[mikenannie]

Update for others with similar questions.

I called the manufacturer and learned the following about my Polar Kraft. Other boats may work the same way.

First, the front livewell is not connected in any way to the transom livewell. I thought they might be due to the recirculate function and the Flow-rite valve. The front livewell does not use the flow-rite valve and to fill it, you need to put the plug in the drain located in the bottom of the well. To empty, pull the plug.

Second, the livewell on the transom uses the Flow-rite V3 valve to control the functions of that well. It will fill, recirc., and empty based on the Flow-rite actuator on the console. The Flow-rite actuator on the side of the console controls the valve for this livewell. On the dash, the ACC switch turns on the pump for this well. The other 'livewell' switch on the dash controls the pump and aerator for the front livewell.

Water in the front livewell can splash over the lip of the well, between the lip and the underside of the deck, if it's not sealed airtight. Therefore, you can get water in the bottom of the boat if the water in the well sloshes around while you are up and on plane. The water in the bottom of the boat will be pumped out by the bilge pump.

To correct this issue, you can purchase some sealing foam and spray that along the top inside of the livewell to seal the livewell to the deck. I doubt that I'll mess with this since the rear livewell is more than sufficient for my panfish fishing.

The rear livewell holds fish better than the front due to the use of the Flow-rite valve. The Flow-rite valve allows water to exit via the drain, and it also has a pump attached that can pull water into the transom well via the outside drain. The front livewell, that is not using the Flow-rite valve, has a second pump that pulls in water from directly below the engine - not via a drain.

Apparently, only 1 Polar Kraft boat has a separate Flow-rite valve for each livewell - it's their 19' 10" model.