Winterizing water system - compressor?

[Derek Rowell]

After all these years of using "pink stuff" to winterize the water system, I'm thinking about using a compressor to blow out the lines. Seems that what I should do is blow out as much of the water as I can from the hot water tank and then drain what is left. Has anybody done this?thanks,Derek

 

[Gord May]

why ?

Why change now (after all these years)?Don't mess /w success ... Anyway, if you do, drain then blow.

 

[Mark Leinhauser]

Try this method.

Disconnect the inlet and outlet lines to the water heater. Then connect the inlet line to the outlet line (this will by-pass the water heater). Now drain the tank to the bilge. You can attach a hose to the drain and run the hose over to the bilge pocket. This will also flush any residual salt water out of the bilge. After you have drained the water heater you can add anti-freeze to the bilge and flush through the bilge pump.Now that the water heater is by-passed, when you add anti-freeze to the water tank(s) and flush the system you won’t be putting anti-freeze into the water heater.

 

[Dale4407]

Volume not pressure is better

I remember from blowing out the sub-slab plumbing in N. Mi in years gone bye that we had springtime broken pipes when we used a compressor. It was never a problem when we used one of the compressed air tanks that are sometimes available at the local auto garage. We'd fill it to eighty or a hundred lbs and snub a nozzle into the faucets blowing to the low point of the system... It had the volume of air flow to push out the low spots in the system...and you'll know when its empty from the sound.(Don't miss that ritual much at all )

 

[Ed Schenck]

Keep using anti-freeze.

Here is a post from another forum: "An aside about the anti-freeze. I have read numerous times on HOW about simply blowing the water out of the water lines. That leaves almost empty hoses with lots of moisture and opportunity for stuff to grow in there. Much better to fill those lines with pink stuff."

 

[Warren M]

Water Heaters....

Assuming you don't use the water heater after its winterized, what is wrong with adding the non-toxic anti-freeze to it when winterizing the whole water system? Of course, this presumes that one re-commissions (i.e., cleans out) the whole water system in the spring which most people are going to do anyway.

 

[Rich Stidger]

I drain and then blow out - never use pink

For over 20 years on multiple boats I drain the water tank and the HW tank and then using my dinghy air pump blow out all the water.I blow the line BACK into the water tank(s).I blow the water THROUGH the water pump.I blow the water OUT each faucet in turn from the line after the water pump.I drain the HW heater from the built-in drain into the bilge and then clean the bilge with hot water.I DO NOT disconnect the hoses from the HW heater.No need to buy pink stuff and then have to purge and clean the taste out in the spring.

 

[Peggie Hall HeadMistress]

Whether anti-freeze is used or not...

The system should be recommissioned each spring. I dunno which forum you read that on, Ed...but the poster apparently doesn't realize that "stuff" only grows in WARM conditions...below 40 degrees it becomes dormant. It was growing in his plumbing all summer, especially while the boat sat between weekends with the pump off. So whether the the system is blown dry to winterize, or antifreeze is used, it's still necessary to recommission in the spring to clean out the system...recommissioning just has the added advantage of also getting rid of the tast/smell of antifreeze.