Re: [Paddlewise] Electric bilge pumps

From: Christy and Ray Wagner <traildog_at_direcway.com>
Date: Sun, 17 Aug 2003 15:43:43 -0500
[Moderator's Note: Content unaltered. Excessive quoting (i.e.  headers/footers/sig lines/extraneous text from previous posts, etc.) have been removed. Please edit quoted material in addition to removing header/trailers when replying to posts.]

Please note that this comes from the viewpoint of an EE, not someone who 
has any experience with electric pumps in kayaks...

Why not use a largish push-button switch and surface mount it under the 
deck so that it can be kicked on and off with your knee?    Or maybe 
forward far enough to use a foot but the knee seems easier to me.  You 
wouldn't have to breach the hull at all and the worst danger would be 
inadvertently turning it on if you go over and flail around a bit.  You 
wouldn't want to leave sharp edges or anything but I would think a suitable 
enclosure wouldn't be hard to find...maybe something like this:
http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&User_ID=15188470&St=6245&St2=60427407&St3=-41513928&DS_ID=3&Product_ID=9615&DID=7
(sorry if the long link doesn't come through)
One part could be mounted and the lid easily sealed and everything stays 
belowdeck.

Just a thought.
Ray

At 05:42 PM 8/15/03 -0500, Keith Wrage wrote:
>How are you handling the power switch for your set up?  Seems that ideally 
>you'd be able to switch this OFF with your skirt fully attached, 
>right?  So the switch needs to be accessible or operable in this 
>situation.  I'm guessing that the switch is a common failure point.  My 
>own thought was to have the battery pack in a semi-flexible container 
>(like a wide mouth poly Nalgene bottle) - with a push-button switch 
>mounted inside - squeeze the bottle to operate the switch.  But....this 
>requires your skirt to be removed (at least partially) so doesn't appear 
>to be the answer.

***************************************************************************
PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed
here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire
responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author.
Submissions:     PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net
Subscriptions:   PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net
Website:         http://www.paddlewise.net/
***************************************************************************
Received on Mon Aug 18 2003 - 07:45:29 PDT

This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:31:09 PDT