Cycle Counter for Bilge Pump

I have become convinced of the utility of a simple cycle counter on the bilge pump on my IP 44. We have had, twice, leaks that would cause the bilge pump to cycle perhaps twice an hour, which was not noticeable until the float switch failed. The it was the boot stripe that provided the warning. (the float switch on the high water alarm also failed. (Maintenance has improved, one fail happens, but I should have caught the high water alarm in routine maintenance).
I have bought a simple counter made for this purpose, which shows the positive wire hooked to the negative side of the float switch (actually not negative, but the side which is not hot unless the switch is activated). and the negative side of the counter is wired to the negative side of the batteries. That is a long wire run, and appears to be unneccessary, but I would like to hear from others.
My idea is to hook to positive side to the red light that comes on at the battery selector panel when the bilge pump is activated, and the negative side to the negative side of the battery. Can anyone think of a problem with this?

hi mgraham
See that no one has piped in yet, so I'll give it a shot.
I don't know who's counter system you are using, but I installed a AquaAlarm Bilge control and counter.

AquaAlarm Pump Counter with 3 Way Pump Switch



Pretty easy to install. Just moved the wires from the factory switches to the AquaAlarm Panel.

I see no reason why, with your counter, you can't just wire it into the Run LED. However, I would run the wires to the switch and ground buss bar, instead of splicing them into the LED pigtail. Lot easier and neater.
Hope this helps.

We were thinking the same. But I bought the counter only. When you say running to the switch, do you mean the float switch, or an inline relay since there is an on/off, a manual switch, and then float switch activation. I can run to float switch, it is a threading hassle to do a neat job. But I get the reliability.

I mean the Auto/Off/Run toggle switch.
You want to put the Positive lead off the counter to the RUN terminal. The ground just goes to a convenient ground buss.
If all else fails, follow the Run LED leads, and attach the Counter leads to the same place. It should be apparent which one is the ground lead (black or yellow).

This is assuming that the new counter is in the same general location as the Auto/Off/Run switch.

Hold on a sec.
Do you have two switches, a master On/Off and a manual switch?
If so, hook the positive lead to the load side of the Manual switch.
Ground, once again goes to any convenient ground buss.

Your intuition exceeded my ability to describe. Yes. Auto/Run/off. So the Run terminal gets power in two instances. When momentarily pressed to run, and when the float switch kicks it on?

You got it.
Here is a simplified wiring diagram of a common bilge pump set up.


The output of both switches (Auto/Off/Run switch and Float switch) are connected to the pump's positive wire/terminal.
So if either one is activated, the other will see power too. Hence the reason the "RUN" light works.

Perfect sense when I look at the wiring diagram. Thank you so much for the insight.