40 ft O Day winterizing water system

[captcrly]

40 ft O Day
How do you winterize water system?
I presently use a lot of antifreeze after flushing water tanks and then filling them with several gals. of pink stuff .. very time-consuming.. any ideas, please... you can e mail me at captcrly@early.com

 

[twodzusfittings]

So first my disclaimer: I'm not an expert but I've done this for the last fifteen years with success. Also I do not have a hot water heater. Still need to buy one and install.

This is how I do it. Yes it takes a little longer but I am happy with the results.
1. Add 1oz of household bleach to each tank. (I have two tanks)
2. Fill water tanks with water to the top.
3. Go find other stuff to do as to let the bleach do some self cleaning.
4. Empty tanks completely
4a. Flush the tanks with clean water and empty again.
5. Add two gallons of Starbrite anti freeze per tank.. Use the -50 and make sure it has alcohol in it. (Its the cheaper product.)
6. Run the pump and open the taps in the head and galley and anywhere else you have a tap, to fill the lines with the anti freeze.
7. When this has been achieved shut down pumps.
8. Leave taps open.
9. If you have self leveling hoses and shut offs for your tanks, then make sure they are also filled with antifreeze and are open
10. Much colder climates use -100

Don't forget the head itself, the galley and head sinks. If you have thru hull shut offs your need to fill your hoses with antifreeze.

Again, this is how I do it, right , wrong or indifferent!

 

[Peggie Hall HeadMistress]

If you go to the Plumbing and Sanitation forum the very first post is a "sticky" (permanently moored) "Winterizing Plumbing" that provides step-by-step instructions for sanitation systems and both with and without antifreeze methods fo winterizing fresh water systems.

--Peggie

 

[Tally Ho]

I have an O’Day 322, and have set up the boat to more easily and quickly winterize…

1) drain both water tanks (I have a port and starboard tank). I do this my monitoring towards the end of the season and judiciously fill only what I need. Then just turn on the faucet on haul-out day and run the tank empty.

2) by pass the water heater…I have 3. Aloes that allow me to do this…if you don’t have that, you can remove hot and cold water lines from WH and connect them with an appropriate nipple. This saves 6 or gallons of AF.

3) drain WH. On my boat, I can remove a scupper drain (above the water line) and put the drain hose out of the hull (even while in the water). I also blow air pressure into the tank (I use the T&P valve) with a small compressor to force the water out. Once empty, I close the drain valve. I consider the WH good for the winter (make sure the power is off now until you refill in the spring).

4) I remove the outlet to one of my water tanks, and connect a short piece of hose (with an appropriate connection) to the water hose. That extension goes into a bottle of AF, and I turn on both faucets - galley and head - and both hot and cold taps. After that tank, I repeat the process with the 2nd tank. That runs 2 gallons of AF through the Potable water system. And no AF in the tanks! A little water in the tank will not cause an issue. Never had an issue.

5) Toilet - pump put tank day of haulout…this gets my engine warm for oil change). Then I remove the water hose from the lake water strainer and connect the little extension hose to it…the end goes in another gallon of AF…pump head (fill mode) to get all water displaced with AF, through the pump, in the rim of the bowl, etc. Athena pump in Empty mode. I suck the water out of the strainer with a shop vac and pour in some AF. Toilet is done.

6) engine - good time to change oil. I only do it every other year…but at end of season.

7) winterize engine…after boat is hauled out and sitting on jacks stands or wherever…
I remove the water intake from the engine strainer, put a short extention on the hose and…you guessed it. Put it in a gallon of AF…start engine and monitor AF level, when to the bottom, run a second gallon through. That is 2 gallons through the engine, water lift muffler and out the exhaust. I have a Yanmar 2GM20F. Once I am done I suck water out of the strainer and add some AF in the strainer.

8) any open jugas of AF get dumped into the bilge.

9) If I am going to be away from the boat for a long time, I disconnect the battery cables to endure no parasitic loads on the batteries. If I am going to working on the boat every week or 2, I don’t disconnect. Instead, I run an extension Cord to the boat and run the battery charger when I am there. Make sure batteries were topped off with water and fully charged in either case.

