Winterizing

[Randomwake]

We some cold temperatures coming to our area (-12c) I have a 34 CHB. Curious if I need to winterize the raw water running through the engine? Also looking for techniques for wintering the salt water manual pump heads, I know I can use RV fluid for the bowl and exit lines, but not sure about the inlet lines. As far as all the fresh water, I just pumped out the tanks until they were blowing air and left all Taps open, is this good enough or should I blow or suck out the lines, not going to use antifreeze as we use tanks for drinking.

I have 1500w electric heater going in the boat so I should be above freezing, but the bathrooms could freeze.

TIA!

 

[Comodave]

We used to winterize our boats but now we have heated storage. For the engines I used a SeaFlush adapter that fit in the top of the strainer. Simple to use. It had a hose that upu put in a 5 gallon bucket. Close the through hull and start the engine.

For the freshwater system I just put the antifreeze into the tank and pump it through the system after isolating the water heater. But you could use compressed ait to blow them empty. The only thing is you may not get all of the water out of the hoses.

Be careful running a heater with the boat unattended, lots of boat fires from doing that.

As to the head you could take the intake hose off the seacock and put it in a bucket of antifreeze and pump it through the head.

 

[jgwinks]

For the domestic water system I take the drain hose off the tank and put it in an AF jug. Run all the faucets till AF comes out. No AF in the tank. In the spring it flushes out quickly so no problem drinking the water. Before I learned that trick I put it in the tank, it would take half the summer for the taste to go away. It's helpful to bypass the water heater otherwise you'll have to fill it with AF before it goes anywhere else. I take the in and out lines off the heater and connect them together, then drain the heater. There will be a little water left inside but it has lots of room to expand so won't hurt anything. Some people do use compressed air on the water system. No AF so free if you already have the compressor. Same method, take the tank hose off and connect to compressor, run till all taps run dry.
For the engines I take the hose off the seacock, put it in an AF bucket and run the engine till it comes out the exhaust. 3 or 4 gallons each on mine.
I do the same on the raw water toilets. Just pouring it in the bowl won't get all of the pump and lines treated. Current boat has fresh water toilets so they're just another faucet to run when doing the system. Note I'm in Michigan so winter is serious. Weeks below freezing, sometimes days below 0F.

 

[PM]

Wait, What??

12 degrees centigrade is 54 degrees fahrenheit. Not even sweater weather.

pete

 

[jgwinks]

Minus 12 C. 10.4 F. Cold enough!

 

[PM]

Sorry, I missed the - sign.

pete

 

[C lectric]

I'm not far south of you. We have pretty much the same forecast.

The water tanks are drained, the lines are bled although I don;t expect them to freeze as they are mostly in the bowels, lowest point, of the E.R. I leave the taps open slightly.
I drain the HWT, & the drinking water accumulator.

Ensure the engine A.F is up to snuff.

I Pink the pumps: 1 bilge diaphragm, the toilet and its manual pump by pulling the hose off the seacock and using a 2L saucepan to pump the Pink from, then two gal. into the holding tank poured into the toilet which I then pump out with the holding tank pump which also takes care of that pump.

I pink the engine raw water side of the heat exchanger by pulling the through hull hose off and putting into a 5 gal bucket with pink in it and 2 or 3 more jugs at hand which I pour in as fast as I can. Once nearly empty I shut the engine down as fast as I can.

THe drinking water pressure pump I Pink but it is disconnected entirely from the rest of the water system and use a 2L saucepan to hold and circulate the Pink from and back to. I reverse to rinse once spring shows.

I ensure the batts are charged.

I too have a ceramic heater but it is run on the 1000W setting and is of course controlled by a thermostatic switch , for baseboard heaters, to operate if the temp. drops below about 4 or 5o C.

We did not want my friend to have to do anything other than check the boat
which of course did not work out quite to plan the first two years.

Hope this helps.

If you have specific questions , ask.

 

[ranger58sb]

We some cold temperatures coming to our area (-12c) I have a 34 CHB. Curious if I need to winterize the raw water running through the engine?

Also looking for techniques for wintering the salt water manual pump heads, I know I can use RV fluid for the bowl and exit lines, but not sure about the inlet lines.

As far as all the fresh water, I just pumped out the tanks until they were blowing air and left all Taps open, is this good enough or should I blow or suck out the lines, not going to use antifreeze as we use tanks for drinking.

Engines: yes.

Heads: don't know.

Freshwater system: Yes; you can use an air compressor to blow out all the lines. Drain your water heater first, then use air to force the water level lower in the heater. (That might be sufficient; consult you water heater manual.) Then do the rest of the lines with the compressed air. Disconnect your freshwater pump on both sides, and "bump" a little AF through that, too.

-Chris

 

[Waterant]

I have 1500w electric heater going in the boat so I should be above freezing, but the bathrooms could freeze.
TIA!

One thing to keep in mind - many marinas (like mine in Virginia) do not guarantee power during the winter. I would not rely on the heater because the marina can cut the power at the worse possible moment during the winter storm, and you will lose your engine heat exchanger, hot water tank, air conditioners, and a lot of other nasty things.

-12C is not a joke, and any water you have in your systems will freeze and expand. In my boat, the previous owner forgot to drain the heat exchanger on one engine, which caused the end cups to deform Took me many, many hours to get to it by removing a lot of other things first in order to remove the exchanger, and those cups there not cheap. But it could be a lot worse

Here is my winterization procedure (I had to do that 3 times this fall because the boat is very far from me, and I did not know if I would come again before the freeze)
and it requires only 2 gal of antifreeze which is not bad for a 43' boat with 200Gal in 2 water tanks.

