Winterization

So our new to us 2003 Pilot II 30 will be sitting in our driveway come this week. A frame will be made for shrink wrap with an entry so I can play inside over the winter. Lots of projects planned to make this girl our own. I will hook up a 30 amp circuit to connect to the shore power system so there are lights and receptacles inside. The oil will be changed before the haul and the Yanmar pickled after she is set up. I will disable the bilge pump float switches and add some pink stuff around the pumps that need it. The head, holding tank and AC system will get it's antifreeze as well. On our old rig I would add the pinks stuff to the fresh water system and run them until the pink is seen. A buddy is trying to convince me to blow out the fresh water system and water heater with a compressor so they won't have to be flushed in the spring. After flushing each spring on the old boat I would add a 1/2 gallon of vinegar into the system and let it slosh around a few days before flushing again. The vinegar really cleans out the scale within the pipes. This buddy insists all the water will leave the system with the compressor. I have the compressor and can go this route. What do you boys do? Also, any reason I can't leave the battery charger on all winter? Thanks for any tips.

regards Holty

Greetings,
Mr. h. What we have done in the past is blow out the lines AND fill with the pink stuff bypassing the drained water heater. Oh, and your "buddy"? I disagree that "all the water will leave the system with the compressor." It only takes one small pocket of water remaining to really mess up your spring commissioning.

So RT you don't run the pink stuff through the water heater? You just drain it? Also not owning the boat for too long I am not sure what to make of the water manifold below the step down into the cabin. There is both red and blue lines entering and leaving this manifold. Should this be opened up and drained before the pink stuff or should I just add 3 gallons of the pink stuff to main water tank and run all outlets until pink? Thanks

regards Holty

Greetings,
Mr. h. IF you put the pink RV anti-freeze into the HWT, it will take you forever to flush it in the spring, if, in fact you can ever get rid of it completely.

I have no idea how your system is set up but there should be a cold water hose inlet near or at the bottom of the tank that you can remove (just the hose) and drain the tank and then remove the hot water outlet hose at or near the top of the tank and connect the two hoses (this may be what your manifold is for???) thereby bypassing the HWT altogether. You can still use your domestic potable water pump to circulate the RV anti-freeze throughout the system after blowing out the lines with air.

In other words, everything get the anti-freeze except the HWT...Everything.

I wouldn't put antifreeze in the main water tank. Instead drain the tank. Also drain the water heater and connect the input hose directly to the uotput hose (bypass the heater). Then disconnect the hose from the water tank to the pump and stick it into a gallon of pink antifreeze. Run the pump drawing from the bottle until you get pink at each faucet for both hot and cold. Switch to new bottles of antifreeze as needed. That will put antifreeze through the entire system including the manifold you mentioned. If you want to blow out most of the antifreeze after you do the above go ahead, although running the pump dry will blow a lot of it out.

holty said:

On our old rig I would add the pinks stuff to the fresh water system and run them until the pink is seen. A buddy is trying to convince me to blow out the fresh water system and water heater with a compressor so they won't have to be flushed in the spring. After flushing each spring on the old boat I would add a 1/2 gallon of vinegar into the system and let it slosh around a few days before flushing again. The vinegar really cleans out the scale within the pipes. This buddy insists all the water will leave the system with the compressor. I have the compressor and can go this route. What do you boys do? Also, any reason I can't leave the battery charger on all winter? Thanks for any tips.

Click to expand...

We drain our tanks and then flush the freshwater system with compressed air. Once the system is drained, it's just a matter of connecting the compressor to a likely inlet, turning it on, and then successively opening/closing each valve in the system until nothing but air comes out of each and out of the water heater drain line.

Once the whole system is "aired out" I usually disconnect the water strainer/water pump/accumulator tank at each end and then bump a little AF through those; takes about a cup of pink for that. In the Spring, it's easy to flush that before reconnecting to the tanks and water heater and so forth.