10) install canvas cover - I have a 3-piece cover to protect the boat fro ice, snow, freezing/thaw cycles, and UV.

I forgot to mention removing all of the sails, sail cover, perch seats, instraments that can be removed, and wind instraments on the mast.

Don’t you hate winter!

Greg

 

[eherlihy]

1. Drain all of the freshwater from the system. Run each tank empty, then open the drain the hot water heater.
2. Turn off the water pump breaker.
3. Blow the lines clear with compressed air, or use a dinghy pump. You can disconnect the supply line to the water pump and blow air through this line. Open each faucet/fitting until air comes out.
4. Put the hot water heater into Bypass mode, or simply disconnect the lines and splice them together with a piece of hose and hose clamps.
5. Insert the supply line to the water pump into a bottle of -50ºF PROPYLENE Glycol antifreeze.
6. Turn on the water pump breaker. Swap empty bottles of antifreeze with full ones as necessary.
7. Run each freshwater faucet until pink -50ºF antifreeze comes out.
8. Pump out black water tank.
9. Flush ½ gallon of antifreeze through the toilet into the black water tank.

 

[GeorgeC]

A lot of good suggestions here. I would add a few of my own. Wait until the Spring to sanitize your water tanks. I don't believe in pouring gallons of antifreeze in my tanks. I dry my tanks out with a sponge or chamois and pour a little antifreeze through the hose that goes to the bottom of your tank so that you have antifreeze in the tank fitting instead of water that will freeze and break the tank pickup fitting. I run the antifreeze through the system by connecting a hose to the pump inlet fitting and use the boats water pump to get all of the water in your pipes and faucets replaced by antifreeze. Make sure you bypass your water tank from your boat's piping and drain down as much water as you can from your water tank. I pour a gallon of antifreeze into the tank for extra insurance as water heaters are very expensive to replace. If your boat is on land for the winter up north the temperatures will get very cold and any water left in your thru hull valves may freeze and crack the valve. I would make sure that they are left open so they drain, or put antifreeze in them and close them so they don't freeze. I winter my boat in the water in Conneticut and I always make sure that the last liquid that goes thru the thru hull valve before closing it is antifreeze. My 30' O'Day has a centerboard. There is a fiberglass tube that is covered by an aluminum pipe that runs from the bilge to the deck of the boat that contains the line used lower the centerboard. There is sea water in that tube when the boat is in the water and can freeze if it gets very cold. I built an aluminum box that contains two incandescent 40 wat bulbs that keep the temperature of the water in that tube warm so it does not freeze. I plug it into a thermostat and it turns on the bulbs at 25 degrees. I built that after finding a crack in the fiberglass pole as it enters the bilge after the boat was in Hudson River that was a mix of salt and fresh water. I'm now storing the boat in salt water and I still use it

 

[AndreNJ11]

Don't forget:
Shower sump pan to overboard drain through the pump (a pint or two should do).
Shower fitting that hangs on wall (a part of your regular domestic hose flush).
Ice box drain to sink pump (a cup should do, through the FynSpray or Whale pump).

I also open all my sea cocks once on the hard, and leave them open for the winter.

Any place that a tablespoon of fresh water is left has the potential to split a fitting.
I once had to replace a bronze A/C seacock that was closed for the winter; even though the rest of the A/C system was winterized. (very expensive to discover after launch in the spring).

Last year I winterized my A/C, but forgot to also run pink stuff through the vent side of the plumbed-in 'burp valve' on the intake sea water side.
Result - the burp valve spill side had fresh water over the winter and split. Easy to replace, but an unnecessary annoyance. This year, i ran pink stuff through both the regular side, and the 'burp' side.

Like Greg, I run two gallons of -50 through the seawater side of my Yanmar 2GM20F. That is enough to completely exchange the water in the muffler.

I keep a checklist for winterizing, which I developed over the years, so I do not forget any of the more minor points.

If you create a checklist, with all the above ideas of all the contributors here, you should have every point well covered.

My marina would charge well over $1000 to winterize all my systems and components, and I do it for just the cost of about 8-10 gallons of pink stuff over one or two afternoons.