Winterizing AC unit backwards?

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R

RM

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Heard of people witerizing their ac unit by running AF backwards, in thru the overflow throughhull, and it comes out the intake.

My is an AC w/ reverse cycle heat, any issue with doing this? Would be much easier as the strainer and pump are very difficult to get to.
 
I use my air compressor and blow air into the overflow through hull fitting. The water comes out the intake strainer. However, the water doesn't come out of the strainer housing. I still need to remove the strainer housing and empty it. Not that big a deal, as the strainer needs to be cleaned any way. I think pumping antifreeze would work much the same way.

eric
 
No problem doing it this way, just be certain that the thru-hull is open and if multiple a/c units aboard you must flush thru each discharge.
Don't neglect cleaning the strainer especially since it has difficult access.
 
As many others have mentioned, buy a cheap bilge pump, some hose that fits the pump and goes into the discharge hole, stick the pump in a bucket of pink and your done in 2 minutes (obviously open the seacock as starfishkiller says).
 
Without trying to overly belabor the topic, you could purchase one of these inexpensive kits at your favorite boat supplier....

winterizatoinpumpkit.jpg


...And just stick one end in the bucket, and the other end either in the overboard dicharge or on the AC strainer via a 'kit' like this and pump away.....

PB081095.jpg


You can also use the pump for the freshwater system if you want. I just use it to get that last little bit of pink into the shore water pressure regulator...

PB081091.jpg


It's simple, cheap and needs no AC/DC power....
 
I love this idea and would like to winterize in this manner. My only concern is that ac pumps typically have some small tubes which channel some of the water flow to the motor for cooling.I am wondering how this part of the sytem would be winterized?
 
The pump also fills with antifreeze in a retrograde manner when you winterize like this. Haven't lost a pump yet doing it this way.
 
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