Winterize engines (Yanmars 6LY)

- Close seacocks
- Open 3 raw water drain points on each engine
- Blow out engines with compressed air via zink hole
- Drain mufflers
- Drain raw water strainers
- Open fresh water pump cover
- Spray wd40 on the engine and tools
- Spray electric protection on the battery basses and power bars

Winterize AC units

- Close seacocks on AC pump
- Drain AC pump strainer
- Take off the outlet hose from the pump
- Connect the air compressor adapter (compressed air to 3/4 hose barb)
- Blow out all 3 AC one by one by opening valves (I installed a closing valve on each water line going to AC units)

Winterize washer/drier

- Put 2 cups of RV antifreeze into the soap dispenser
- Run winterize cycle
- Open coin trap, drain water

Winterize freshwater system

- Close off dock water
- Drain both water tanks
- Open the kitchen water faucet
- Drain the hot water tank
- Start blowing the air into the freshwater system with a compressor (I installed a T with a compressed air connector right after the freshwater dock inlet because the inlet has a pressure regulator inside)
- Keep draining the hot water tank until empty - compressed air will push most of the water out
- Close cold water "in" feed on the water heater
- Close the hot water "out" line from the water heater (this will loop the system around the water heater)
- Open sinks and shower faucets one by one (do not forget the swim platform shower and bow deck outlet) and wait until no water droplets are coming out before closing
- Keep at least one faucet always open so the system is not over-pressurized
- Stop air compressor
- Check and pump out all bilge compartments
- Pump antifreeze with "dry bilge" pump to get it into the pump and the strainer
- Put RV antifreeze into shower drains, sink drains, and the toilets

 

[HeadMistress]

- Put RV antifreeze into shower drains, sink drains, and the toilets
If your toilets are designed to use pressurized fresh water, you winterize them when you winterized the fresh water system, so you only need to winterize the holding tank(s), which can be done by pumping out and thoroughly rinsing out the tank, then adding antifreeze to it via the toilet.


But just flushing antifreeze down a sea water toilet will not winterize the toilet because the antifreeze will not recirculate through the pump or channel in the rim of the bowl, often resulting in a bowl that's cracked at the rim. To winterize a sea water toilet and holding tank, also start by pumping out and rinsing out the tank, then disconnect the flush water intake line from the thru-hull (close the seacock first!) and stick it into a jug of antifreeze. Flush the toilet. How much antifreeze to flush depends on size of your holding tank.

--Peggie

 

[Waterant]

Thanks Peggie,
My toilets are freshwater but it's a good point for someone with seawater flush.

 

[rslifkin]

For my raw water flush heads, the easy button is to pull the hose off the seacock for each one and stuff it in a bottle of antifreeze, then have the Admiral flush enough through to get through the lines and into the tank. Takes care of everything in the line without worrying about draining anything, missing anything, etc.

 

[SteveK]

We some cold temperatures coming to our area (-12c) I have a 34 CHB. Curious if I need to winterize the raw water running through the engine? Also looking for techniques for wintering the salt water manual pump heads, I know I can use RV fluid for the bowl and exit lines, but not sure about the inlet lines. As far as all the fresh water, I just pumped out the tanks until they were blowing air and left all Taps open, is this good enough or should I blow or suck out the lines, not going to use antifreeze as we use tanks for drinking.

I have 1500w electric heater going in the boat so I should be above freezing, but the bathrooms could freeze.

TIA!

Hey OP, do you have an IR gun? what is the air temp inside the boat, the water in the heads, the engine block. Besides the 1500w heater which could lose power on Wednesday wind storm. you have a heat source under the boat that today was 7.2C or 46.8F, both above freezing. An air temp today of -6C.
Until the inside of the boat becomes 0*C or below why would anything freeze.
Just saying as I have never winterized a boat in the water just above the 49th

 

[Spinner]

My boat is in Burrard Inlet, in the Fraser River last winter when the river was full of ice floes…. My solution is to run the built-in electric heaters inside the boat, keep my engine oil pan heater plugged in, and run an engine room heater inside the lazarette (where the water tank and water pump are located). The water is only at about 45 degrees F, so I should be fine!

 

[Steve DAntonio]

Winterization guidance...

Vessel: https://stevedmarineconsulting.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Winterizing-your-Vessel.pdf

Fuel System: https://stevedmarineconsulting.com/winterizing-your-fuel-system/

Batteries: https://stevedmarineconsulting.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/gearhead-nov-17.pdf

Merry Christmas and all the best for the New Year to TF members...

 

[Pcpete]

We are just coming out of a nasty cold event in the PNW. Not Midwest cold, but attention getting. I usually am dry stored but this month the boat is in the saltwater for our Yacht Club “Holiday on the Docks” event. I closed the through hulls and poured the pink into the strainers with the engines running for the raw water systems. I’m plugged in and have the salon and master stateroom heaters going plus two low temp heaters with low speed fans in the engine room going. In addition I have sunbrella covers for the engine room vents and they make a huge difference. I use the same configuration when the boat is on the hard in its home stall and haven’t seen the low in the engine room get below 40 degrees F.

 

[grandbanksbayfield]

Winterhize?

Baters throughout the U.S. just got their answer to that question this week unless they live in the southern third of FL. WINTERIZE