After seeing the photo and re-reading your original post, I can only assume that you are switching 110VAC directly with that little float switch. Not a good idea. I would rethink/redesign the whole shebang using a low voltage switching circuit through a relay.

What's in the yellow box besides the receptacles and a fuse?

that makes sence.. if it is a magnet on one end of the float and it is upside down it will operate in the middle instead of at the bottom.

Steve

Ok now that all the dust has settled here's how things turned out after re-wiring things tonight: I re-spliced, soldered and crimped all the connections I had made. I plugged the cell phone charger back in and DAMN IT same problem. WTF!? Now, I don't recall ever removing the floating drum, in fact I know I didn't, but given there are two notches for the little stopper below the drum on the reed I moved it up and voila - fixed. It's running the skimmer perfectly again.

So thanks guys! You were right but about 30 minutes too late. ;)


That yellow box is the relay. It's not switching 110VAC directly. The whole float switch thing is a Coralvue low wattage float switch and is designed to run any number of low wattage devices. My BK Mini 160 is only rated at 18W. Here's a link to the high wattage model: http://www.aquacave.com/detail.aspx?ID=2573

Great, nice to see you have it running again and thanks for providing the link. I checked it out, good find and for a pretty reasonable price. .