Aerator elbow almost sunk my boat!

[James P]

For those of you that have ever replaced an aerator pump for your livewell I hope you put the kind that is in line and doesn't have an L or elbow. Recently after just getting on the water my boat began to fill with water. I immediately went to shore and discovered the elbow had broken. When this happens it's just like pulling the plug. Because I have a bass boat, getting to this broken piece was impossible without removing three batteries and two wooden planks the batteries sit on. Although my bilge pump was working last spring it wasn't yesterday because mice or rats had chewed the wires. I think my problem was there was a little play in the line and just caused plastic fatigue. Anyone else ever experience this? Luckily some guys on shore had something to plug the aerator. Wasn't a good day to say the least!

 

[5150abf]

Re: Aerator elbow almost sunk my boat!

I usually throw some water in the transom just to confirm my pumps work at the first of the season and I have an alarm on the second pump(2 pumps one higher than the other) so as soon as that pump turns on I know I am taking on water and I have penty of time to deal with it of coarse you mice would have taken care of that.

I did have a peice of that junk accordian hose break on my livewell pump, every time you put water in the livewell most of it would go into the boat, took quite a while to find that one.

Glad you got it figured out and still have a floating boat.

 

[dingbat]

Re: Aerator elbow almost sunk my boat!

The plastic fittings they use on the thru hulls, intake, etc. are good for 8-10 years at best.
I replaced all my fittings with bronze (below water line) and stainless (above water line) after finding chaulking and or cracks in 7 out of 10 fittings on my boat.

 

[dbkerley]

Re: Aerator elbow almost sunk my boat!

Mine happened on the overflow lines from the livewells. They had deteriorated and were allowing water to flow in through the 1-1/2" thru hull openings. No way my bilge could keep up.

I was fishing from the rear deck and didn't realize it until the lower deck was nearly awash. I cranked up quickly and ran the boat 50 yards or so to ground it on the shore until I could plug the holes.

 

[James P]

Re: Aerator elbow almost sunk my boat!

I went to a plumbing supply place yesterday and was able to make the L using much beefier components. I'm also going to secure the vertical hose coming down from the live well using something like what holds conduit to a wall.

5150: I think I'll heed your warning about testing the bilge. Sure wish I could get rid of the rat problem because it was just last season that I repaired the bilge wires that the rat/s had destroyed.

 

[Mark42]

Re: Aerator elbow almost sunk my boat!

.... I did have a peice of that junk accordian hose break on my livewell pump, every time you put water in the livewell most of it would go into the boat, took quite a while to find that one.....

Yep, that stuff gets brittle and cracks rather quickly. Its well worth the price of vinyl hoses on both the live well tank and bilge pump.

This is the good stuff. Its listed as live well hose and is great for bilge pumps too. No cracking or splitting from cold or chemicals.

 

[David Greer]

Re: Aerator elbow almost sunk my boat!

I noticed a design on my new (to me) Sea Hunt: the intake for the livewell and wash down is on the bottom of the hull (which I don't like) but (a) it has a sea **** so you can shut the hole thing down if there's a hose issue and (b) the fitting sticks up about 8 inches from the bilge floor before you have the pump and the hoses (on a T). I'm assuming the top of the T is above the waterline, so that if you had a failure you still wouldn't flood. You can reach in the bilge access hatch to the sea ****. It's not terribly convenient but if you weren't planning to use either the livewell or hose, you feel a little safer knowing its closed.
I haven't examinied it closely but in an emergency I bet you could pull the pump off to use as an auxilary bilge pump, and pump out via the well or hose.

 

[roger777]

Re: Aerator elbow almost sunk my boat!

I had a similar experience one time but it was my fault. I replaced elbow for live well but wanted to get hose clamp instead of zip tie which someone else used. I got the hose clamp but set it in dash.Went out with my wife a week later and knew something was wrong when I was fishing off the back and realized I was standing in a puddle.. My float switch was not working(which I already knew). When I lifted the inspection plate and seen I had a boat full of water I remembered the hose clamp..I hit the bilge and grabbed a 1qt. bucket (I used to measure oil) and started scooping.. I was lucky I had a very large area I could get the bucket in. that was in a 19' cc now I have a 25' robalo with no room for a bucket, I dont premix anymore so I dont even have a bucket..I would of been screwed.. Now I always carry a manual bilge and test my float switch everytime out.. I am also very anal about pulling inspection plate and looking every 10 min for the first hour..