Winterizing

[mike66]

J, saw on another forum that you winterize with 6 gals pink. Do you hook up into the house water pump directly or put it in the water tank? My plan is to drain the hot water tank, drain the fresh water tank, hook up a bypass to the hot water tank and pump at the fw pump inlet through all the plumbing. This way I only need enough to run through the plumbing, and it will flush out easily in the spring. Comments?

[psneeld]

Absolutely...if you really want to save antifreeze..hook a compressor to the line after you pump the antifreze though and collect it for use on shower sumps or drains that still need a bit...then again a shop vac does sumps and sea strainers...if careful you can do many boats with about 3 gallons pink..but you have to be careful and most would say if you buy pink cheap enough (less than $4.00 a gal) then why would you scrimp or worry? The biggest waste is filling a fresh water tank to pump through the system and NOT bypassing the hot water heater.

[mike66]

Scott
I let the antifreeze from the taps run out the drain in the process of winterizing, so shouldn't that take care of the drains? Or do you collect it before it runs out? Or blow out the lines? So many ways to skin a cat(sorry cat lovers). Anyway, I'm on land for the winter as of today, so one more day of boat maintenance and then off to Daytona for me. ?next year the boat comes with us, and winterizing is just a bad memory.

[jleonard]

I drain the water heater then bypass it. I also remove the filter and bypass the housing. Then I disconnect the water feed from the tanks, lets the tanks drain, then feed antifreeze thru the rest of the system, making sure each faucet, each toilet, etc runs pink.
Then when all said and done, I pour regular antifreeze (aka Prestone) into the holding tank. This year I am removing all my heat exchangers for service so I'll pour the used antifreeze into the tank.
If we are careful and our timing on winterizing the enigne and genset are perfect, I can get away with 6 gallons. If we are out of synch it will take 6 1/2.

[psneeld]

Scott
I let the antifreeze from the taps run out the drain in the process of winterizing, so shouldn't that take care of the drains? Or do you collect it before it runs out? Or blow out the lines? So many ways to skin a cat(sorry cat lovers). Anyway, I'm on land for the winter as of today, so one more day of boat maintenance and then off to Daytona for me. ?next year the boat comes with us, and winterizing is just a bad memory.

Usually sink drains are straight runs and require no antifreeze and the shower sumps...depending might have a lot of water in them to start with so I open them up and vacuum them out...good time to clean them too.

Then the rest is sort of dependent on setup but the only 2 wastes are using pink in a water heater or storage tank...

Holding tanks are always a guess till the one I have not...easy access to the top and I have a clear inspection port so its easy to see how much antifreeze or I'll just flush and vacuum clean.

[Halcyon]

I am a little further south but still in freeze zone. I don't like the amount of flushing required to get the pink stuff out in the spring so last year I used a compressor. I hooked it up at the tank outlet and went fixture to fixture for a while untill only air came out. Always keep one fixture open! A little pink in the drains and all was good. Easy recomissioning as well.

Remember Aluminum tanks don't like lots of bleach, so use it sparingly or try peroxide instead.

TD

[jleonard]

I had tried a compressor, but I had a small dip in the feed line hidden under the bilge floor that all the water didn't get out of. Yes it froze and broke over the winter. So after tearing things apart to fix it, I find using the pink stuff a better plan for me.

[mike66]

Thanks all. As I said, many different ways....will go w/anti pumped through with bypass where possible and see how it goes. Hopefully tomorrow if I'm not too lazy. Yeah, that spring flushout is a problem, esp. with my wife's sensitive nose. She hates that smell. I think if I don't neglect changing the water filters we should be okay. I didn't this year and in retrospect that was probably the source of alot of the residual odor. Got caught up in fixing a lot of other stuff this year. (Aside- why hire a surveyor when everything just fails 2 months after you take ownership of the boat?)

[jleonard]

(Aside- why hire a surveyor when everything just fails 2 months after you take ownership of the boat?)

Because the insurance companies won't believe you or me?

I do agree. I should post my survey. What a joke. He wrote up stupid shit that I had to justify to the insurance company before they would even insure me for winter sotrage. Get this I had a very light weep, and that's all it was at the rudder post. I was initially refused insurance for winter storage (we bought the boat mid Nov) until this was repaired. WTF?
I'll stop now.

[mike66]

Lots of boats sink up there on land, you know. Just to follow up, drained water heater, bypassed it, ran hose into water pump from antifreeze bottles, and opened all taps one at a time. Used 3 gal., including heads. Flushed heads and added another gal pink to holding tank, then ran macerator. (tank previously emptied and flushed with clean water at pump-out). AC pumped through with a 1/2 gal. Good to go until we see which pipe leaks in the spring! (there's always one inaccessable line)
Have a great winter....maybe next year we take the boat south and this is all moot.