Complete livewell plumbing rebuild - lessons learned

[RK]

Hiya -

Just finished a long over due re-plumbing of my boat's livewell, and thought I'd share some things I discovered along the way. This will be a little long, but may help someone considering the same project. It ended up being easier than I'd feared it would be, and the results are pretty good.

I've had my current boat for about 5 years, and the livewell plumbing it came with was...well, it was a joke. Calling it a system is an insult to actual systems. It didn't drain very well - would take forever to drain out an even half full livewell. There was no way to pump out the well. The valve that theoretically opened and closed the drain line didn't close all the way, so even with the valve closed, water seeped in. The actuator for the value to operate it remotely never worked so I had to reach under the back deck and turn the valve lever by hand to open/close it.

I don't use my livewell a ton, so this was more of a nuisance than anything until the new AIS rules (which I am completely in favor of) came into play. I had rigged up a contraption to pump out my well using the recirc pump, but it was a pain to use, and didn't pump the well all the way out - I ended up getting the last couple inches of water out with a sponge.

When it went from being a nuisance to a possible large fine, I decided enough was enough...time to redo the whole works.

Here's how the system used to work...

Fill - From the stern, water came in a thru-hull fitting with a screen to a 750 GPH cartridge-type pump, with a direct 3/4" line to the aerator fitting in the livewell.

Overflow - There are two 1-1/2" overflow lines running from the livewell to the stern below the waterline. Why two? Who knows...

Drain - From the bottom of the livewell, there was a 90 degree thru hull fitting which ran by 3/4" hose to an open/close valve. The valve was operated by a sleeved cable actuator that was next to the driver's console. The valve then connected to a T-fitting into one of two 1-1/2" overflow lines that ran out the back of the boat. With the value in the "Open" position lake water could travel both ways through the value and into the livewell since the bottom of the livewell was below the waterline. Since the T-fitting that connected the livewell drain valve to the overflow outlet was above the bottom of the livewell, the livewell didn't drain completely even with the valve open and the boat on the trailer.

Recirc - There is a separate recirculation pump on a timed switch that takes water through a thru-hull fitting on the side of the livewell into a cartridge-type pump, and up to a separate aerator spray head. This is essentially a closed loop system.

The rebuild

When I decided to gut the plumbing, I wanted three basic things:

- A livewell that actually drained out

- A valve that opened and closed like it was supposed to

- A livewell pump-out

- Before you can construct, you have to destruct... I basically gutted the existing plumbing by removing: the rear thru-hull fittings for the LW fill, the LW drain, and aerator; the livewell pump (since it was a cartridge type I was able to just take the cartridge out and remove the housing); the overflow line and t-connector, valve and actuator cable; all 3/4" lines from the pump, drain, aerator and 1-1/2" overflow. I left the recirc pump since it was a closed loop. I ended up with a livewell with open drain and overflow holes, and two holes in the stern (intake and overflow outlet). Since it's a deep V hull, a lot of this stuff was NOT easy to get at.

New system design and materials: I ended up using components from Flow-Rite to rebuild the system, including their qwik-lock connectors, which I'll get to in a minute.

I added:

- a Flow-Rite system 4 valve

- a pump-out combo aerator

- a thru hull pump out outlet

- a new cable valve actuator

- new fittings for the thru-hull fresh water inlet, overflow thru-hull, and livewell drain outlet

- new hoses with Flow-Rite qwik-lock connections

The system 4 valve is a 3 position valve where the livewell pump is fitted directly to the valve itself using the threaded inlet on the pump housing. The pump then connects to the livewell fill aerator. The valve itself attaches to the thru-hull fill inlet (which then also becomes a drain outlet) and the livewell drain outlet, and has three settings:

- Fill - opens the valve to the fill inlet through the hull and closes the livewell drain so the pumps runs fresh water into the livewell, but water can't get out.

- Recirc - closes the valve to the thru-hull inlet and opens it from the livewell drain, so the pump returns livewell water to the livewell through the aerator.

- Open - opens the valve completely so water can drain from the livewell or flow in from the lake.

The pump-out aerator has two connectors on the back of the thru-hull fitting that goes through the livewell wall. One connects to the livewell pump, the other to a hose that runs to a thru-hull pump-out outlet. The aerator head slides in and out to control where water being pumped through the aerator goes. With the valve set to "fill" and the aerator head pushed in, fresh water will be pumped into the livewell. With the valve set to 'recirc' and the aerator head pushed in, water will recirculate through the pump back into the well. Pull the aerator head out, and it diverts water from the pump through the additional connection to the pump-out outlet. I added the pump-out by drilling a 1-1/16" hole through the hull near the stern with a hole saw. I could easily have routed the pump-out to a T in the overflow line but opted for the thru-hull to keep the lines separated and reduce the number of connectors.

So, here's what I learned in the process...

Qwik-Lock connectors rock

With the tight spaces and limited room to work around existing wires, fuel lines, etc, and not really having easy access to anything, the Flow-Rite qwik-lock connectors were a lifesaver. Instead of barbed connections and hose clamps, the qwik-lock connectors slide over a fitting, then there's a collar that slides up and snaps into place to secure the fitting. I was able to reach under the livewell and connect the drain line to the drain outlet with two fingers - which is about all I could fit in there. The qwik-loc fittings can be used throughout the system from thru-hull fittings to the valve and even pumps, if you are replacing a pump assembly or adding a new one.

By cutting hoses to length and adding the connectors and clamping them into place ahead of time, actually assembling the whole system in place took less than 5 minutes. It beat the snot out of having to try to force hoses onto barbed connectors and fit a nut driver onto hose clamps under the deck where you can't reach and can't see. As easy as they were to assemble, I was worried I was missing something and that they'd leak. But they don't. After I was done I filled my livewell and let it sit overnight, and didn't lose a drop of water.

Retrofits for pumps outs would be easy to add to many systems

If you have a slow-draining livewell, the pump-out aerator would make adding a pump-out very very simple if you already have a recirculating pump or have a valve arrangement that uses the fill pump as a recirculating pump. Change the aerator, add a pump-out outlet, and you're in business. I didn't go that route because A) I already had to re-plumb the fill pump to replace the worthless valve/drain and B.) the outlet from the livewell to the recirc pump was on the side of the livewell, not through the bottom, so it wouldn't have pumped the well out completely. As it is, I now have redundant recirc pumps if I want, which is fine.

Be careful with the actuator cables

While I was disassembling the existing plumbing, I discovered why my valve actuator never worked right. When it was installed at the factory, it was bent at a 90 degree angle. My new cable goes around some pretty tight corners, but works fine. You can bend them, but don't kink them.

Flow-rite makes some great stuff

Without sounding like a commercial, Flow-Rite has some great livewell components, from the valves to the connectors, you can order it right off their site, and they ship fast. Their site said 5 days, and I got my order in 3. Best thing is they have an interactive livewell system designer on their site that basically lets you set up a virtual system and then see a list of components you need. It made me completely change my mind on what I was going to do, saved me a bunch of money, and I ended up with a way better system.

I should have done this ages ago...

Regardless of what brand boat I've owned, I've always considered livewells and plumbing a necessary evil, but I didn't realize how lame my old system was until I replaced it. With the new AIS rules in MN, if you have a wonky badly-draining livewell, upgrading it is a lot easier than you'd think.