Livewell not draining

I bought a new 1850 crestliner sportfish this spring and am having trouble with the front livewell draining. I pull the plug and the water doesn’t go down at all. I pulled it all the way home and sat it in the yard and water stayed in the livewell with the plug pulled for 2 weeks!!!!!Does anyone know what to do about this? I have taken my garden hose and sprayed down the livewell drain and had a little water come out the back. Just wondering if the line is plugged or what it could be. Any help would be apprecitated. Thanks!

Hey Waterswat,

I would have to think that your livewell is plugged w/something. There really isn’t anything special to them as far as I know, it’s just a tube that runs out the back…

I’m not at all familiar with the Crestliners, but my old Alumacraft had an option to let you recirculate the water that was already in the livewells, so you could trailer the boat and still circulate water to the fish. To drain them, you needed to operate a push pull cable controlled lever. If you boat doesn’t have that feature, I’d say your drain line is just plugged and a shot of compressed air should clear it. Check your owners manual if you have one.

Or hopefully someone on this site has a boat like your’s.

Herb has a good point about the re circulation switch. If that’s not the case….or if you’ve held minnows in there (I keep my bucket in the live well) some could be stuck in the hose for the drain.

Best bet is the compressed air…but I have flushed it backwards too…with a hose. I think yours drains almost straight down through the hull?

I haven’t put any minnows in there and will try the compressed air thing first. I have tried the hose backwards too. I am also thinking about running some kind of snake down through the line to see if I can lodge anything loose or see if it might have gotten kinked or something. Thanks for the advice!!

My recommendation is that since the boat is brand new, why don’t you let your dealer take a quick look at it instead of trying to snake the line and possibly making it worse. Maybe there’s a simple fix that your dealer will know about.

I had the exact problem when I bought a new boat. Did exactly what you tried. Take it to dealer and start removing the floor as your drain line is kinked. A hose pushes a little out, compressed air bubbles or it may blow your fitting apart. Take it in if its under warranty.

Mwal

Just called the dealer and made an appt to get it looked at and hopefully fixed for good. Thanks everyone for your help.

Let us know how it turns out.

Just got the boat back from the dealership and sure thing the line was kinked in the bottom of the boat. Guess they had extra line in there and it made it kink. Now everything should be up and running smoothly. Thanks for the advice fella’s.

Good to hear it was just something small like that and not a big problem.

Nothing worse than stinking fish water in your livewell on those hot summer days. Used to have a polarcraft like that, then my brother shot a hole in the bottom. Never had a problem draining after that.

Do I dare ask what he shot it with?

Quote:

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then my brother shot a hole in the bottom

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Yeah, tell us what he shot the hole in the bottom of your boat with.