newbie bilge question

[in2gpn]

Hopefully someone can help me out, I've got a new to me 2000 Super Air and the 2 bilge pumps seem to be working. I can hear the pumps turn on and off for the self check and I can turn the switch on to manually pump but it seems like they wont pump by themselves when the hull has a quite a bit of water in it.
thoughts?

[37tr3n5k]

Reach down and see if the floats are stuck in the off position. If they don't turn on when you slide the float up and down, you might have a bad switch, Id look at the brand and then look on Youtube for info. Im sure someone there has made a video on how to fix that particular brand.

[in2gpn]

Thank you sir , I’ll check that out for sure

[jpwhit]

There are 2 different approaches to bilge pumps detecting water in the bilge. The older method is a float switch. The newer pumps don't use float switches. They turn on every few minutes for a few seconds. If there is water in the hull, the electronics in the pump can tell because the pump draws a lot more current if it's actually pumping water. Pump makers moved to this latter approach because float switches tend to get gummed up over time.

I think you have the latter because you mentioned "self check". What you are likely hearing as the "self check" is the few seconds of running to check if there is water in the bilge. When that happens, and there is water, is the pump picking up any water and sending it out the hull fitting as a steady stream. If it is, and it's not staying on until it's no longer pumping water. Then there is a problem with the current sensor in the pump and it'll need to be replaced. If it's not coming out as a steady stream, then the input grate to the pump may be clogged up such that the pump isn't picking up water quickly enough for the electronics to sense there is water in the bilge.

[in2gpn]

Thank you sir, definitely will check all
of those this evening

[37tr3n5k]

For what its worth, I had a "stuck" bilge pump in my old boat. There was a piece of plastic that had been sucked up by the pump and was clogging the discharge port on the side of the hull. You can snake a piece of 12G wire down the hose the from the outside with water in the hull and the pump working and see if you can dislodge anything. Just one more thought.

[in2gpn]

So just to check for myself, I filled the hill with water on the trailer to about half way up the pump, only pumps when the dash pad button is pushed . So I take it the float switch is NFG

[Ryan747400]

It sounds to me like they are working as they should. The dash button needs to be in the on position for the pumps to operate, but they should only turn on if there is water. Try turning the button on and then filling the hull to see when it kicks on.