Installing a Livewell & Washdown Pump

tartuffe

tartuffe

Junior Member
I am doing some rerigging on my 81 20' CC and have a livewell in the compartment in front of the battery box and splash well area. As some here know, the compartment is below the waterline so I have to pump water in with 1 pump and pump water out with the other.

It works well enough but water pumping out doesn't always equal incoming so then I have menhaden swimming across my deck.

Anybody tackle this task without any visible piping?

Also, I'm wanting to install a washdown pump. I want to have the intake for the pump the same as the livewell.

What is the best series to do this? Thru hull to washdown to livewll or vice versa?

I've seen setups where the livewell has two ports so can I run water to the washdown with the port to the livewell shut off? This seems like it might put undo stress on the livewell trying to pump 600 GPH to a pump that will only run occasionally plus the juice pull.

If I run from the washdown, will the washdown allow water to be pulled through it at 600 GPH even though its a 240 GPH pump?

Can I run the washdown to prime the livewell and then shut the washdown off?

I know, lots of questions, your experience would be appreciated.
 
Not sure on them going in series like that but on my 18 I have one 1" thru hull then the brass cutoff then its split after that. One for my livewell and one to the washdown. Then they go to their designated locations. Ive never had an issue running both at the same time as far as water volume. I like the idea of not putting another hole in the boat and sharing them same one. It works good for me.
 
Stinky_Hooker said:
Not sure on them going in series like that but on my 18 I have one 1" thru hull then the brass cutoff then its split after that. One for my livewell and one to the washdown. Then they go to their designated locations. Ive never had an issue running both at the same time as far as water volume. I like the idea of not putting another hole in the boat and sharing them same one. It works good for me.
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Do you have any type of ball valve between the tee and each pump? No problems with pulling air through the pump that isn't running?

Also, where is your intake?

Is access a real booger to the pumps? How did you address this?
 
I did it using 2 bilge pump switches mounted in the live well. The switch for the inlet pump is mounted upside down a couple inches below the top of the livewell. The discharge switch is mounted rightside up a couple of inches below the inlet switch, so that about the time the inlet switch opens (turns off the inlet pump), the discharge pump runs and drops the water level and the inlet pump kicks in again.

Your discharge pump has to be of a higher capacity than your inlet pump for this to work.

I'm using a through stern pump for the inlet, with the inlet hose coming in at the top of the tank, and the discharge pump is a bilge pump mounted to the bottom of the livewell.

We've kept mackeral alive for days in this setup.
 
My axcess is a deck plate in the motor well directly in front of the outboard. The thru hull is straight down so axcess is fine. The thru hull is located about 12-14" from the transom off to one side of the "V" so as too not drag bottom or hit the trailer anywhere.

No ball valve on either, just the one on the thru hull in the event of an emergency.

I get great pressure just runnning one or the other. I see what you are saying about pulling air back thru one while the other is running but being as both pumps are a few feet down the line from the "T" water stays up to each pump when the boat is in the water even if they arent runing. I guess the water pressure from the boat being 12" or so in the water above that point helps.
 
Awesome, thanks guys. I'm going to incorporate both those systems into my plumbing. That was a clever idea incorporating the float switches into the ;ivewell system. This will be a fun project!

Now I can start working on incorporating theextended bowl porcelin toilet on the deck! I just gotta figure out where to hang the toilet paper holder.
 
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