Which Witch?

I've been thinking about moving my bilge pump out of the bilge and toward the back of the boat, near the exit under the transom.

Today I experimented a bit: Jabsco diaphragm pump sitting on top the helmsmans seat, with a looooong 3/4" hose to the forward bilge pocket. It had no problem pulling the water up that distance (about 15 feet of horizontal run, plus roughly 6 feet of rise along the way), which is farther and higher than it will have to when installed. It emptied the bilge quite enthusiastically, in fact, so the plan looks... viable.

Given that, my pondering turns to the other pieces. I'm leaning toward a Water Witch switch to activate it, probably coupled with a conveniently-positioned panel to provide off-auto-on control.

But... which Witch?

On the Fisheries site there are about a half-dozen options. Some are designed for dual-circuit use, some have integral alarm buzzers, I don't think I need any of that.

The two I've narrowed it down to are

The 101



...or the 230



Both have a 6-second start delay, and a 14-second shut-off delay, which I want - I want the pump to run long enough to empty the hose when the bilge is empty.

Both are good for at least 15 amps, which I want - my pump nominally draws 11 amps when running, so a 10-amp switch won't cut it.

The 230 says it won't activate on fuel or oil, only water... which sounds good.


Are there differences I should care about? Will either do a better job at keeping the water-level low? Are there factors I should be looking at?

Bruce

Which Water Witch?

Dear friend, My installation is probably similar to yours in terms of hardware. I have about a seven foot rise from the depths of my 42" deep bilge to the diaphragm pump. I have a bronze strainer at the bottom and an in-line fine mesh strainer near the pump. Every once in a while I'll find some foreign object in the screen that could potentially get caught in the diaphragm rendering the purposeless. With that said, It's never failed me since installing that screen well over a decade ago. I find that the Water Which #101 serves me well and the way I have it wired, allows me to manually operate it should I need to. Best of luck, I think you are going in the right direction, Glyn Judson, E31 hull #55, Marina del Rey CA

I had the 3 wire that served me very well until the boat next to us got struck by lightning. I had mine wired to the 2nd battery bank hot and the other wire wired to the pump switch on the power panel. I replaced the switch this year with a manual float switch and will be replacing that crap next spring when I purchase another Water witch.
my setup with the pump, reach and height are about the same, I also suggest a bronze end cap and an inline strainer and don’t forget a loop after the pump.

Had the second one in the photo

Thanks, all

I called Water Witch yesterday and talked to their technical guy (Tony, 619-606-0548).

He said the main difference between the 101 and the 230 is the load. 101 is good for up to 15a, 230 is good for up to 20a. So for my pump (11a nominal), either will be fine.

He said from a design perspective they're effectively identical. On the 101 the "button" is the sensor; on the 230 the bottom button is the sensor, the other button is a ground for testing. Beyond that, he said, the tiebreaker is often that the 101 (being smaller) is easier to install, or that the 230 has a delay built in on both stop and start (I had thought I read that the 101 had the delays, too, but Tony said that a small amount of water sloshing in the bilge will cause the 101 to start the pump, where the 230 will ignore that until it senses water for 6 seconds)

Bruce