Heaters as Alternative to Winterization

J

joeregal

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Has anyone out there used heaters like XTREME in engine compartments as an alternative to winterization?
 
Boatsafe is the heater of choice around the Richmond, VA area. Les has them. I am ordering one as soon as the piggy bank fills back up. You may also want to consider a couple of golden rods to keep the humidity down. I used them in my Regal when it was in dryatack for the winter and had good luck with them.
 
Thanks David. Agree that there are days in the winter I would like to be out in the boat. With some bubblers and heaters like Boatsafe, I'm hoping to get through the winter. Do you know if the heaters have any back up in case of power failure. Interested in any forum comments on this subject.
 
I rely on heaters, BUT, we don't have that many freezing days. BUT....the only time the power goes out in the winter is when we have winter freezing storms that cause trees to fall on power lines. So, its a bit risky.

There is no good backup to a heater other than a fuel fired device such as a generator or diesel furnace.

Frankly, your better off winterizing key systems and then if you want to take the boat out, re-winterize afterwards.

bp
 
Nope, it's 120VAC only. No backup shy of running your gennie when the power goes out. That said, you have to ask yourself, how often do you lose power? It would take the '97 ice storm to start to make a dent. You have to freeze the surrounding water, freeze the blocks, freeze the cast iron.....Overall, we have a vastly improved power grid in VA since I moved here in 1991. My marina is somewhat on the way home from work. I start the engines once per week and stress the gennie as well. It precludes me from having to winterize the boat at all. One of the things I like about my 6.2's is the winterization requires nothing more than blowing out the raw side with an air pump. I would think if you are really concerned you could drain the hot water tank and blow the system out with a tank of compressed air.
 
Joe;
1) where do you keep your boat?
2) why leaving an I/O on the water during winter?
3) how close is your marine from your house, just asking, a power interruption and you can be in trouble.
4) what are you using to cover the boat, a cockpit cover? will it stand an couple of inches of snow on the top?

IMO, it's a risk, rely on a ER heather and not winterizing, even it is expected to be a mild winter, you never know.
 
Mojito: Am in Occoquan not far from my house and have aluminum top on my 3560. Probably not worth my peace of mind and I should have it winterized and wrapped in the slip but it is tempting to have it available during what probably will be a mild winter. planning on putting it on land every other year.
 
When I bought my current boat it had 2 block heaters already installed. Still, I can't trust that the marina power will not fail. Too much to put at risk for an extra few days (maybe) on the water? Even during the summer, the power was out a few times. You know Murphy's Law...I'd guess $70,K per engine times 2. Nope, I'll sleep better winterized.
 
quote:
Originally posted by Capt. Art

When I bought my current boat it had 2 block heaters already installed. Still, I can't trust that the marina power will not fail. Too much to put at risk for an extra few days (maybe) on the water? Even during the summer, the power was out a few times. You know Murphy's Law...I'd guess $70,K per engine times 2. Nope, I'll sleep better winterized.

Click to expand...
Art
I have block heaters in my Cats, use them every winter - once they get the engines up to temp it would take a least a day or 2 for them to drop to any where near freezing
 
There is a lot of weather difference between VA and NY. The days are very seldom below 40*F. As abalmuth says, takes a lot of time to cool iron.
 
I'm sure as you move further south on the coast the period of time that the boat should be "winterized" is shorter and in the surrounding periods a block heater is probably a smart idea, at the very least it is less stress on the motors at start up. not winterizing the water system on the boat is not a good idea unless you are certain that you will never freeze. heating the whole engine room with a space heater sounds like a bunch of money spent on electricity. running antifreeze thru the raw water side of a motor is not a major undertaking and the peace of mind has to be worth its weight in gold. using a block heater to keep the motor above below zero temps in addition to winterizing does make good sense.
 
I have an Xtreme Heater installed in between my twin 5.0s and have it hard wired into the 120VAC system, with a breaker switch on the main panel. I can tell you, it seldom gets below 45 degrees in the day where I'm at, but we see lows down in the teens fairly often. The lake never gets below freezing, so I leave the sterndrive in the water, keep the bilge heater (Xtreme) working, the reverse heat/ac system set to 55 degrees and enjoy the boat year round. Last year we used the 292 EVERY month except February during the winter...Every weekend or Thursday (off on thursdays!!) the daytime high got above 60 degrees, we were out on the water...some days when it was above 50, I went out without the wife and daughter, but that's too much for them. With the camper glass, the sun makes it feel like 75+ in the dead of winter.

