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Can somebody explain to me the reasoning behind this? Why not just have the bilge wired always on with the batteries, and a simple 2 way ignition on/off toggle? If the boat is in the water, the bilge should always be on. If it's on the trailer, the battery selector switch should be turned off anyhow, so what's the point. I'm asking because I'm trying to diagnose an intermittent problem with the boat losing electrical power momentarily and dying, so I'm trying to rule out this switch. I plan to wire it straight through anyhow and see if the problem is solved, then replace the switch if necessary.
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You're dealing with religion here. I also feel the switch is just a plain bad idea and made a post here about it earlier this summer. It's about a 50/50 split on those who like it and those who don't. -
There are times when I don't want the bilge on. Like when I am sitting in the boat up out of the water in the lift, just wiping down inside of boat. Don't need bilge running. You can argue who cares not a big deal for them to run every 3 minutes. Or you can say if they had a float then they would not be on anyway. But your comment about battery switch should be off on the trailer is probably not true of a whole lot of people that want to listen to the radio while on trailer.Comment
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Either way, the bilge is on. It's Off, All On (including bilge) or Only Bilge on. The system makes no sense to me. Why does it even need to exist?Comment
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I am unsure on that last one comment. I wondered that too. But if you are in "all on". Then you can go to keypad and turn off bilge. You will see - i think - that when you first turn to all on it turns bilge light on. But you can turn it off with keypad. I think 'all on' means that key pad is active, not that everything is on.Comment
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The switch probably had more validity before the days of the keypad and soft functions.
I believe/understand....that: At one point in the life of the most recent keypads, the pads originally shipped with software that had the bilge OFF upon power up/successful code entry. At some point, they changed the software so that the bilge comes on by default upon power up/successful code entry.Originally posted by scottb7 View Post
My 2006 came with the old pad software and my bilge did not come on at startup. I had to replace the pad late in 2007, ...and the replacement pad defaulted to bilge on.
PS - one doesn't need to know the security code to flip the bilge switch to "bilge only."Comment
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"Either way, the bilge is on. It's Off, All On (including bilge) or Only Bilge on. The system makes no sense to me. Why does it even need to exist? "
Because there are times you want the bilge only on, like when the boat is moored. Having everything on drains the battery faster.Comment
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It still makes no sense. You turn the keypad off if you want it off. The bilge switch in the Toggle switch, if wired straight through (no switch option, just on), just replicates the existing wiring through the keypad. If the bilge is wired through, it is always active, unless you shut it off at the keypad. The keypad is hot when you push start once, it is dead when you push stop twice. If you want it all dead, turn the battery switch. The 3 position toggle switch serves no purpose, it only replicates what is already existing in the system.Comment
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When the toggle switch is in the bilge only position, only the bilge pump is on.
Even when the keypad, and switchbox is "OFF", it still draws some current. If it did not, it would not know you pushed a button on it.
Not every boat has a battery switch.Comment
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Why doesn't it make sense to you? The keypad replicates an ignition switch. So if left on, it would be like leaving your keys in the ignition all the time. Would you do that?Originally posted by sfjakey View Post
It's a failsafe so that if your boat is moored you can have only the bilge active without having worry that anything else (ignition, radio, etc) could be activated. Pretty cool feature IMO.2002 Ski Nautique 5.7 GM ApexComment
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It makes no sense on a boat with a battery switch. Battery on, bilge is on. Battery off, bilge and ignition off. Battery on, press stop twice, ignition dead and bilge is on. Yes, I do leave the keys to all my boats in the ignition, but I turn it off just like the keypad stop 2x. That way the keys don't get lost. Anybody can steal a boat simply, keys don't prevent that. If you are boating in a place where you are worried about theft from your dock, well..... The logical way to wire the boat is battery on, bilge on, switch to override on the dash. Ignition is controlled by keypad when powered by battery switch. The toggle is redundant, and a weak link in the wiring.
Since 2007, when my boat was new, I have never turned the toggle switch off or to bilge, simply used the keypad and the battery switch. Now the toggle has become a intermittent power failure, and caused problems, so I am going to remove it entirely. I have left the boat in the water for up to a week with the battery on, using the ignition start/stop for power on/off and never had a dead battery. In fact, I'm still on the original batteries 6 years later and they are strong.
In my 1996 SN, I had an ignition power button on the dash which served this purpose because the boat did not have a battery switch. On that boat, I understand the need.Comment
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I think we are going in circles at this point. "battery on, bilge on". There are many times that I am in boat or trailer that I want battery switch on and bilge not on. These particular pumps cycle every 3 minutes or so. If they had a float then I guess with battery on they would not cycle (and not draw power) so then I would see your point. I do agree the switch is a weak link. Jeez, nobody on this site can deny that because the switch goes out lots. However, in bilge only position the keypad is not active and there is a lot less risk of parasitic battery draw.
Someone said it is a pretty neat feature. And I would kind of agree but just like a pump with a bad float there is still risk (and it happened to me) that the fully automatic pump does not work right and runs with out stopping. My point being that just putting switch in bilge only position is guarantee that something bad does not happen.Comment
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I personally like the toggle switch. It makes perfect sense to me. I just bought my '02 196 2 weeks ago and have only had it on the water twice, so I'm still learning its differences from my previous 4 CC's. This one is the newest, and the first to have the toggle. I thought it was a good feature. What battery switch are you referring to? I assume your boat has dual batteries, so a Perko? Mine has only a single batt so the switch makes sense.
So I will also assume that the toggle switch basically operates like the old push-pin breakers on the dash. It would be just like leaving the ignition breaker pushed in, no? In that event the only thing that should be draining power is your clock which could ideally run all season just fine and no drain on battery. But you'd still have to have the auto-bilge breaker activated too if you left your boat in the water for extended periods. So the toggle switch is just a different means to accomplish the same thing since the keypad eliminated all the old style breakers.
How many times have you had to replace the toggle switch? If it is a weak link in your boat, why not just upgrade it? Seems like a pretty petty thing to get all fired up about.2002 Ski Nautique 5.7 GM ApexComment
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This discussion is ridiculous.
I upgraded my switch: http://www.elecdirect.com/product.aspx?id=12484
And added this boot to keep the water out: http://www.elecdirect.com/product.aspx?id=12484Comment
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I actually went to west marine and bought a sealed on-off-on switch. Now I have to figure out the 4 wires on the existing switch.Comment
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