I've always been puzzled by our bilge pump; it seems not to work all the time. (See new battery thread, below.) Not a good thing.

So I attached a no-head hose and sat with it and a garden hose and made some tests. It only pumped water one out of every three times I turned it on. (Okay, once on the second try.) I emailed Johnson Pump and got a reply half an hour later. I called engineering and the tech said sounds like it's getting airlocked. Take out the check valve that came with the pump. Bingo! Now it workes every time.