Winterize Water System

Drain the tank first Jim!!!!!

Mine has a garden hose bib on it and I hook a garden hose to it so I can use the air to force the water out thru the drain bib, out thru the hose and overboard. When I do this I keep the hot water side of the faucets closed so the air WILL push the water out of the water heater.

I don't drain my heater into the bilge.

If you don't have a hose bib, drain the tank out into the bilge.

Once that is done, close the drain then pump air thru the heater to blow out the hot water lines.
 
Mine just has input and output and over temp/pressure valve. I long ago put two unions on the tank, female side of the union plumbed to the tank on the hot, male plumbed to the cold. I unhook both of them and connect the tubes together, tank drained and by-passed.
Like I said before air will work on some boats, air does not replace the water in the tubing but will blow most of it out, problems come when the water that is left comes back and settles in low spots.
 
As long as the little bit of water has room to expand (and a little bit won't expand very much) there should be a problem. Right? Isn't the whole point to prevent full water pipes and water heaters from freezing and expanding to the bursting point? I don't see that a small amount of water at the bottom of the tank or in a low spot in a hose would cause any problems. maybe a small amount of pink in the water heater (talking tablespoons) to prevent the water from causing rust, but I don't see the problem of a little water here and there. But that just logic. Don't let it get in the way of facts. ;)
 
Don't put pink in the water heater. Over time it will corrode the liner of the tank. Unless yours is glass or stainless steel lined.
 
Even a small amount of water remaining in the low points of your water system can burst a pipe when it freezes. Using air to blow the water out of the lines seems like a good idea, but I never feel confident that there isn't a small amount that will collect in the low points.

I put a little extra bleach in the main tank, then pump it dry. I open the drain on the hot water heater and leave it open all winter. I attach the by-pass line around the water heater. I then disconnect the supply line to the pump and let it run until only air comes out of each faucet. I then put the pump supply line in a gallon of RV anti-freeze and pump until antifreeze comes out of each faucet. This only takes about 1 gallon.

No anti-freeze ever touches the main tank or the water heater. Flushing out in the spring involves only pumping a little fresh water through each of the lines.

Mike
 
I thought to use my wet dry vac to blow air through the lines then add a little pink to my water tank and pump that through using a gallon or two just to be sure. The head... I put some in bowl and pump that around so all areas are protected.
 
My water heater has a drain valve on it. Would it be sufficient to just open the valve and let it all drain out, then leave the valve open all winter?
I don't have the ability to get a compressor down to my boat to blow things out.
What is the best way to by pass the hot water heater. I imagine it would be to remove the hot water outlet and cold wter inlets and get something to connect the two together. Then I can just drain the fresh water tank by opening all the faucets, put in a couple of gallons of pink A/F, and open the faucets until it comes out of each. I was thinking I would turn off the pump once I see pink coming out of each, and then leave the faucets open for the winter just in case.
How about this as an alternative: I drain the fresh water tank. Put about 8 gallons of pink A/F in, open the fauctes until pink comes out, shut off the fresh water pump, and then open the drain on the hot water heater and let all the pink in there drain out. I figure that way and water sitting in the bottom of the heater will at least be diluted with pink, and leaving the drain valve open for the winter will leave enough room for expansion if any.
I don't care about the price of the pink A/F, and I never use the water from my fresh water tank for drinking, ice, or anything like that.
Note: I previously kept my boat in a yard for the winter and that meant they had to do all the winterizing. This is the first time I'm winterizing this boat.
 
If you drain the water heater and then add pink to your tank, the pump will fill the water tank with pink first, before you get any pressure to the cold side. It's still not a good idea to have any pink in the heater.

Try and bypass the hot water, I used to take a piece of hose (proper size) and 2 hose clamps and join the inlet and outlet hose that are on the heater. Then drain the water heater, the pump the tank dry.

You can then fill the tank with pink and run thru all the faucets, hot and cold.

Do you have a dock side water supply? You have to deal with that too if you have one.
 
2 yrs in a row the line from my fresh water tank froze and split the copper pipe from the tank to the fresh water pump. I had 1st ran the tank dry then disconnected the fresh water line at the pump leaving it disconnected over the winter. In the spring the copper pipe had froze splitting the pipe.
Point it doesnt take much water to freeze and split a copper pipe.
Just my 2 cents
Bert
 
You can buy a buypass hose at most marine stores 10 or 15 bucks. Bypass the heater than put 2 gallons in the tank. Start with the faucet furthest from the tank and work your way back turning on and off till pink comes out.
Al
 
I use air too. I don't have a dock side connector so what I do is disconnect the hose on the outlet side of the pump, drain everything, including the water heater and then get an extra person to help. I have them open the faucets a few times to make sure all the water is out while I pump the air in the outlet hose using an air blower nozzle (the trigger type not sure what they call it). I only use the pink in my toilet and the tank it pumps into (-50) and I use it in my engine (-100).
 
quote:
Originally posted by CurrentSea

Its not the money, its the pink crap in the water tank and the system.