I am a big proponent of using bilge heaters and not winterizing if you don't expect the daytime highs to get much below 45 or 50. We do get a good number of ice storms down here but the longest power's been out is 2 days in the last 4 years, and the temperatures just weren't enough for the bilge to get below 40 even, but less the engine itself.
 
I decided last year to not winterize (in MD). Most of the winter was mild, but Feb was brutal. We even lost power at the marina during the coldest spell for about 24 hours. Conclusion, I'll be using heaters again. It takes longer for things to cool down (to "damage" temps) than it does for the power to come back on. Xtreme is the brand I prefer. I purchased directly and was able to speak with the owner, Steve. I had a unique situation (I'm not a Regal owner, as you can tell by the pic on the left), and a cat has different needs than a monohull (although I can say that my buddy with a 3760(?) was quite envious when we were still boating in January, and then again in early March). It took a few tries to get the right heaters for my boat, but Xtreme (& Steve) stood behind their product and kept helping me. I've even got an online monitoring system set up (I guess I can post links to here in BoaterED for folks to watch). It allows me to monitor the temps in areas of the boat from anywhere. It's got it's own web server built in. Plus, it'll e-mail me if temps drop below a certain setting (user defined).
 
quote:
Originally posted by abalmuth

quote:
Originally posted by Capt. Art

When I bought my current boat it had 2 block heaters already installed. Still, I can't trust that the marina power will not fail. Too much to put at risk for an extra few days (maybe) on the water? Even during the summer, the power was out a few times. You know Murphy's Law...I'd guess $70,K per engine times 2. Nope, I'll sleep better winterized.

Click to expand...
Art
I have block heaters in my Cats, use them every winter - once they get the engines up to temp it would take a least a day or 2 for them to drop to any where near freezing

Click to expand...


I do use the heaters but only as a back up if I stay late into the season or get in early as I usually do in Late March or early April. My marina has electric problems Summer & Winter & I don't trust that I'd get a call in time. NYC Winters can & do get below zero.
 
Kurt: Just ordered the XTREME. Interested in details on your online monitoring system.
 
Kurt, can you post some detail of the monitoring system?
Sounds really cool!
 
I use a TemPageR (tempager.com) along with a Netgear WGPS606 wireless print server. The print server connects to my club's WiFi and gives the TemPageR it's IP address (the TemPageR alone doesn't do wireless). I use the built in temp sensor on the TemPageR to monitor my cabin (where I have one Xtreme heater) and then I run 3 others to different areas:

1 - Freshwater tank (heated with livestock heaters from TSC - $30 each...heh, if they said "marine" they'd be more!)
2 - Forward port hull (holding tank and Electro Scan), second Xtreme heater
3 - Outside (for reference)

There was a software upgrade I just installed on the TemPageR that's supposed to allow monitoring from a phone or a PDA, but I haven't seen it in action yet. Last year I just used a web browser on any computer (the TemPageR has it's own built in web server) to check on things. I also had it set to e-mail me if any area on the boat got below 34 degrees.

I'll have it set back up for the winter in a few weeks and will post the IP address so you all can take a look.
 
It's all a fantastic method of watching exactly when your engines will freeze up if the power goes out. This is all good as a backup if you're around to do something about it.
 
I live 45 minutes from my slip, so yes, I am around to do something should the need arise. I check on my boat at least weekly, if not more often. I also don't pull it for the winter. It's warmer to leave the boat in the water with an ice eater running. Most heater companies will recommend not having a boat on the dry if using heaters.

I agree that this isn't for everyone. I've got outboards so there's no issue of engines freezing in my situation (I just back them down and leave them since they're self-draining, starting them once a week to keep them happy). I'm also in MD, and while it can get quite cold (the Chesapeake has been known to freeze completely over) here, typically we aren't that bad. If I see the season is going to be worst-case, I have the option of spending a few hours doing what winterization is needed. My worst loss would be some plumbing. I personally prefer this method over closing everything down for just 2-3 months. But one must do what one is comfortable with.
 
Other than the obvious power going out, if the network or ISP goes out, in all three situations, so will the monitoring system go out. Do you get many false alarms and/or do you go to the marina whenever the connection is out "just in case"? Does it reboot itself?

I think it's cool to be able to remotely "see" the temps, but I guess no system is perfect...except of course, a well winterized vessel.

Up here in NJ, January and February are, IMHO, just too risky to leave things unattended for the 2-3 times I might actually use the boat...again...IMHO

I do keep a 750W boatsafe in my bilge, but not as a way to avoid winterizing, but instead as a means to minimize my winterized period (Mid December - March 1)and to keep the moisture levels in the bilge down to a minimum.
 
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