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Old 01-14-10, 06:31 PM   #1
cassidyta
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Default How does the livewell work?

I know that is probably a rookie question, but hey I just got the boat last night.

The pump runs, the tubes do not appear to be blocked, but no water goes in.
I have read about impellers, but don't fully grasp the idea. Any suggestions are appreciated.
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Old 01-14-10, 07:18 PM   #2
carolina-rig-01
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The pumps are probably just the aerators that circulate the water once the livewells are full. Depending on your livewell setup there should be either a plug in the livewell drain that keeps water out or keeps water in, or there is a switch that you flip to "auto" to allow water to fill the livewell and flip to "recirculate" to keep water in the livewell once it is full. Hope this helps you out.
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Old 01-14-10, 09:23 PM   #3
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is the boat in the water? lol.
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Old 01-14-10, 10:02 PM   #4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Embrey View Post
is the boat in the water? lol.
Does that matter?












Yes, I pushed water through the pumping system with a hose while testing it.
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Old 01-14-10, 10:21 PM   #5
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Get you a 5 gallon bucket. Fill it with a fresh water. Pour in the livewell. When you put a fish in there be sure to feed them a goldfish flake food. Leave the lid open to check often if they're OK. At the end of the day, after releasing the fish, dump the water with the bucket. Your good to go. Works for me.
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Old 01-14-10, 10:59 PM   #6
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Without seeing it for myself I cannot say for sure what the problem is. I guess the first thing to check depending on what type of livewell system your boat has, are you turning on the recirculating or the fill switch. If your boat doesn't have a recirculator then I would say the impeller in the pump is not turning at all. Not sure where to get replacement pump impellers but I know you can pick up a new pump for like 20-50$ at BPS. Might be even cheaper than that now. Also something to check is if the livewell switch is on empty, the pump may just be pumping the water out of the boat, but you probably would have noticed something like that.
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Old 01-15-10, 12:32 AM   #7
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You guys are bad to the bone!
lol
Yes, typically the boat needs to be in the water in order to pump water into the live well - it doesn't come from the sky.
I dunno how effective 'pushing water through with a hose would be.
Also, typically you need a brass 'n rubber plug to go into the bottom rear of the well to plug it (remove to empty)... then the aerator (pump) pumps water into the well and it will exit from the top of the well, usually on the other side near the top. All the while the pump is on, fresh lake water is cycling through the system - at least that's how mine works!
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Old 01-15-10, 02:32 AM   #8
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What kind of boat is it? Yr, Make and Model? Then someone might better answer your questions?
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Old 01-15-10, 09:38 AM   #9
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Most boats have a valve that shuts off the flow of water so you can keep them full while running. A seperate switch powers the pump to circulate the water that helps keep the little fishies alive and well. My Ranger has 2 valves that allow them to fill and stay full or empty and stay empty. I think different boats have different designs for the systems.
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Old 01-15-10, 06:30 PM   #10
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It is working fine. The previous owner had said that it just would not fill. I believe he was trying to fill it while under his main motor.

This one is a very basic setup. I pump that fills the boat. The only recirculation is to overfill it.
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Old 01-16-10, 11:25 AM   #11
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Cassidyta: Go into Flow-Rite.com. You will find all the information about livewells and how they work. They have diagrams of the different systems being used. Just fish around Their Web site, All the info You will need is in there. What You will not find, is the use of the different switching systems. Hope this helps.
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Old 01-17-10, 11:29 AM   #12
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If I'm understanding you, you hear the livewell pump making a noise that makes you believe it's running but it won't pump in water? Right?

If that's the case, take out the pump, take it apart and check the impeller. I've had the same thing happen at least twice and both times the pump had sucked in a piece of gravel that was preventing the impeller from turning. I removed the gravel and then it worked fine. My guess is this is caused when the big motor is in shallow water and is churning up gravel off the bottom of the lake while the auto mode on the livewell pump is sucking in water.
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Old 01-17-10, 11:20 PM   #13
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Thanks guys. It appears to be working fine now.
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Old 02-03-10, 01:18 PM   #14
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If the pump doest start to fill when turned on put the boat in reverse,it clears it and it will pump if its going to.From then on should work fine.
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