Sea Kayaks Techniques Bulletin Board

High Volume Pumps

Posted By: Brianne Corbett
Date: Monday, 25 November 2002, at 7:09 p.m.

In Response To: Re: Kayak Pump (Ian Johnston)

: Why worry about the weight of the pump? The real weight is in the battery and
: the only way to reduce that is to get a smaller one. A smaller battery
: generally means less capacity which isn't always good for a safety device.

: I have two electric pumps, one built into my Arluk III and one in a pelican
: case that I can transfer between boats. One is an Atwood 500 the other an
: Atwood 750. Both use a gel cell battery with sufficient capacity to run
: continuously for 5 hours.

Ian...

I think you are right about safety so I use an even higher capacity pump with a 1 1/8" output pipe vs 3/4". I use a 3.4 amp hour SLA battery which is sufficient to drive the 1250 GPH Attwood for well over an hour (2.8 amp draw). The nice thing is that I can evacuate 30 gallons in less than 2 minutes... actually in about 1 3/4 minutes. The Attwood 625 would take at least 3.5-4.0 minutes to evacuate the same volume.

The weight of the battery need not be a problem at all. Just think 3-2-1. A 3 amp hour(AH) battery weighs about 3 pounds... a 2 AH battery weighs about 2 lbs. and a 1 AH battery is about one pound. The 1 AH battery will measure about 4" x 2" x 2". It is very small and light. A 1 amp battery will drive the 1250 GPH pump for over 20 minutes. That is equal to ten 30 gallon evacuations... more than enough to handle almost any real-life scenario. Indeed, if you dump some of the water, you may well double the number by reducing the volume of water that needs to be pumped.

The Attwood 1250 is so light that, if you have the space for it, it made no sense to me to power down to a smaller pump. The foot pumps I have seen actually weigh more than the entire electric pump system. So what gain? None that I can see. No weight advantage... lower flow rate... lower reliability... hard to fix or replace... hard to install.

My vote is for a high capacity pump, big bore pipe, with a modest battery... a great balance of power and performance.

Safe Paddling!
Brianne

Messages In This Thread

Kayak Pump
Petewp -- Sunday, 24 November 2002, at 8:38 a.m.

Re: Kayak Pump
Brianne Corbett -- Sunday, 24 November 2002, at 6:00 p.m.

Re: Kayak Pump
coronaboy1 -- Tuesday, 26 November 2002, at 11:54 a.m.

Re: Kayak Pump
Bert -- Sunday, 24 November 2002, at 8:28 p.m.

Re: Kayak Pump
Bert -- Sunday, 24 November 2002, at 8:38 p.m.

Re: Kayak Pump
Robert Woodard -- Sunday, 24 November 2002, at 9:05 p.m.

Re: Kayak Pump
Ed Falis -- Sunday, 24 November 2002, at 10:38 p.m.

Re: Kayak Pump
Rick Allnutt -- Sunday, 24 November 2002, at 11:19 p.m.

Gusher or Guzzler
Brian Nystrom -- Monday, 25 November 2002, at 1:11 p.m.

Re: Gusher or Guzzler
Robert Woodard -- Monday, 25 November 2002, at 9:39 p.m.

Re: Gusher or Guzzler *LINK*
Ed Deery -- Tuesday, 26 November 2002, at 10:36 p.m.

Re: Kayak Pump
Ian Johnston -- Monday, 25 November 2002, at 3:34 a.m.

High Volume Pumps
Brianne Corbett -- Monday, 25 November 2002, at 7:09 p.m.

Re: High Volume Pumps
Robert Woodard -- Monday, 25 November 2002, at 9:53 p.m.

Priming and impellers
Brianne Corbett -- Tuesday, 26 November 2002, at 8:04 p.m.

Re: High Volume Pumps
Ian Johnston -- Monday, 25 November 2002, at 9:53 p.m.

Current Draw 500 vs. 625
Rick Allnutt -- Tuesday, 26 November 2002, at 8:27 a.m.

Re: Current Draw 500 vs. 625
Brianne Corbett -- Tuesday, 26 November 2002, at 7:36 p.m.

Re: Current Draw 500 vs. 625
Ian Johnston -- Tuesday, 26 November 2002, at 9:54 p.m.

Re: Current Draw 500 vs. 625
Ian Johnston -- Tuesday, 26 November 2002, at 9:58 p.m.

Re: Kayak Pump
Paul -- Tuesday, 26 November 2002, at 9:41 a.m.

You beat me to it!
Brian Nystrom -- Tuesday, 26 November 2002, at 12:16 p.m.

Re: You beat me to it!
Paul -- Tuesday, 26 November 2002, at 9:18 p.m.

Re: You beat me to it!
Brian Nystrom -- Wednesday, 27 November 2002, at 12:15 p.m.

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