Thinking about installing a second bilge pump on my 18’ CC. Is anybody doing this for a smaller boat, or is this just too much redundancy? Also, I have my bilge pump wired into my console cluster right now, but am thinking about direct wiring it to my battery. I am running a two battery system, so I guess I would have to have the Perko switch in the “all” position at all times to ensure that the pumps were hot. I would appreciate any thoughts.
Sammie
Never a bad idea to add a second one if you can’t easily get a 5-gallon bucket inside the bilge of your boat. We all know a 5-gallon bucket is the best, most reliable back-up bilge pump ever made!
My 1100 gph back-up pump is mounted about 3" higher than my 1100 gph automatic. I have a push/pull switch by the battery storage and is wired directly to the battery.
Why not wire the second pump with 15" of wire and a pair of battery clips, add enough hose to reach anywhere and you can just drop it in a hole and clip it to the battery…i tell my six pak students to do this…now you an emergency pump…its portable and you can drop it in any boat that may be having a problem…
Mike Crouch
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so I guess I would have to have the Perko switch in the “all” position at all times to ensure that the pumps were hot.
Mike’s idea is probably best if you don’t want to do a complete install. Running in ‘all’ is the best way I know to end up with no battery power whatever … 
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Great idea what Mike said,in my 17’ Seahunt the battery is a little hard to get to in a fast situation so I wired a lighter plug to a pump and can plug it into a portable jump starter which I carry anyway for emergencies. I also use it in my duracraft to run water out in shrimp bait season.
You can’t catch fish on a dry line
never a bad idea to have a back-up no matter how you hook it up. maybe hard-wire a second one like you were thinking and get ANOTHER pump with alligator clips as a second back up. Then get 2 five gallon buckets just in-case your 3 pumps fail and one bucket gets dropped in the water while trying to bail water. Cant ever be to safety oriented on the water.
23’ May-Craft Pilothouse
175 Ocean Runner
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I like Mike’s idea of the clips and jump wires attached to a back up pump. I also liked Loosewire’s idea of hard wiring a back up with a switch located close by in the event it is needed.
I’ll report back when I have re-tooled everything. Thanks for all the suggestions.
Sammie
I have a spare bilge pump like Mike is referring to and have more uses for it than the ones in my boat. They may cut on once a trip. That little pump I carry everywhere.
I have a portable pump just as described…
It can go into any boat or any place needed. Have a backup manual pump also.
Redundancy is never a bad idea on a boat.
You should also wire a bilge pump directly to a battery. If you’ve got both pumps wired to a perko switch what happens when your switch goes bad?
Having the one you can alligator clip to a battery helps get around a bad perko switch, however.
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