HarborMaster monitors critical systems on your boat. Previous articles in this series described the monitoring of your boat's battery systems and shore power. This article addresses bilge pumps.

The HarborMaster is a bilge pump early warning system. Contrary to popular belief, more boats sink at their mooring or dock than at sea. Although you may think that your boat is dry, everyone knows about a boat that almost went to the bottom..

Tracking bilge pump cycles is new for most owners and can become almost addictive. You will soon understand whether your boat is really dry or if it is pumping excessively. Most importantly, you will understand what is normal for your boat. When the pumping pattern changes, this information provides an early warning of potential trouble giving you the opportunity to take remedial steps and avoid arriving at your boat to find ankle-deep water. Unusual pumping activity could be caused by a heavy rainstorm or could be an indication of a leak..

The HarborMaster monitors two aspects of bilge pump performance. It counts the number of times the bilge pump goes on and the cumulated duration of pumping time. This information can be displayed on the HarborMaster screen at any time and is transmitted to our secure password-protected web site either on demand or at the end of each system Status Update period..

You can choose to have the HarborMaster transmit system Status Updates on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. In addition, the HarborMaster's two-way remote command capability allows you to request an unscheduled Status Update immediately on demand at any time..

The HarborMaster has sensor inputs for two bilge pump circuits. Normally each circuit has a single pump but there can be several pumps in series for each circuit if more than two bilge pumps need to be monitored..

In addition to counting and reporting bilge pump cycles, the HarborMaster also looks for unusual pumping activity. First of all, the HarborMaster continuously checks every second for a maximum continuous on-time for Bilge Pump1 and Bilge Pump2. If the maximum exceeds a pre-selected parameter, an alarm is sent by the HarborMaster's alarm notification center to the user via telephone, fax, SMS or e-mail. The default parameter is 30 minutes and can be customized by the user (minimum 30 seconds; maximum 30 minutes)..

Secondly, the HarborMaster calculates a daily average of the occurrences (number of times on) and the pumping duration over a moving 5-day window. The length of this window a parameter that can be customized by the user (minimum 1 day; maximum 5 days; factory default is 5 days)..

The daily average is multiplied by a factor and is compared to the actual occurrences and duration every second by the HarborMaster. When the actual exceeds the average times the factor, an alarm is sent to the notification system. The factors for both occurrences and duration are also customizable parameters (minimum is times 1; maximum is times 20; factory default is times 2)..

If a dry boat has an average of zero, an artificial average must be created for alarm purposes. The factory defaults are 10 occurrences and 10 minutes for duration. These parameters can be customized by the user (occurrences minimum is 5 times and maximum is 50 times; duration minimum is 5 minutes and maximum is 30 minutes)..

As you can see, the HarborMaster's bilge pump unusual activity monitoring parameters can be customized to best fit the needs of your boat, which is unique from all others. What is normal for your boat may be alarmingly excessive or alarmingly inadequate for your neighbor's..

This article is part of a series that will illustrate how the HarborMaster Mark II puts you in control of your boat. The next article will describe what happens when you acknowledge a bilge pump unusual activity alarm and what happens if you do not acknowledge and reset the alarm..