New winterizing mod - done!

[Justin_NSA]

I already winterized this season but this was a project I wanted to get done for the future. I'm wanting to avoid having to pour RV antifreeze in my fresh water tank to winterize my potable water lines, pump, valves etc. I just don't like it sitting at the bottom of the water tank all winter long. I've already installed plumbing to bypass the water heater with a couple diverter valves before I winterize. This just completes my winterization process: I have used the same diverter on the main supply line after to water tank so I can draw antifreeze into the system without the tank. I also replaced the PB line with PEX. The before and after pictures are taken in the floor, just in front(behind?) of the V berth. There's a removable floor panel that just lifts up. Once the tank is drained of water, I turn the diverter and draw antifreeze from the jug. The clear line stows in the small space when I'm done. I tested it and it all works as expected.

 

[Don S/V ILLusion]

If the tank is drained, what can do damage by freezing?

 

[Tally Ho]

If the tank is drained, what can do damage by freezing?

I assume he is pushing water out of the rest of the fresh water system.

I do something similar, but not quite as “automatic”. I remove the water line from the tank and I have a short piece of hose with a fitting that screws onto the hose from the water tank. The extra hose let’s me put the end in a bottle of AF, and turn on the water pump. Then open the faucets and run AF through the water system.

Greg

 

[Justin_NSA]

Greg, effectively that's what I'm doing. I just no longer have to disconnect fittings for my hot water and freshwater tanks. Just flip some levers.

 

[SeaCure]

I can justify antifreeze in the motor but how much did I get in the ground water. Scotch doesn’t freeze and I have two water tanks.
rebottle the scotch in spring “aged in faux teak”.

Seriously the bottle of red juice the first time you buy it you’re questioning the whole water tank thing and decided you’ll never get a glass of water from that tank. It takes days to flush it out.
A better solution must be out there.
I have two golden rods to circulate air in the winter a beater solar panel and a raspberry pi watching it all. The temperature and humidity sensors tell the truth every 30 seconds. I read -23C last winter. The solar panel is over 20years old made in Flint and it’s still at 80% but sure not capable of heating the boat but it could heat a coil in a water storage tank. ???

 

[jaysweet]

I assume he is pushing water out of the rest of the fresh water system.

I do something similar, but not quite as “automatic”. I remove the water line from the tank and I have a short piece of hose with a fitting that screws onto the hose from the water tank. The extra hose let’s me put the end in a bottle of AF, and turn on the water pump. Then open the faucets and run AF through the water system.

Greg

That's exactly what I've been doing, although only for a couple of years now. Since my fresh water tank probably has a couple of gallons still in it when the pickup tube starts to suck air, adding antifreeze to the tank always seemed like a huge waste. You dilute the heck out of it, and then pump the diluted antifreeze through the rest of the system. Since I installed an access hatch on the top of the fresh water tank, I can ladle and sponge the tank completely dry, and then disconnect the pickup line, add a length of clear tubing to it, and stick that in a gallon of antifreeze, so I'm pumping pure antifreeze into the water lines.

 

[njlarry]

Less work and no pink stuff in tank or lines once you find a way to hook an air compressor up to your water system. A shore water supply connection makes it super easy. Now we just use pink stuff in the drains and non alcohol antifreeze in the engine. Water tank is emptied and once air empties the water heater a water heater by pass is no longer needed. Of course there are many other ways to winterize that work well also.

 

[Dalliance]

Good job! After thinking about something like this for years, I actually also just did it this fall with three way valves added to my water line near the tank and my head fresh water intake line just above the seacock. In both cases, the anti-freeze line just coils up and lays in the lockers. There’s nothing much stored there anyway. I also finally added a winterizing bypass kit on the water heater. The biggest issue there was space. Not even a millimeter to spare.
I spent probably spent around $200 total on materials, but it was well worth it to me. Winterizing was so much easier this year. Much faster, no more frustration getting hoses off of hose barbs with increasingly arthritic fingers, and less clean up.

