I tried to turn the live well on today and nothing happened, no water pumped in and it didn't sound like the pump was turning on. I checked the fuse and it's fine. The boat is less than a year old so surely the pump hasn't worn out already, I've used the livewell maybe 5 times. Anyone know what could be causing this?

I would work from the pump back to the switch. pull the pump make sure it don't look crispy. then check voltage at the leads with the switch on. if it reads 12+v, you either have bad connect or a bad pump. If you don't have 12 at the leads go back to the switch.

Same thing happened to me last tournament. Turns out the connection right by the pump had come loose (maybe from the Battery charge plug line being thrown back under the hood). Took me 2 minutes to figure out off the water, unfortunately I wasted 20 minutes trying to figure it out on the water.

And it could be clogged with something, check that the impeller isn't clogged

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How do I do that? This is my first boat, brand new to all of this.

don't let the wife use it as a bathroom like I did....$600.00 later....

Most pumps are the cartridge type these days. They typically plug in. You can unplug and remove it. Inspect the impeller area for soft plastics or other blockage. You can check it by putting the leads to 12v.

If you leave one running dry it will toast it after not too long. Also it's common for the impeller shaft seal to fail and water leak into the armature. That's also toast for one.

The pump is very quite when you turn it on and it is not picking up water. Turn the livewell pump on while on the water, put the boat in reverse and simply back up at a fast pace. It will food the pump line and allow it to pick up the water and start pumping. Had one boat that I had to do that to every tournament to fill the livewell. Once it starts pumping there will be no more problems that day because the line is holding water. It was just a little trouble on the first filling each trip.

And DO NOT check the cartridge while in the water....the amount of water that will come will shock you.

ok, this brings up several questions ... some of which i don't want to know the answer.

But no matter what ended up in the LW, how did it possibly do $600 worth of damage?? pumps and 3/4" tube are cheap!

the pump housing has a push tab ---push in on it and the pump portion should twist lock out of the housing --turn the impeller by hand and make sure it turns ====WHILE ON THE TRAILER !

Just did this and the impeller will turn by hand, checked all the connections and everything looks fine. I won't be able to get back on the water until next week so I'll try Donald's advice then. It's been probably 6 months since I've run the live well (always catch and release and I very rarely fish tournaments). I'm wondering if letting it sit so long somehow ruined the pump.

If the boat is less than a year old it should be under warranty? Take it to the dealer. Pumps should last 3 or 4 years ands thats useing them every week or two.

Let me know how that goes. The boat that I had this problem with worked just fine in the beginning. Then all of a sudden after a really rough ride on Amistad it would not pick up the water. Just had to back up a few yards with the lid up and listen for the sprayer to start shooting water. Then it was good to go the rest of the day.