Our water heater manual specifically says any water remaining in the tank after draining won't hurt the tank if it freezes, so we just drain that (aided by the compressed air) and we're done. We don't even bother to bypass, since the seasonal disconnect at the accumulator tank isolates the water heater anyway.

In the Spring, we re-commission the fresh water system with a standard freshening process using both vinegar and chlorine, separately. Search for posts by Peggie Hall (our Headmistress) for chlorine proportions and method. (We also heavily filter all water that enters our system after that, no matter the source.)

FWIW, we usually winter in the water, with the charger on all the time, pretty much like during the normal season. OTOH, our marina won't let folks leave chargers turned on, for boats stored on the hard in the back lot. I don't know of any reason you couldn't leave yours on if at your own home, but maybe your manual will speak to that... or other folks may be able to address that better.

-Chris

Greetings,
Ahhh...Mr. TD. "I wouldn't put antifreeze in the main water tank." VERY good point. Drain and no AF. I can't remember if I ever did or did not put AF into the main holding tank...Most probably not....Memory sucks.

Mr. h. Rather than amend my previous post (#4), please include Mr. TD's comment regarding your main water tank.

Just to add confusion.....

I always blow out the fresh water lines with compressed air. Houses, boats, both the same. Knock on wood - I've never had a problem, and really like not having antifreeze to flush out. I do put pink in the drains and other non-potable systems where flushing doesn't matter.

When blowing out with air, the trick is to do it on bursts since most compressors can't keep up enough air flow. You also need a regulator to keep the pressure down so you don't blow out lines or fittings. I usually run around 40 psi. I let the system pump up, the go around one valve out a time and let the water out until it's down to a mist. Once the initial water is out, you will probably have to close the valve, let the pressure build back up, crack the valve to dump some more air/water, then repeat. Keep doing it until there is barely a mist coming out. How often you need to pause will depend on the capacity of your compressor. Your typical homeowner pancake compressor is pretty low capacity.

No one has even mentioned the sanitation system yet...

[FONT=&quot]This should be done b[FONT=&quot]efore the boat c[FONT=&quot]o[/FONT]mes ou[FONT=&quot]t of the water[FONT=&quot] [FONT=&quot]i[FONT=&quot]n preparation for winter or any other extended lay[FONT=&quot]up: [/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT] [/FONT][/FONT]
Pump holding tank out, then rinse thoroughly to flush out any sludge. This does not require filling the tank and can even be done with sea water. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Put enough water into the tank via the deck pumpout fitting—because that sends the water into the tank at the bottom to stir up any sludge and hold it in suspension so it can be flushed out-- to cover the bottom to a depth of at least three inches. Pump that out. Repeat…repeat…repeat…till you’re pumping out clean water. Then add water one more time and turn on the macerator to rinse it out along with the overboard discharge plumbing. [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Alternatively, you can use a washdown pump to do the whole job. Stick the nozzle into the deck pumpout out fitting and turn on the water. When the depth reaches a couple of inches, leave the water running and turn on the macerator Let both run till the water runs clean (it may be best to do this offshore outside the “3 mile limit”).[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Now you’re ready to winterize the system. [/FONT]
Sea water toilet, manual or electric: Just flushing antifreeze through the bowl will not protect the intake line, the toilet pump or the bowl...it'll only go out the discharge to the tank. To protect the whole system, it's necessary to close the toilet intake through-hull, disconnect inlet hose and stick it in a gallon of non-toxic ("the pink stuff") antifreeze. Pump the whole gallon through the system into the holding tank. Do not reconnect head intake hose to the through-hull.

