Electric Bilge Pumps

All the familiar sub-floorboard denizens—Shurflo, Rule, Lovett, West and more—showed their stuff.

We put 27 bilge pumps through their paces. That's a lotta flow, Florence.

Bilge pumps are usually out of sight, but they should never be out of mind. They serve two purposes. First, they clear the bilge of incidental water that can cause a variety of problems. Water sloshing around down there is not a good thing. Second, a bilge pump buys you time in an emergency situation—if, for example, you plow into a submerged object (rock, tree, ship container) and hole your boat, or a hose breaks and the engine pumps the boat full of water, or a seacock or other through-hull fitting gives way. Pump failure can lead to trouble, even catastrophe.…