I agree with Larry, if you really must turn it off, pull the fuse.
That will make you think about it and is less likely to be done by
accident.

The best place for an over ride switch is in the bilge where you can
see what's going on. The best switch for that environment is a second
float switch in series as back up before water reaches the stuff you
really don't want to get wet. Just pick up the switch.

Did you see my obsessive pump threads? If not, check this out:

http://home.maine.rr.com/rlma/Bilge.htm

This system is designed around some peculiarities of the boat we just
bought but does have some advantages:

* High capacity
* Complete dual redundancy
* Equal battery drain
* Protection against slosh "chirping" without having to put cofferdams
with small drains that might clog around the switches .
* Large activation range so long, large diameter hoses won't cause an
endless backflow cycle.

There is an over ride switch. With this system though, I am just
going to wire it to the existing panel switch. It just gets blipped
on and off and could be replaced with a pushbutton (which I will do if
I can find one to fit the panel). If the lower switch is activated,
the system will then automatically pump to the bottom. If the bilge
is empty, nothing will happen. This will not bypass a failed float
switch so I wouldn't set it up this way on a single pump system. But I
have two completely separate systems so it is unlikely that both
switches will fail at the same time. If I only had one pump, I would
ignore the panel switch and wire in another float switch as suggested
above.

As you will see, I actually have three pumps when I need them plus a
manual pump. If I had a solid stuffing box, I wouldn't bother with
all this on a glass boat but ours floats on a hard to replace hose
like many sailboats with short shafts and flexible motor mounts.

--

Roger Long




"Kalico" wrote in message
...
We have a new float switch in the bilge that pumps out when
activated
at a certain level.

There is also a switch on the panel.

Previously, the switch on the panel supplied power to the bilge pump
switch, so that if the panel switch was off the pump would not run,
no
matter what level the float switch. ie. they were in series.

The new float switch has been fitted in parallel to the panel
switch.
Now, the pump will run when either the panel switch OR the float
switch is on. Before, they both had to be on.

What is everyone's thoughts about the best format? Series or
parallel?

It was useful before to be able to switch off the pump when in a
marina etc. Now, even if the panel switch is off, the float switch
can run the pump and there is no way to turn off.

Equally, a parallel arrangement allows the pump to run even if the
switch has been turned off, although I cannot see why one would want
to run it manually - the float switch should already have kicked in.

Hope I've made it clear enough.

Thanks
Rob


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