Rule bilge pump low pressure..advice please

[flipdoc]

I have a Rule 20, 800gph bilge pump that until recently worked just fine. One year old. However, I have just noticed that it now appears to not be working. However, when I disconnected it from the outflow hose, it was working but not building much of a head of pressure. (I have connected a water hose to the outflow hose to check patency, and all is well there.)

No blockages in the pump were found.

Wiring all looks intact, but could a "current leak" cause low pump operating pressure? I am reluctant to tear down the waterproof shrinkwrap on the connections if this is not a possibility.

Thanks

[mitiempo]

Tearing the connections apart is the only way to check voltage at the pump. But you could check voltage at the source and at any connections between there and the pump. Maybe a wire was chafed or pinched somewhere. If you have access inspect the wire all the way to the pump. If that is ok and the voltage at the source is good (12.7 on a charged battery) maybe the pump motor is in bad shape.

[flipdoc]

Thanks for the reply. Here's what I did. I checked the voltage coming fronm the switch and it was only 6V. Then I found that the voltage TO the switch was only 6V. So clearly there was a supply problem. I checked the house batteries and found that they were both only producing 6V. They were dry!

Lesson there: Do the easy battery check first in future.

So I have topped them up and we will see tomorrow if they are still functioning. I suspect they need replacing (sigh). Meanwhile, I disconnected the pump and reconnected it temporarily to the cranking battery and it works just fine!

[mitiempo]

Glad you found the problem.

I agree the batteries will need replacing.

[jrd22]

Glad you found the problem so easily, sorry about your batteries:-((
Checking input voltage is usually the first thing to do when trying to diagnose a problem, good job!