 

[Tally Ho]

Good job! After thinking about something like this for years, I actually also just did it this fall with three way valves added to my water line near the tank and my head fresh water intake line just above the seacock. In both cases, the anti-freeze line just coils up and lays in the lockers. There’s nothing much stored there anyway. I also finally added a winterizing bypass kit on the water heater. The biggest issue there was space. Not even a millimeter to spare.
I spent probably spent around $200 total on materials, but it was well worth it to me. Winterizing was so much easier this year. Much faster, no more frustration getting hoses off of hose barbs with increasingly arthritic fingers, and less clean up.
View attachment 211202

Nice, clean installation.

 

[Dalliance]

I like this system so much that I did the same thing with my engine this summer. Just used it to winterize the engine yesterday and it’s so quick and mess free.

What I did was add a three way valve to the engine side of my raw water strainer and run 15 ft of 1/2” hose from that to the bilge with more than three feet of hose laying loose in the bilge. To winterize, just pull the hose out of the bilge, stick it direct into jugs of antifreeze and flip the valve lever. Engine winterized in less than five minutes with no mess to clean up.

This system also allows the engine to function as an emergency bilge pump. For that purpose, I made a custom stainer for the end of the hose with a six inch long piece of brass pipe. I drilled 128 holes 3/32” dia in it and closed the end with a cork. The strainer is just friction fit into the hose, no hose clamp, so it’s easy to pull out for winterizing, which is the primary purpose.

 

[Tally Ho]

I winterized Tally Ho the afternoon I hauled out, in about 1 hour.

- I already drained the water tank, by-passed the water heater and drained it while I was waiting to haul out.
- I topped off fuel and pumped out holding tank while waiting for haulout.

- Once on the hard, I pulled the hose off the engine intake, put in a gallon jug of AF…ran 2 gals though and shut down the engine.
- I pulled the intake hose off the strainer for the toilet…pumped a gallon of AF through the head.
- I pulled the hose off the water tank, put it in a gallon jug of AF, and ran a gallon through fresh water system to all faucets.

I connected all of the hoses and had a beer!

Went back the next day and installed the winter cover.

Tally Ho is ready for a long winters nap.

Had our first snow on Halloween

Greg

 

[Ward H]

@Justin_NSA Nice job.
We condisdered something like that but space in that area is very limited so we did something else.

We only use our v-berth water tank, which has the outlet an inch or two above the bottom of the tank. It acts as a sump. Particulates appear to settle into the area when the boat is at least. The tank also has a 5" clean out port on top.
After the first couple of winters wasting AF as it was diluted in the water at the bottom of the tank and in the spring having to flush out the remaining AF with several tank fulls of water, I decided to look for a better way.
First I installed a by pass for the water heater. Now open the by pass and drain the heater.
I had bought a small wet/dry shop vac, 1.5 Gal IIRC, to clean suck out condensate from the ice box and other uses around the boat.
So second, I vacuum out the water tank sump after the pump stops drawing water. I then put enough AF in the tank to keep the outlet covered while AF while I open each outlet one at a time, starting with the one furthest from the pump, until all flow good and pink.
Then I dump the shop vac and vacuum out the 100% AF that is left in the water tank sump and dump that into the drains and head.
In the spring I follow Peggy's recommendation for sanitizing the water system and after I pump the first tank of fresh water I vacuum out the water tank sump again. This seems to help to get rid of the bleach smell fast.

The side benefit of this procedure is the sump gets vacuumed dry a couple of times a year so less crud gets pulled into the fresh water system.

For the engine and air conditioning cooling water, I have the same Groco Water Strainer that Dalliance shows in his photo. I bought a second cap that has a hose barb installed into it. I put in this cap and connect the hose to a bucket with a spigot mounted on the side at the bottom. I put the AF in the bucket and run it through the strainer into the engine and into the air conditioner strainers.

