BALLAST PUMP DRAW

[GYMBOARDER]

I am having a problem with my Jabsco ballast pumps. When I turn on both of the pumps to fill my side sacs I have noticed a huge pull on my volt meter. I am ruinning 10 gauge wire on both pumps. I have though about running 8 gauge wire but Im not sure if this wil slove my problem. In addition to that I also thought about keeping the 10 gauge wire and instead for running the power from my fues block to directly take power for each pump from my two batteries. Any suggestins would really be appreciated.
By the way those of you who have asked about the custom ballast install, it went great. You should see the wake on my Avalanche now. Just gotta get this pump problem solved.

[Sonicr1]

Volt.AMp draw is not because of the wiring... my mechanic says they suck the amps/volts, so...

Well I took my X-10 in to have them fix the ballast pumps... again... Their solution is to exchange my 500cca battery with a 1000cca battery... the guy swears this will fix my problem (saying they draw huge amps)... I haven't got the boat back to check, but I can't wait to test it out!!

The MC system runs 10 guage wire (if I'm lucky, looks more like 12, but I'm trying to be optimistic because of how frustrated I am with this issue) from battery to switch then back to pumps, and he says with the new battery it will be fine. So your 10 guage should be good...

I think the best solution would be to use relays, and have a power source wired straight to the pumps... shoot, that way you could get away with running 16 guage wire from the switch to the relay, then 10 guage (depending on the length of run and number of pumps) to the pumps.

[MrBlean]

As Sonicr1 says, the pumps draw about 20 amps each which is quite a lot. The reason your voltmeter drops is simply that the battery is struggling to cope. Larger gauge wire won't solve the problem, in, fact, it could make it worse in that it will allow even more current to flow to the pumps and pull the battery voltage down even further.

Small gauge wire is the bane of most pump installations. The distance from battery to pump and back is often several metres and the voltage drop over this length of cable is such that the pumps often only see a fraction of the battery voltage. This means they can't draw enough power (power = volts x amps) and if the volts are down so will the power be. Pumps can burn out under these circumstances.

Using beefier wire often isn't possible as the terminals on the switches can't accept it. Hence the suggestion of using relays is a good one. If just using switches, use the biggest diameter wire you can and, as your mechanic has suggested, a battery big enough to cope with the current draw.

You could always run your engine so that the charging alternator provides most of the current to the pumps (via the battery) rather than pulling it straight from the battery itself.