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Let's not beat about the bush, if the boat fills up with water, all that could possibly stand between you and, at the very least, a great deal of ruined and costly gear is your pumps. Your freshwater comes to your taps via another pump. Your motors have pumps. There are pumps all over the boat.

So, what pumps do you carry aboard and for what purposes and what do you think of their performance?
We will put the most popular pumps up in the ratings and the other manufacturers will be advised to take a look at this page and work out for themselves how to merit a place on it.
Anything you want to say about or relating to pumps, impellers, pipes and hoses, hose clamps (we could say a thing or two about some brands of those...) or anything connected, this is the place to open the discussion.

In the meantime, we thought you might be interested to see what came out of an engine-driven main bilge pump on one occasion when it stopped functioning and was inspected - (just click on the mini-photo to get a closer look)...the cylindrical object at top left is the cover of one of those big marking pens! Naturally none of those objects was knowingly allowed to work it's way down into the bilges!
Believe it or not, once that lot had been removed, the pump worked again immediately.

When The Skipper decided it was necessary to change the diaphragm on one of the emergency manual bilge pumps, in preparation for another ocean crossing, we were fascinated at the difference in appearance between the replacement and the diaphragm to be replaced, bearing in mind that the pump, apart from being given a few strokes from time to time, so that it wouldn't forget how to work, hadn't been in use.

If it has been some time since you gave any thought to the rubber parts of pumps and other mechanical equipment around the boat and especially if you have been in the tropics, you may get the same sort of surprise that we did...to see the photographs above, just click on the tiny versions and the full-sized ones will pop up.

Talk to us about pumps of all kinds. The ones you love, the ones you loathe and the reasons for both.