20 Best Bilge Pump For Boat (2023 Updated)

I made my trip to Lake Erie and got to the hotel. I started checking everything out on the boat. Realized one of the batteries was dead. Knowing I charged both before leaving home fir the trip. Charged the battery and found that the Shoreline Marine pump had been running and ran down my battery.

Still made for a good trip and several walleye. Came home and checked the problem out and found a piece of foam there that had gotten under the float switch that caused the pump to run continuously on our road trip there.

The foam would come out and then get caught in Under the switch again. So I removed the foam that had come from the boat floatation foam that we took out while putting in rod holders in the boat gunnel.

Missed apiece I suppose when cleaning up the mess. Problem solved I removed the float switch and placed it in a better location and now replacing the bilge pump with another new one. Just for safety sake on Lake Erie.

The pump that ran the battery down still works. So I am gonna put alligator clips on it to serve as an emergency pump.

upgraded to v-1250 bilge pump over a manual hand pump to dewater my boat while in the drive way after large rainfalls(also added a float switch and manual/auto switch with breaker). it works well but if you get swamped bad you might want a larger one/or multiple to get the water out quicker.

The V-600 bilge pump appears to be well made. In a fraction of a second the pump was primed and pumping water at a high rate. Overall please with the quality of this pump and the price.

Used this pump to replace a Rule 2000 that was 15 years old. Would not pump straight out of the box due to what I felt was a prime problem. It definitely does not pump as much as the rule did. If I ran the pump then used my manual pump to suck the last bit out and the bilge filled up over time with water, this pump would come on but not pump.

Scary knowing that when you are away from your vessel, this thing would not protect you from a leak.

Bought this Johnson 2200 pump that is identical to the original Johnson 2200 gph that came on my 2004 boat just to have as a back up in case mine ever goes bad. My original Johnson is over 16 yrs old and still works perfectly but it cant last forever ?.

When my original bilge pump went out about 10 years ago I replaced it with a mayfair because of the quick and easy removal. Getting down in the bilge area and putting new holes in the floor of my boat is not something I ever wanted to do again.

My mayfair finally died this year, it froze up I expect from extended salt water use last year and doing 0 maintenance to it. I couldn’t find a mayfair replacement at my local stores so I went here to find another mayfair replacement.

To my surprise the new pump is not a direct housing swap for the old pump so I’ll have to pull up the old hardware and likely put new holes in my floor again. My old pump is great but make sure if you are doing a replacement that the hardware matches.

So far so good. Installs easy. Well built

other than being a different color, it fit the old footprint, arrived quickly, and works great. Thanks for the service. Fish on.

I installed and tested the pump and it works perfectly. The automatic float switch kicks on the pump just like it supposed to. I bought one for my other boat in the past and never had a problem with it yet.

Its a very good product.

I live on a lake and keep my boat in the water during the summer. In the past I have used a bilge with a separate float switch and this was a lot easier to install. Shortly after installing we had some heavy rains and the float switch and pump worked great.

My old pump was 500 GPH and I can tell that this one pumps the water out of the boat a lot faster. The automatic submersible bilge is a must for anyone that keeps a boat on the water unattended.

I don’t actually use in a boat but in a small pit that I have a water problem in the home. I like the fact that it has an auto mode that actuates when water rises to about 2″ and then shuts off when about 1″.

If you want to get lower than 1″ you have to use the other brown lead and then turn on manually with a switch you wire inline. Works fine at this price point. I would like to see a deluxe version that uses contacts rather than a float to be able to pump lower levels of water automatically.

I’ve installed two of these in a shower sump pit on my sailboat in the past six months. The first one kept blowing the inline fuse so I returned it when the unit finally fried itself – thankfully didn’t start a fire.

The second (replacement) pump won’t turn itself off. It literally keeps sucking. The low profile, multi depth concept is great but I will definitely NOT be giving this pump a third chance. Avoid this product.

I have owned this pump for five years. I use it underneath the aluminum floor of my 20+ year-old 13-foot Avon Inflatable boat. I love the automatic switch. If I took a freak wave or had strong winds blowing sheets of water on board on a lake, the pump will start pumping so I can tend to driving the boat.

It is a great safety feature.

This was the solution for my Cobatl 253 when after 16 years the original pump died. I note that this unit fits where others cannot and is well built. I looked at several before buying this and the price at West Marine was a within a couple of bucks of everyone else’s.

That said the unit does not come with a male/female electircal connector for easy installation. Buy one and in stall it before you start your installation. It is always easier to set up the entire system on a platfrom or brace and then slide it into place and secure attachements – electrical waterline etc.

