Rear Ballast not draining all the way

[Texas_SA400]

So I've started to encounter a new issue. My rear Port side ballast wont drain all the way. Starboard side drains completely. I've noticed the Port side also doesn't fill up at the same rate as the Starboard ballast. When I pull the boat out of the water, the ballast port on the bottom of the boat drips water continuously from the port side all day. What can be causing this? Bad impeller?

[Turbinesurgeon]

Mine does the same thing. I have aerator pumps and my starboard side fills faster and the pump is on a 90 fitting. The port side pump is vertical and its a few minutes slower to fill and water drains out even after I tow it home. I’m convinced it’s the orientation of the pumps.


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[Larry Arizona]

What year boat? What pumps you got? Last time your replaced impellers?


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[SurfingAF]

I have a 2019 SA450 and mine is the same and when I was at Lake Powell this summer they were decontaminating my boat (mussels) they spray hot water into the overfill holes and they filled the port for 5 minutes and the port bag along with the other bags had zero water in it. He then asked me to drain the port side and water and a ton of water came out which convinced me that there was a subfloor ballast attached to the port side.

Next time on the water I filled each individually and timed it until the overflowed.
My port takes approx. 13 mins to fill vs approx. 7 mins for my STRBD and I then adjusted my ballast settings to accommodate and it made all the difference in the world with the push of the wave. But I cant find any documentation or anything about a subfloor ballast on this model as I was told thats only on the 2020 models. With that being said I am much happier now with the wave.

[Larry Arizona]

If your port rear ballast takes 13 min to fill, you either have one port pump not working or have some damaged impellers.


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[2in2out]

I would also check the orientation of the drain/fill port on the bags. A bad impeller won’t pull vacuum and will allow slippage of air and cavitation in the impeller body. The slow leak from the drain indicates water slipping past the impeller. If the drain port on the bag is lower than the impeller body, or if there are any dramatic bends in tubing, your bags won’t drain with a bad impeller.

If you run in heavily turbid or sedimented water, the rate of impeller failure is greater. With the way autowake works, if you surf regular, or port side, your port side pumps may be working harder or running more often to maintain roll.

Only other consideration is if someone altered the ballast system to piggyback PNP bags or additional bags causing a distribution problem.

[10ecSupra]

I had an issue with my FatSac ballasts. I was told to replace my impellers in my pumps (two pumps are 118220-7127 and one is 18670-107). Got from Amazon https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004I1RQQS/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
It was a pretty easy process and my bags work perfectly. All three are in the aft port locker. I also learned that the pump operation is based solely on time. There is no sensor inside the bag telling the pump when it's full. Go into ballast settings under user settings and change the times the pumps run. Time how long it takes to fill/drain and use that time in the settings. My aft sacs take 9:25 while my center ballast takes 4:30. Hope that helps!

[Shoebox]

My 2019 SL takes several minutes longer to drain than fill. Pretty irritating. I'll be changing the impellers this winter, hopefully that solves it.

[Larry Arizona]

My 2019 SL takes several minutes longer to drain than fill. Pretty irritating. I'll be changing the impellers this winter, hopefully that solves it.

Do you drain and fill at idle or moving?

RPM changes the voltage that the pump sees.


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[Shoebox]

Do you drain and fill at idle or moving?

RPM changes the voltage that the pump sees.


Sent from my iPhone using TapatalkBoth. It doesn't matter, even if I fill at idle and drain with the power up a bit, nose-high.

I also need to dig in and ensure the hoses are at the lowest spot on the bag. Just pretty difficult to get at everything in the under floor ballast.

[CJ2etc]

Mines the same. To get my port side bag to fully drain I have to lift the front of bag until all the water drains but it seems the water is above the drain line. Really irritating. 2012 Sunsport 22V