Blowing out the fresh water lines

W

walterv

Moderator
Member
Joined
Jan 11, 2004
RO Number
12640
Messages
6,381
I usually put the pink stuff in the fresh water tanks, and then open all faucets till I see the pink stuff coming out. I also flush the toilet (electric head) till I see the pink stuff in the bowl.
I really hate the fact that when I commission the boat in the spring, it takes like three or for tanks (100 gallons) of water before the smell goes away.

I have played with blowing out the lines a few times but chickened out and added the pink stuff after.

When blowing out the lines, I hook a compressor to the dockside water, opened up all faucets and blow the water out, all looked good, stopped the blowing when all water was cleared from the lines.

Here's my concern and my questions.
The head, do I keep flushing the head till I get just air coming through?
How does the pump that pumps the water get winterized? I assume that by blowing from the dockside water inlet that does not go through the pump.
If the tank (two tanks) has less than 1/8 of water in it and it freezes, will there be enough room for expansion?
Since I have two tanks that work in conjunction with each other (one filler and a hose that goes from one tank to the other) the hose that connects the two tanks will always be filled with water, will this hose crack when the water freezes?

Any advice in this matter is appreciated, thanks.

Walter
 
When using air you need to disconnect the lines from the water pump and blow threw it. When you are blowing threw the dockside hook up you are not getting air to the tank. So the lines from your water tank to your pump to your faucet has water in it. I was going to do the air thing but its not worth it. Bleach and a bottle of aquafresh cleans it right up in the spring.
 
I still use the pink anti-freeze. I pump out all the water as possible then pour in a gallon of anti-freeze and pump that out. It is diluted somewhat and I don't trust it. I then add another gallon of anti-freeze to the water tank and pump that thru. By now it's pretty much antifreeze and I collect it (use for the first pump out of the head's holding tank). I do not think I have much anit-freeze in the freah water system, but what is there should keep the plumbing from cracking when the cold temps arrive. In the spring all I did this year was add fresh water and pump it thru. I added some bleach to the water when finished and did not have any foul smells. I do bypass my water heater when winterizing. This year I took out the water heater and brought it home to store in the garage.
I don't trust just blowing out the lines. It may be safe to do it that way most of the time. With my luck the little bit of water would collect somewhere and split the tubing. I would sooner spend a few bucks and some time to use anti-freeze.
 
I unhook the hose from my tank and feed the pink antifreeze to the pump, also drain and by-pass the hot water tank. Never put antifreeze in my tanks.
 
Use the pink stuff to winterize then blow out. That way you are sure there is no water and then by blowing out, you purge the system of the pink stuff. Personally, I do not drink the water from my boat so the smell does not bother me. With a couple of treatments early in the spring, the smell is gone.
 
What about the Hot Water heat, does it just get filled with the pink stuff also? I have a 12 gallon heater.
 
most would advise to bypasss the hot water heater by hooking the hot and cold toghether. Takes all of two minuts on my boat. Then you don't have any pink in the heater which takes multiple tanks of water to flush. I have to say, when I bought my boat I read about a lot of people who hated pink and the taste. But I've used it for 3 seasons and by adding a shot of bleach to a full tank of fresh at the end of the season and flushing thru, my water tastes just fine.
 
We have elect. heads and the switch has a fill or flush. WHILE COMPRESSING, The Admiral holds the fill switch which blows the water out of that pump.Empty the hot water tank, and forget about it. As most of you know, I use vodka in my water tank then, and after bump my fresh water pump a little to get through strainer and pump. Doing this for yrs. with no problems. I use -50 in drains etc. and -100 in my engines and gen.
 
quote:
Originally posted by Prospective

most would advise to bypasss the hot water heater by hooking the hot and cold toghether.

Click to expand...

Just take care with the fittings. Some plumbing systems (searay for one) have hoses that don't lend themselves to being disassembled that often. There are kits that you can attach to the hot water heater that will do this. Around $25 for one from Camco. It's basically just a pair of tee valves that re-route the water from the inbound (Cold) over and out the hot outlet side. Works great and you don't have to handle the hoses and fittings (which in the case of my boat, are a royal PITA to access).
 
Walt we had a 1988 Silverton 37 convertible which had two tanks under the cockpit joined by a tube. I pumped out all the water I could while the boat was in the water since the boat bow angle was less and the fittings for the water supply and pump were forward of the tanks. I never got it all out but what was left could easily expand.
I disconnected the water line from the tank to the pump and from the pump to the rest of the boat. The latter of which was then connected to the compressor. I used a funnel to pour some pink into the pump inlet tube and ran it a few seconds.
Next I turned on the compressor and cycled through the whole boat furthest from the compressor back to it, letting the pressure build back up and then quickly opening the taps. Make sure you remove all the restrictor/strainer fittings from the faucets so they flow air easily.
As far as the terlets are concerned, if they are not vacu-flush, run them long enough to get the air clear, and make sure the whole water system is free of rattles or barking due to pooling of water in low lines. Then flush pink through them enough to get to the tank. Make sure the macerator passes pink and to do this, pump out, rinse and pump out again. This should probably be done first anyway since you will have to get enough pink into the heads to get pink out the over board discharge.
Make sure all sinks get a splash of pink. Deb usually stays outside and let's me know when the outlet has a good rosey color. But she doesn't like the macerator part of this job :D.
Leave all the seacocks open. If a flood is coming go to the boat and close them, but leave them open in case water builds up in them.
 
I used to disconnect the line that joined my two tanks on my Silvertons and let them drain out, reconnected in the spring. Always afraid of cracking the fittings at the bottom of the tanks.

The heads are easy to do, like dusty and Dan say provided they are fresh water heads.

I also drain the heater, close it back up and then use the air on both the hot and cold side of the water system.

Easy, no pink needed.
 
I've been using compressed air to blow out my water system for years.....never had any problems. I made a fitting to hook-up to my water heater and my wet-dry vac and suck all the water out....so I don't need to add pink. I also vacuum out the shower sump so no pink in there either. The only place pink goes is in the head and holding tank.
 
Don,

I have a simpler method to pump the water heater. Most heater have a hose bib or fitting to drain at the bottom. Mine has a hose bib. Instead of draining into the bilge, I hook a hose up the the bib, open it, and start to pump air into the heater. The air forces the water out the bottom, thru the hose and I drain into my galley sink. Once it's pumped dry, you close the drain and clear the hot and cold lines.
 
I tried forcing water out of the heater with compressed air.....just wasn't sure if I was getting it all out. So I made a fitting that I hook to the lower drain valve and my w/d vac .....and suck it out that way. My heater is under my aft seating.....way down low and no room .....a real PITA to get to. The other thing I do is....slide out my ice maker and bring it in the house. No pink no air.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top