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Let's say that 1 quart of pink is in the the fresh water tank. Come spring you add 5 gallons of fresh water to the tank; it is now diluted to 4.76%. Flush that out. That's still a fairly high percentage but leaves 1.5 ounces of pink in the remaining quart that can't be pumped out. Add 5 more gallons of water and the amount of pink is .227%. Assuming that you can not get the last quart out, that equates to .073ths of an ounce of pink left in the water tank (less than 1/10 of an ounce). Granted, you may never get it all out. Adding 5 more gallons of fresh water and draining until the last quart remain leaves only .0035th of an ounce left in the tank. So in 15 minutes of adding and pumping fresh water from the water tank, the amount of pink left in the tank is much less the amount of pink that would be left on the tip of your finger if you dip it in pure antifreeze. Add 50 gallons of fresh water; I don't think you would be able to detect the pink antifreeze at this point.
 
I just did my water system with the compressed air...I don't have a hose hook-up for my boat, so I removed the outlet from the water pump...I had to buy a valve from Wally World...Cost was under 3 bucks...I then needed an adapter to fit the Valve to the outlet from the water pump...under 4 bucks...
I don't have a large compressor so I used the small one that fits into your cigarette lighter...I closed all the taps and opened the drain on the hot water tank...I then turned the compressor on and lots of water was blown out the open hot water tank drain...I then closed the tank drain and let the system charge with air...I then opened the taps in the boat one at a time until just air came out...If there is any water left in the system it will be such a small amount that I would expect it to just crystallize and not expand to the point where it will do any damage...We will see in the spring...

Picture152.jpg
 
quote:
Originally posted by carver 2557

I just did my water system with the compressed air...I don't have a hose hook-up for my boat, so I removed the outlet from the water pump...I had to buy a valve from Wally World...Cost was under 3 bucks...I then needed an adapter to fit the Valve to the outlet from the water pump...under 4 bucks...
I don't have a large compressor so I used the small one that fits into your cigarette lighter...I closed all the taps and opened the drain on the hot water tank...I then turned the compressor on and lots of water was blown out the open hot water tank drain...I then closed the tank drain and let the system charge with air...I then opened the taps in the boat one at a time until just air came out...If there is any water left in the system it will be such a small amount that I would expect it to just crystallize and not expand to the point where it will do any damage...We will see in the spring...

Picture152.jpg


Click to expand...


What is under that black cap at the top of the set-up?
What section of Wal-mart did you get the white plastic portion in? I don't remember seeing anything like that.
I'm surprised that you were able to get enough pressure out of a little cigarette lighter compressor.
 
I got it in the RV section of the Walmart in Ogdensburg NY...
Under the black cap are the holes for the air to go in...It's just a cover to keep dirt out...
It takes a few minutes with the small compressor to build up pressure, but worked fine...

Picture153.jpg
 
Looks good, but how do you direct the air from the little 12 volt compressor in to that nipple?
 
I use an air compressor on our 300 DA. It's a piece of cake. I disconnect the hot water tank, drain the fresh water tank and then apply air pressure opening the valves one at a time until there is not air. I have a small tank, maybe a one or two gallon air tank that builds pressure to 100 PSI and shuts off. I push the nozzle into the hose and pull the trigger. I have a helper telling me when it's just air and we move on to the next one. I usually do one line and then wait for the pressure to build and do the next one.

I can taste the RV antifreeze and hate it! We drink the water from our tank and keep it clean. On our 250 DA I got some of the pink stuff with a mint flavor and I flushed it for weeks and could still taste the mint! We didn't even have a hot water tank on that boat! I use compressed air on our travel trailer as well and it's just so much easier.
 
Robyns Nest,
Thanks for confirming what I believed to be true. The last few years I blew out the water(via the dockside connection), drained the water heater, then chickened out and put the pink stuff in. The next season, I had to flush close to 400 gallons of water to get rid of the pink smell (I hold 200 gallons of water).

So,
I guess the only concern I shoud have is the water pump itself since that is not inline with the dockside connection, is that true?

Thanks
Walter
 
Yes, if you aren't using pink in the tank, disconnect the water supply line to the pump and let it drain out, you might have to loosen the output side as well to break the vacuum so the supply side will drain.
 
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