– once you have secured the platfrom / brace.

I use this to pump out a jon-boat that has taken on water from waves or overnight rain. It will pump out eight inches of water from the stern of my 14′ in about the time it takes me to to prep myself and start the motor.

So I’m guessing about ten gallons in about three minutes, using a piece of smooth clear hose and about fourteen inches of head. It just passes thru sand, and the included grill rejects leaves or anything big enough to stop the impeller.

It won’t pump well unless submerged, so minimum bilge water depth of about two inches. Bottom line- keeps feet dry for much less effort than a hand pump. I don’t think you could sail on with a big leak though.

The pump is of sturdy construction and very effective. A longer pipe would be preferred, as the ability to place a bucket within range of the pipe is quite limited in our bilge area. Would definitely recommend it’s purchase.

cheap plastic feel, almost like it would break after some use. I did use it to get rain water out of my Jon Boat, its worked until the water was between ridges then I had to tip the boat over to get remaining water out.

Used these for live wells on a pontoon boat. Two wells with one being 16′ from the pump. Both have ample water flow to keep fish alive.

Piece of junk. I bought this pump because it appeared in the photos that the outlet could be rotated to the side. It cannot. The retaining clips that hold the pump body to the base do not hold well. any pressure of vibration on the hose will detach the pump motor.

Replaced a junk pump with this beauty. Wired to a float switch, this pump worked all of last season without fail. Motor is waterproof / sealed so won’t rust. Unit disassembles with a twist to clear out debris jams.

Should order a 2nd backup unit.

Works great. Never let down my Johnson pumps. Won’t use another brand. Great buy for the money

The 750 GPH Pro-Line was the original equipment on my boat when purchased new in 1993. This pump has been of service to me more than a few times in the hard years of service my boat has received. Once in the early years when I forgot the plug when launching.

More so in the many rain storms I’ve fished through in 22 years. This year 2015 the original pump died. My natural choice was to replace it with the same pump. I was pleasantly surprised to see the new outlets have a curved option that worked great in my boat.

I was able to leave the original base in place and just twist in the new power head. Could not be happier!.

Install was done with ease and I was able to complete installation sooner than anticipated. Replaced previous pump with only having to remove and replace no additional preparations was needed. It fit perfectly in the replaced pump mount.

I installed this pump in a 24 center console. Its very well made with excellent serviceability built in. The hose, base and even motor all detach easily. The quality is high, this is a very heavy duty pump.

I am not going to consider those smaller pumps after seeing the quality of this.

Installed pump in basement sump for a DC backup sump pump. Be careful of head ratings for pumps if using in basement. The DC pumps that come with basement backup kits have much higher head ratings and will actually perform near these ratings.

I purchased a smaller attwood pump to use in the sump and it only produced approximately 1/2 of the rated head. This pump I would not recommend for installation in which you need more than 1/2 of its rated head as I am using it for 5′ and it doesnt seem to have much pressure at 5′.

All in all it works for what I need but I was partially disappointed in its performance. I verified the voltage and amps from my power source and these meet the design ratings shown on the manufacturers website, not sure why the performance was so subpar.

This pump has been installed in my canoe for six months now and is quite and powerful. It is installed under my seat and does a good job getting the water level down to between 1/8″- 1/4″. When the canoe is half full of water, this beast throws a 1″ stream about 5′.

I would be interested to see if the 24v pump would be more powerful, but that would have required replacing my battery. The only hard part of installing this pump in a canoe is drilling a HUGE hole in your canoe.

After you get that part out of the way, the rest is easy.

Installed it per instructions. When sitting in 6” of water, brown/white to positive and black to ground. No action. Connected the brown and it worked. But ran continuously, not on/off on demand. Help!

So far, so good. Only had my boat (14′ modified v jon boat) out once and it kept the bilge area mostly dry. I used a small piece of 3/4″ treated wood (or you could use something similar) to mount the bilge pump on so it would be level in the bilge area.

There’ll be a little amount of water in the bilge area as the water has to get over that 3/4″ mount plate for the pump to sense and pump out. Automatically senses the water and flushes out. I wired directly to the battery using “O” terminal rings.

Works very good so far. Can’t comment on durability as I just bought it and only had the boat out today with it installed, but seems well constructed. I would recommend this bilge pump. ***Update*** Had the boat out a few more times over the last week, this bilge pump worked as expected pumping water out of the bottom of boat.

