We’ve had quite a few questions about the factory ballast system in 2008 and older Moomba wakeboard boats, and what can be done to decrease the time required to fill the ballast bags. In order to answer that question, it’s beneficial to understand how the factory ballast system works.

Moomba uses one Rule 2000GPH pump to fill all of the bags in the boat. If you only have the center ballast option, then it will fill it fairly quickly, but if you’re complaining about the fill speed, you probably have at least GIII system on your boat (or even larger upgraded bags). If that’s the case the fill capacity will be approximately 660GPH to each bag. In an ideal world, that would result in around 5 minute fill times for the standard 400 pound bags, but ballast systems have lots of less than ideal characteristics. In the factory system, the biggest roadblock is the sprinkler valve manifold system that Moomba uses. Even when open, they have less than half the flow volume of the 3/4″ hose that is used in the boat. Cutting the volume of water in half results in fill times of around 10 minutes, nearly twice the ideal rate.

So what does that mean in terms of actually upgrading the speed of the system? The Rule fill pump used in the system is the largest capacity pump you can really get for this application, so there isn’t a quick fix there. Basically, there are two main options for decreasing the fill time:

1. Replace the stock single fill pump and valve manifold system with three individual fill pumps, one for each bag. In addition to increasing the theoretical fill capacity from 2000GPH to 2400GPH (or higher), the big speed up will be removing the restrictive sprinkler valves.
2. Replace the three restrictive sprinkler valves with quarter-turn solenoid valves. These work the same way, but don’t limit flow at all when open. They are expensive though, at around $60 each.

We typically recommend option 1 because it will cost less, be more efficient, and will be more reliable because three pumps are doing the work of one pump. Unfortunately though, neither one will be a simple install, it will require some reworking of the factory components.

If you have additional questions about upgrading the factory ballast system in your Moomba boat, feel free to contact us and we’ll be happy to help outline your options.