 

[Apex]

I use a dedicated vacuum hose: suck out the last bits of water in the tanks, and then move to the water intake manifold (2 water tanks) suck out remaining supply lines, then send AF through the system at that point. No ladling or sponging required

 

[sailme88]

All of my supply water lines have brass garden hose couplings. The tanks empty into the bilge before haul out, and the water just goes over the side. The hot water heater has a bypass manifold that will push RV antifreeze thru all of the water lines. While the RV antifreeze is non toxic, I prefer to use drinking water from bottles and jugs. It takes about a half gallon to treat the lines.As lines are purged, there is a water mix before the straight antifreeze is in place. The mix is captured and dumped into the head. The diluted mix goes to the holding tank ( that was previously emptied) and pumped into a 55 gal drum. The straight antifreeze goes thru the head to the tank and also pumped.. Insures little or no dilution in the macerating pump.

 

[Peggie Hall HeadMistress]

Adding antifreeze to the tank by just flushing it down the toilet does NOT winterize a sea water toilet because it just goes out the discharge line..none of it gets into the flush water intake line, pump and channel in the rim of bowl. To do it correctly, it's necessary to disconnect the intake line from the thru-hull (close the seacock first!!) and stick it into a jug of antifreeze....flush the toilet to pull the antifreeze all the way through the toilet and into the tank. Or, if you've teed your toilet intake line into the head sink drain line, just close the sink drain thru-hull, pour the antifreeze down the sink and flush the toilet...pulling the antifreeze out of the sink and through the intake line, pump, channel in the rim of the bowl and out the discharge line to the tank.

Read "Winterizing Plumbing" in the Plumbing and Sanitation forum for these instructions, instructions for winterizing fresh water toilets, and instructions for winterizing fresh water systems with or without antifreeze.

--Peggie

 

[NYSail]

Many ways to skin a cat…… past few years I’ve been using compressed air for my water lines as well as my air conditioner. Drain the water heater, but still flush antifreeze down the toilets, pour into drains and run through engine. Know someone that vacuums engine and drains out as well and uses no antifreeze…….

Greg
s/v Souleil

 

[sailme88]

Adding antifreeze to the tank by just flushing it down the toilet does NOT winterize a sea water toilet because it just goes out the discharge line..none of it gets into the flush water intake line, pump and channel in the rim of bowl. To do it correctly, it's necessary to disconnect the intake line from the thru-hull (close the seacock first!!) and stick it into a jug of antifreeze....flush the toilet to pull the antifreeze all the way through the toilet and into the tank. Or, if you've teed your toilet intake line into the head sink drain line, just close the sink drain thru-hull, pour the antifreeze down the sink and flush the toilet...pulling the antifreeze out of the sink and through the intake line, pump, channel in the rim of the bowl and out the discharge line to the tank.

Read "Winterizing Plumbing" in the Plumbing and Sanitation forum for these instructions, instructions for winterizing fresh water toilets, and instructions for winterizing fresh water systems with or without antifreeze.

--Peggie

Peggie, I have a fresh water head that uses water from a dedicated onboard water tank. The feed to the electric macerating head has it's own pump that engages when the flush button is depressed. The feed line to the pump has a garden hose coupling that gets removed and a pick up hose installed. The end of that hose goes into a gallon jug of antifreeze. the flush button is depressed until the gallon is emptied. All aspects of the system get winterized..

 

[Don S/V ILLusion]

I winterized Tally Ho the afternoon I hauled out, in about 1 hour.

- I already drained the water tank, by-passed the water heater and drained it while I was waiting to haul out.
- I topped off fuel and pumped out holding tank while waiting for haulout.

- Once on the hard, I pulled the hose off the engine intake, put in a gallon jug of AF…ran 2 gals though and shut down the engine.
- I pulled the intake hose off the strainer for the toilet…pumped a gallon of AF through the head.
- I pulled the hose off the water tank, put it in a gallon jug of AF, and ran a gallon through fresh water system to all faucets.

I connected all of the hoses and had a beer!

Went back the next day and installed the winter cover.

View attachment 221128

Tally Ho is ready for a long winters nap.

Had our first snow on Halloween

Greg

Looks like the straps on the travel lift left some nice blue traces. any permanent damage?

 

[Tally Ho]

Looks like the straps on the travel lift left some nice blue traces. any permanent damage?

No…just some color from the straps.

i will have clean and wax in the spring. My hull gel coat is not in the best of shape and she needs some love.

i usually launch a month before they turn the water on at the marina in the spring…so hard to wash the boat before I splash

Greg