Ok, time for an update. I bought and installed a Nautalert with a few extra sensors. After about a month of tinkering and multiple conversations with customer support the unit is installed and doing what is advertised. This is a relatively new company (about a year and a half old) out of Pasadena, MD. They are still getting a few kinks ironed out, but the customer service was quick to answer questions and replace parts that didn't work quite right. The installation instructions are nonexistent and the one youtube video is misleading. If this product interests you, hit me up with questions or ask their customer support for help before installing it and it will go much smoother.
The basic package costs $479 and comes with the monitor unit, one battery cable, one bilge cable, one shore power cable three extension cables (3ft, 6ft, 12ft) One LTE Antenna One GPS Antenna. The home webpage (as opposed to the store tab) says the package comes with 2 battery and bilge cables. That is not true. In addition to the basic package, I ordered another battery cable ($15), bilge cable ($15), temperature sensor ($25), high water alarm ($20) and contact alarm ($20). The three extension cables are enough to wire everything into the unit, but I did have to do a cut and splice job to move some excess wire from the forward bilge pump wire to the contact alarm wire. I bought the year of monitoring service for $149 because I want to extend my boating season as much as possible and freezing is my biggest threat.
I mounted the unit on the electrical panel just aft of the dinette/midships bunk. From there I could run the wires out into the engine compartment to their various locations with little trouble. I zip tied the wires to the other wire bundles and the install looks fairly clean. Bat 1 is connected to the forward house battery. Bat 2 is connected to the engine battery. Bilge pump 1 is the aft bilge pump. Bilge pump 2 is the forward. The high water alarm is mounted on the forward fiberglass wall of the engine compartment next to the factory installed audible high water alarm. This was the hardest thing to install because of the tight space. The temp probe runs along the port side of the engine compartment and ends near the seacock for the engine intake. The shore power monitor is a usb connector. It plugs into any shore power ac outlet with a provided usb to ac outlet adapter. I plugged mine into an ac accessory outlet that I have in my starboard battery compartment. Not sure if everyone has this as it is used to power an engine compartment heater that was installed by the dealer before I took delivery. The upside is that I know if there is power going to my engine heater, which is super important in the winter.
Bilge pump install can be tricky. The YouTube video and instructions assume you have floats on your bilge pumps. If you have floatless automatic bilge pumps (like I do) touch base with customer service before you install them. I had to connect to the brown and white wire to get the sensor to operate properly.
With the main unit in the aft part of the cabin and the external sensor in the engine compartment I get an idea of the temperatures in both locations and whether my heater is working hard enough to prevent freeze damage.
I had to drill one hole in the cabin floor under the door for the contact alarm wires. This hole leads the wires into the forward part of the engine compartment and the forward bilge pump, high water and contact alarm all kind of bundle together into the monitor unit. Seal the hole around the wires with a little white silicone and you hardly notice it.
Lastly a quick note about reliability and service. A couple of days after I installed the unit it started getting stuck in a boot loop. After multiple conversations with customer service, they came out to the boat and replaced the circuit board and updated the firmware. I live in their area. If I didn't they would have shipped a new unit. It has worked fine since. The high water sensor shipped with the float sensor upside down and thus was indicating high water all the time. Customer service gave me instructions on how to flip the sensor around. It was not hard, but indicates some quality control problems. I am still working two gremlins. The external temp sensor stopped reading. Still waiting to hear from customer service. They said it was either a bad sensor or firmware problem and they are investigating. Also, the unit is not recognizing the internal backup battery. Customer service is trouble shooting, and I'll update with the results. Bottom line, It's been a little more work than I expected, but it's working now and with this info it should be fairly straight forward for other folks. If cost is no object, Siren Marine is probably a better option. But Nautalert does most of what that does at a fraction of the price. Hope this writeup helps, hit me up with any follow on questions.