[FONT=&quot]If your toilet inlet line is teed into the head sink drain line, you can add the antifreeze by just pouring it down the sink--after you've closed the drain seacock, of course! [/FONT][FONT=&quot]Pump the head or hold the button down long enough to get the excess fluid out of the system as possible.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Fresh water toilet[/FONT][FONT=&quot]: If your toilet uses onboard pr[/FONT][FONT=&quot]essurized fresh water, you winterized it when you winterized your fresh water system. All that remains is, flush the appropriate amount of non-toxic antifreeze ("the pink stuff") down the toilet into the tank and you’re done.[/FONT]

Do not use antifreeze in an ElectroScan, Lectra/San, PuraSan, or any other Type I or Type II MSD. Follow manufacturers instructions to winterize all Type I and II MSDs.

[FONT=&quot]After the boat comes out of the water, open all the sea cocks to drain any trapped water.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]And you’re done. [/FONT]

Holty

I agree w/ RTF &TD... adding pink to HWH or FW tank wastes AF & takes a LOT longer to clean up in the spring.
Best way is to take the time to add a HWH by-pass & AF feed between the FW tank & pump.
Make sure you completely drain the HWH & FW tanks.

Both available any most RV supply stores (HWH by-pass comes in different lengths - good idea to measure between inlet & outlet before you go to buy one.

HWH Bypass

AF Pick-up
These make annual winterization quick & easy...worth doing
Links include instl'n videos

Hello holty,

We are over here in Northport not too far away from you.
Water system...
- Set water heater A/C breaker to "off" and cover with blue tape as a reminder to leave off
-What we have always done is to bypass the water heater
- Drain the tank(s)
- disconnect the water pump and add a vac there
- Use the wetvac to pull the water out starting from the spigot furthest away
- When finished with each spigot close and move to the next (include all water terminations like ice makers, washers, showers,etc)
- The go back through the system one more time making sure only air gets pulled through
- Then suck the water pump dry by running it a bit with the wetvac connected
- Make sure we put blue tape on all broken connections and open lines as a reminder for next season


AC system...
- Similarly we disconnect the hose to the raw water pump
- drain the pump
- Pull the water from the raw water circuit with the wetvac, on ours there is a manifold so we cover one outlet at a time to pull all water from one and then the other(s)


Also use the wetvac to pull all the water out of each of the strainers , the shower sump and the bilge.
The batteries get fully charged and then the ground wires are disconnected - they will easily hold a charge for 4-5 months at lower temps. If you want leave them connected and run a typical charger I would only cycle it once a month or so unless you have loads on the batts.
Good luck with your new boat will you be visiting the Northport Town dock nest season?

Thanks for all the response. They are all good methods. Smitty we were at the Northport town dock a few times this fall and will surely be there next season as well. Early on I will be fluking Asharoken beach or bassing the triangle. As the weather warms you will find us stern into the beach at Sand City on summer afternoons. What rig are you cruising in? We have had a slip at the Harbor Boating club in Huntington for the past 25 years. Hope to see you out there.

regards Holty

Hello Holty,
We have been around Northport for over 30 years now and all of our boats have been named "NO WORRIES". Our daughter is the dockmaster at the town dock currently so you may have run into her or one of the other dock folks there.
This past spring we sold our cruising boat and the support dinghies in Northport and are currently without a boat in NY. We often cruised with one or more of the 'paper' cruising clubs in the area either "Britt Pack" or "Black Rock" both of which have permanent moorings at Sand City, Lloyd harbor, Pt Jeff and a few in Ct.
A great place to boat out of since there are so many destinations within say 100 miles for a family to visit.
- Ron

30 amp circuit for light and outlets is overkill. How much does your little space heater actually draw? You're not running fridge, A/C, on-board heat, hot water heater, stove or oven.

Shrew you are correct but...... I have an outdoor panel about 30' from the boat. I have an old 30a receptacle to match my shore power cord as well. I plan on using a 120v 15a electric heater inside on the cold days and still need to draw from the cabin receptacles for power tools. Same amount of work to wire for 15, 20 or 30 amp and I have cables for all sizes on hand so why not go with the 30. I enjoy working on boats as much as fishing and cruising and it's a long winter. If the wife gives me a hard time about spending too much time on her I may be sleeping in her as well.

regards Holty