Shurflo Baitmaster™ Bait Tank Pump
Shurflo Bait Sentry™ livewell pump
This works…
The dealer installed a Shurflo Bait Sentry™ 800gph pump.
This is a magnetic drive bait pump. In a magnetic drive bait pump, the impeller and motor are disconnected. The impeller has embedded magnets, and sits inside the intake chamber. The motor sits in a separate sealed chamber, and has magnets attached to the shaft. When the motor spins, the magnets on the motor shaft cause the magnets in the impeller to move with it.
There are two major advantages to a magnetic drive:
- If something causes the impeller to jam, the motor can continue to spin without damage or blowing a fuse
- In a fixed impeller system, there is a seal on the motor shaft which keeps water from getting into the motor. This seal is a common cause for bait pump failure, especially in older motors. In a magnetic drive, the motor and impeller are sealed off from each other, so there is no way for water to enter the motor.
But has some issues…
The Shurflo Bait Sentry™ rapidly developed a very loud buzzing noise. Loud enough so that it could be heard over the engine while trolling. We believe it is due to the impeller not being designed to be run when the pump is mounted horizontally.
Under these conditions, the impeller sits on one side of the chamber, and after a few hours of continuous running, seems to develop enough “slop” to rattle around in the chamber. When we took the same noisy pump and ran it while vertical, the noise disappeared.
But now it’s better:
We’ve replaced the pump a couple of times with different models. The current pump (Shurflo Piranha™) has been working well from a noise standpoint, although we’ve had to replace the pump cartridge twice.
In conclusion…