Thanks for confirming what I thought. I also have a manual/automatic switch with a fuse holder in the head. Time to run some new wire. Al Frakes Port Kent, NY
Interesting thread. I had naively thought that my boat was wired "same as" other 80's Ericson's. Maybe not, but then prior owners of many of the boats in question could have made changes.
Ours came with two Rule switch panels, one in the head and the other mounted adjacent to the breaker panel by the nav table. AFAIK this work is from the factory, and the first owner did nothing additional to the boat. Both panels are fed by individual Rule "float switch" wiring from two different sections of the bilge, as well. (Now, if the Rule float switches were only more reliable.......... )
I will append a little pix of the Rule switch plate, found on the 'net.
Our switch by the breaker panel controls the pump with the intake in the center portion of the bilge, and that's where its float switch is as well. The Rule switch in the head was for the shower but is a bit of a misnomer given that the sump grate in the head drains to the bilge area in front of the engine, and the float switch and pick-up for this is forward by one transverse floor frame, i.e. any shower sump water would have to work its way forward several feet and then accumulate enough water to raise that particular float...
The result would be about an inch of water in the whole bilge, soap scum and all. Ick.
So, we shower in marinas or out in the cockpit.
What the factory did was provide the means to advertise that the head compartment incorporated a Shower. They never really worked out a good way to handle the waste water from it, IMHO.
Someday, when I get "a round tuit" I plan on plumbing a drain hose into the shower pan drain outlet and Y-valving that into the intake for that extra pump. Then one could take a shower and just operate the switch whenever the water was deep enough to pool around one's toes! And the other 99% of the time that particular pump (a spendy Par-Jabsco chamber pump) could continue to act as the co-bilge-pump with its identical mate.
Having ranted a wee bit about this part of the plumbing, I must also admit that finding a boat built with not one, but
two, $200. bilge pumps right from the factory was way cool, compared to most all of the "production boats" we had looked at when we were boat shopping. I seem to recall that the E-32-200 that we did not buy may have had the same bilge pumping system.
And then, both boats came stock with a high-capacity manual pump operated from the helm position, just like the category one offshore requirements call for.
Loren
