In God We Trust
It is almost June and, unfortunately, many of us are still ensnared in pre-launch activities. One of those tasks, of course, is replacing defective equipment and this year, the small water-sensing bilge pump was on the list. Last Saturday, I purchased a new pump at the local yard, and then, with some difficulty, installed the pump under the engine before moving on to other tasks on the list.
Things proceeded according to plan for the remaining morning hours until during a short break it occurred to me that the normal pump buzzing sound, typically projected every few minutes when it sensed for water, was absent. After additional listening time and a rather extensive testing process, I surmised the new pump was defective, right out of the box, and a replacement was needed.
A couple of lessons surfaced from this experience that you might find valuable – one, quality control is not what it used to be and new products are oftentimes defective straight off the retailer’s shelves, and two, based on this truism, if you are working on something that is particularly difficult to install and/or significant to the safe operation of your boat, test it for its integrity prior to investing installation-related time and energy. “In God We Trust” seems still valid in certain cases, but be cautious about extending that concept too freely to newly manufactured marine products.
