the voltage to the pump. The fix was to tie the connections up high to keep them dry. Has worked fine ever since, except when the squirrels chewed through the discharge tube a few years ago. And that's another story.

After 39 years as an auto mechanic specializing in electrical work I can tell you that crimp connectors are great for an emergency repair. Nothing more. Even without the presence of water crimp connectors can corrode and develop high resistance leading to poor performance or even burn out of eletrical components. Take the time to solder and shrink tube those connections, you won't regret the time spent! Tom

The new Rule pumps have a clip-on filter screen, making cleaning easy. Once a year soak it in CLR or some other cleaner to eat up whatever clogs it. Check the impeller while doing that, remove fishing line and sticks that can slow or stop it from pumping.

One of the biggest problems lakeside is removing an original pump for maintenance. The wiring is often too short, requiring wire cutting and of course re-wiring. I carry some wire end caps filled with resin, totally waterproof and re-usable. I got them at a local marine supply store. The kit included some crimps that clamp on first, then that's screwed into the end cap. All my electrical connectors that are likely to get soaked have those now.

I mounted a backup Rule 2000 GPH automatic bilge pump about 6" above the main Rule 500 GPH pump. That required a new larger discharge hose and vent. I did that after witnessing untold numbers of boats moored at campsites getting filled from storm water and lots of other causes of flooding a boat, like being swamped by another boat, spearing into a huge wave, or leaving the drain plug out. Once every boat moored at a large campground sank overnight from suspected teenagers removing the plugs. BTW, the constant current drain killed their main battery.

Tom - point taken on an keeping power to an automatic bilge pump. However I should have been more specific about my old boat and the type of fishing I do. My old boat had only one bilge, which was a manual version. The reason that I needed it was I forgot to put in the drain plug and was taking on water about a 1/2 mile from the launch. Once I realized the pump wasn't working and motored back to the launch, I had 10 billion gallons of water in the boat and could hardly get it winched up onto the trailer. When I got home the fun began on replacing the bilge. Because it was hidden on the very bottom in the rear of the hull, I needed to remove the entire rear deck. After a few hours of swearing, getting fiberglass cuts up and down my arms, and cramps in both shoulders from contorting them, I decided that a rotary kill switch was getting installed. My boat came out of the water every day, so it really didn't matter if the bilge had power to it or not, I knew that it was never going to be replaced again because the switch was left on. I'm not sure about what type(s) of bilge(s) are on my new Ranger. It came with the accessory kill switch and the dealer told me to push the button to kill everything when I'm done for the day. If the boat has an automatic bilge, it may continue to be powered even with the accessories killed.

On another note, I work as an engineer in the transformer and voltage regulator industry. We use these really cool clear shrink tube fittings with solder molded right into them. They work awesome for butt splices and we install them inside our transformer tanks to make sure that corrosion is not an issue. You slide the tube fitting over one wire, bare both wires and twist together, slide the shrink tube over the splice and heat. The shrink tube closes up first to hold the wires together, then the solder melts and seals everything up tight. I've never seen them in auto parts stores, but I'm sure they would be available if you ask for them. The solder melts at a lower temperature than tinning solder, so you can use a hot air gun instead of a torch. Much safer on the wires because they will not burn the insulation like can happen with a butane torch.

I have seen those solder filled splices but have never found a reliable source for them. A connection does not have to be immersed to develop corrosion as I'm sure many of you are aware. Tom

There are many suppliers with web stores. Here's one like mentioned complete with installation instructions. Click Here You will need a kit of different sizes so you can match connector to wire diameter. They are fine for marine use, waterproof. However, since I remove my pumps at least once a year for cleaning (boat stays outdoors), I would have to clip the wires each time, or leave the wires plenty long enough to treat the pump on the boat deck. That might be OK in another year or two, but not while the boat iss still looking good.