More Hot Water Heater Winterizing Questions

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Sandy K.

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I too have a standard Seaward 6 gallon water heater - it's located in the master stateroom under the bed. First time winterizing this boat.

Prior owner had installed a HW Heater bypass system.

I closed the inflow valve to the HW heater also the outflow valve from the HW heater. Then I opened the valves on each side of the bypass.

I then attached a hose to the water heater drain and opened up the drain and the pressure valve. Didn't get any water flow, so I tried to get the flow going by sucking on the hose. Got some water but no real flow.

So, I removed the hose and tried it without it - the tank was emptying right into the bilge space under the bed.

While the water was running I believe I heard a bilge pump come on from somewhere - it wasn't the shower sump that is mid-ship. So, I decided to empty the tank right into the space under the bed - it seemed to be draining and not puddling under the HW heater, but I'm not sure exactly where it went.

Can anyone shed any light on this - did I screw it up big time? Is it now safe to add the pink stuff??

Thanks,
 
Not sure why it wouldn't empty with the hose on and did when you removed it. I let mine empty to the bilge then suck it out with the shop vac. Careful to not put the vac itself in the bilge as they aren't ignition protected. If your bypass is open, put the antifreeze in the tank and pump it through all faucets. Don't forget your swim platform shower if you have one, the ice maker and city water inlet.
 
Greg -

Thanks for your reply. I have both fresh and raw water wash downs at the transom - while I do know how to winterize the fresh water wash down, as it's source is the water tank - I'm not sure how to winterize the raw water wash down, live-well or dockside water connection. How do you get the pink to go in??

Also fyi - my ice maker (Raritan Icerette)had specific instructions to not use any anti-freeze in it. Directions have me shutting off the water supply, draining the lines and running the unit dry for a while to ensure there's no water left in it - then the key is to keep the door propped open over the winter to allow air to circulate. Seems when the boat was put away last year, the door was closed and the primary circuit board corroded....

Thanks again,
 
Close the seacock. Disconnect the hose that goes from the through hull to the raw water wash down pump from the seacock. One person raises it above the pump and pours antifreeze in it trhough a funnel. The other person opens the faucet until it runs pink. When the boat is out of the water, open the seacocl and leave it open so any water will drain out.
 
For the raw water washdown, close the seacock then disconnect the hose from the seacock, pour pink anti-freeze into the raw ater intake line with the pump on and have somebody open the tap to let the pink come through the system. I don't know anything about livewells but assume there is a pump to pump raw water into the well? If that's the case, I'd so as you did for the raw water washdown. Good idea to follow. the manufacturers rec re the ice maker. I can't iso;late mine from the fresh water supply to keep the pink out. There are several was to winterize the doside water inlet. Some people push compressed air through. What I do is, I have a small 12 volt bilge pump that i connect to the dockside water inlet with a garden hose . I put the pump in a bucket of pink anti-freeze, hook it up to a 12 volt source and pump the pink antifreeze tharough the system.. Some people winterize thier entire fresh water system that way after they empty the water tank, thus obviating the need for pink in the tank. If you do these procedures once the boat is on the hard, then leave the seacocks open so they can drain any remaining water out of them and thy won't freeze.
 
Thanks for all great advice. I'm actually looking forward to doing it myself this go-around. Marina I'm storing at wants to charge $35 each to winterize the raw water wash down, live-well and dockside water. Sounds like this is going to cost me under $10....
 
The water isn't going to come out of the bottom drain on heater unless you give it some way for air to get into the top. This is usually done by just releasing the over-pressure valve. When I opened the drain valve on my Atwood 10 gallon unit nearly no water came out the bottom. This was after I'd already used the by-pass valve. It wasn't until I opened the top pressure relief valve that it started draining water. My heater is in the engine compartment so I just let the main bilge pump do the work.
 
Dont forget that bilge pump you heard running somewhere but don't know where it is. Wherever it is, it needs pink too.
 
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