amperage for average live well pump breaker?

[stackz]

So I took my shorted 3a breaker for my bilge pump to my dealer and the parts counter took one look at it and asked "Carolina skiff?" Yup was my response. They asked which breaker and I said bilge pump and a sigh just goes across their face. Apparently this is a common issue with Carolina skiff with multitudes of emails from the dealer saying the 3a breaker isn't good enough and to put in 5a breakers...something about skiff not listening to angry dealers and instead just the pump manufacturer...which if there were that many 3a failures I'd start wondering about the pump manufacturer honestly.

So anyway, while I'm there I ask about both my tripped live well pumps and they asked me if I looked at the amp on those breakers which I hadn't yet. They did say 3a "might" enough but not 100% sure but considering my boat is only 2 years old with 20hr on it they are thinking too small.

I checked them both with my new bilge breaker and they worked fine and both tripped ones were....3a...lol.

Gonna head back to dealer tomorrow and see what they have to say but I'm thinking I'm going to 5a on both of them as well. Good idea? Bad idea?

The bilge pump issue was bad enough that during dealer prep they were just swapping the 3a bilge breakers for 5a ones. Mine was one of the original ones before the issue was known is all.

 

[stackz]

Just to add the size wiring for the pump and at the dash....automotive wise is large enough to have a 15a breaker maybe 20a safely lol. I just don't know how this corresponds to marine. Still learning the goofy weirdness differences and I prefer to err on the side of popping a breaker than burning the boat down. Obviously the dealer is confident with 5a on the bilge pump so I am too as they are doing it to brand new boats they would owe the warranty on if the boat burned due to not having factory stuff on it.

 

[alldodge]

Agree with you and your dealer. Bilge pump calls for a 3A, but after things get a bit old and if there is a bit of crud on the vanes, when it goes to turn on the draw is a hair more then 3A. The 5A will give you some room for a slight surge. The surge will not damage the pump, and also the wire can handle 15A easy (as you mentioned).