Bait Sentry Livewell Pump Noise Correction

[Frode]

I've been using Bait Sentry pumps for about a decade now, on different boats. They've been selected for their quiet performance and overall reliability. While I have one I've used for an actual bait tank, I mostly use them for flushing the toilets and circulating water in fridge heat exchangers, as they provide a low amperage, perfectly balanced flow for this.

I've had a few of them fail by becoming excessively noisy, and I was just able to find a solution.

It appears the pump may, due to its connection directly to a through-hull, not a sea strainer, ingest minor creatures, including hard shelled ones. If these make their way into the housing containing the magnet for the impeller, it can scratch the surface of this housing. These scratches then, apparently, make the pump extremely noisy.

Previously, I would replace the entire pump, as I could not find a way to fix it. Today, I found that by carefully scraping, sanding, and buffing the internal surface of said housing, getting it all smooth again, the pump turned from an unbearably noisy beast to the almost inaudible pump I've come to expect.

Shurflo (now part of Pentair) is unlikely ever to offer up the impeller and impeller housing as a replaceable part, but the concept of a $10 rebuild kit is attractive. I'd buy a case of them, as I have now experienced the same problem four times, and I've never had the pump fail in any other manner.