When going full blast, pressure is like a mid strength garden hose coming out of.

Using in my open 16 foot Gregor boat to pump out the rain water. Pumps really good. I mounted the pump to a piece of Vinyl plate instead of plywood. Anchored it down. This little pump does the job in a big way.

So far, happy with it. Only the forth coming years will tell how well it works. Thank you.

Bought this to replace one that had failed and so was “plug and play”. BCF price match was fantastic and the reason i purchased here. I use this to feed a live bait tank from a transom mount. This is the third replacement in three years and used maybe three times in the last year.

The first (old model) was replaced under warranty. This one i couldn’t be bothered with for the $30 odd and i needed it for a trip in a couple of days. Not happy with the high failure rate and hence the 2 stars.

Great while they are working, not sure what’s going on. I have two other previous design Rule bilge pumps installed that have been working well for years but they don’t run the hours that a bait pump does.

My multihull boat has two bilge pumps. In the last 4 years I’ve gone through 6 of these pumps. The auto sense feature dies, often within months. West Marine has been great about replacing them but that’s little consolation if your boat sinks.

How they can get away with such consistently poor quality is beyond me. Because of their poor reliability I’ve installed a separate float switch that activates the “manual” function when the water rises to a certain point.

Otherwise I love these pumps they keep the water level nice and low. When they work.

This pump failed during the first use. Asked for a refund and they just sent a replacement. The replacement also failed during first use.

Small and strong. I like being able to direct discharge tube as not to kink discharge line.

Replaced a broken pump with this and it is much better. Much quieter.

The pump was well priced and well built. however i wanted to change my old pump for one that would pump drier as the bilge is fairly flat so 1″ deep of water. purchased this unit s it claimed to pump down to 9mm.

once it gets a suction it is quite effective but due to the raised pump it will not get a suction until there is abour 1 1/2″ waterso already a bit deep and little better than the nomal whale vertical pump it replaced.

that said if you have no pump this would be a good unit to instal – just wouldnt recommend it as an improvement.

This pump is very efficient for it’s size and seems to be well made. It has however, to my mind, been designed for yachts and ‘V’ bottomed boats and is just not up to the job on my narrow boat. If the water’s deep enough, it will move a lot of water very quickly and would virtually empty a ‘V’ shaped hull of water.

But on my narrow boat, which is flat bottomed, it stops pumping with in excess of an inch of water still rolling around the bilge. It’s not enough that the pick up is in the water, it will only pump when the impeller is submerged and consequently is no better or possibly even worse than many vertical pumps.

Unfortunately no mention of this incompatibility with flat bottomed boats is made in the blurb. Very disappointed with mine.

Our pump is mounted in a 16′ open jon boat that is docked in our club marina. Having a reliable automatic bilge bump is important to remove accumulated rain water. We have used different types using separate switches, including both float switches and electronic.

All eventually failed resulted in nearly swamping the boat. We have this model pump in other boats for 4-5 years with absolutely no problems.

Second Johnson pump for me, different boat. Both replaced Rule pumps that failed. Satisfied so for. Really liked the adaptability of installation options, hose size adapters.

Great form fit and function. This pump replaced and older pump that was the same model so I didn’t need to replace the mounting bracket. It just slipped right into the old bracket which was under my engine and hard to get to.

Item was as described. Did not fit the same as the old one. I had to purchase a 90 but was no issue. It works great. I’m glad it came with the float switch because the old one was bad.

We were caught in tropical storm Danny and was grateful we had it. It worked great!

Haven’t had the occasion to use this pump yet. Got it for our boat in case of an emergency. Thank goodness we haven’t had one! It pumps 2000 gph. To the top of the pump measures 6″. The plug mount with the cord adds another 1 1/2″ to the height.

Around the base of the pump measures 16″. It is totally submersible. You do have to have a hose to connect this to. It does not come with a discharge hose – just an attachment. The outlet size is 1 1/8″.

The top of the pump comes off for easy cleaning. There’s a plastic grate on the bottom to catch debris. It must be wired to a 12 volt battery. Excellent choice for any marine situation.

This is great for taking out on the lake or river in our boat. It performs just as advertised and is durable. Definitely worth getting if you’re interested.

Just what I wanted to pump water to a drain up hill from our caravan grey water. Works well. excellent product

Purchased my bilge pump after my previous one packed up and fitting was very easy and its very quiet and powerful. I am very happy with my choice.

Fantastically made and works as advertised. I have mated this with an auto/manual bilge switch and it is brilliant.