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Yet another problem
we experienced on Ava T. (see main story) was a sticky bilge-pump
float switch. It caused the house battery to run down the night before
our departure and added to our underway anxieties, as we had to leave
the pump off “automatic” for fear of burning out its motor.
A solution would be a no-moving-parts control like this SensaSwitch, which
may never need to be replaced, let alone cleared of flotsam. It contains
a pair of fully sealed solid-state Mirus “field-effect” cells
that can detect water while only drawing a few microamps. The top cell
turns the pump on at two inches, the bottom turns it off at 3/4-inch.
You can test it by holding a finger to each cell, but I added water repeatedly,
with impressively consistent results. A SensaSwitch able to handle a 20-amp,
12-volt pump costs about $35. Material Sciences is also using Mirus technology
in low-maintenance tank-monitoring systems (though sadly not for fuel
and long-life cockpit switches).
Material Sciences
Phone: (847) 718-8082. www.msc-emd.com.
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