Winterizing 2007 44 SeaRay Sedan Bridge

Matt DiMauro

Member
Apr 21, 2019
32
East Greenwich Bay, Rhode Island
Boat Info
44 Sedan Bridge 2007
Engines
Cummins QSC 500
Hey guys quick question I had. What do you all recommend is the best way to properly and completey winterize the boats A/C system and water system? I hear people blow out their water system, how does one go about doing that?
 
To blow out the water lines I use an adapter like this. You can find them made of plastic or metal. They screw into the shore water inlet. You don't want to use to much pressure, keep it under the water system pump pressure. I pumped the tank out until faucets spit and sputter. Then blew them out with the air, then ran antifreeze through the system. https://www.amazon.com/Camco-36153-...ocphy=9019207&hvtargid=pla-273435320602&psc=1

On my 280DA AC I'd just blow air backward through the discharge line and leave it empty, no antifreeze. On your boat I don't think I'd do that. I'd run antifreeze through the system.
 
I made this up last year and blew out my Fresh Water System.
20191007_130939.jpg


Screws into the "dock water" inlet in the trunk. I bypass the hot water heater, drain it and leave valve and pressure relief valves open. I put a gallon of antifreeze in the Freshwater tank and run in through the pump as an added level of safety.

The AC units are a bit trickier, in my view. One year, I was able to use a Sea Flush attachment to winterize the two units. http://www.seaflush.com/ The next year, I was unable to get antifreeze out of the forward discharge port. So, I reversed course and I pump antifreeze backwards through the system to the strainer. This gives me a nice pile of AF to put through the bilge pump.

Jaybeaux
 
The above are great suggestions for winterizing the fresh water system. Bypassing and then draining the hot water heater makes life easy.
The fastest and easiest way to winterize the AC is once the boat is out of the water. You can pump the pink stuff through the system backwards.
With the Seacock open, use either a cheap hand pump from Harbor Freight or a cheap drill driven pump (my favorite) from a place like Home Depot. Both are under $10.00
Get some clear plastic hose and connect it to both sides of the pump.
Drop the intake side in to a gallon of pink.
Shove the output side of hose in to the AC discharge on the side of the boat, hold it in there, and pump pink until you see it come out the bottom of the boat.
You can buy a roll of 3/8” clear plastic tubing for about 5.00 at Home Depot. The roll will be around for many more projects.
Once you make up your hose and pump setup it will take about a minute to winterize your AC.
I usually run some fresh water from a garden hose backwards through my AC system just before I winterize.
Hold the hose nozzle tight up against the discharge and blast it through.

For winterizing in the water:
I’ve had a Sea Flush for a few years but find it to be a PIA to use. It wasn’t worth the money. Basically an expensive funnel with a couple of bungees.
Much easier and cheaper way if you have a threaded Perko Cap on your Strainer is to go to the plumbing aisle and get what you need in PVC to go from the Perko Threads (regular pipe) to 3/4 male hose.
Then over to the Hardware aisle for an O ring to seal your PVC contraption to your strainer.
I can send you a picture of mine the next time I’m down at my boat if you want.
Or you could buy a ready made one from Perko if you want but it will cost you 10 times more for something you’re going to use once a year.
Pick up a washing machine hose that had 3/4” female hose threads on both ends.
Get a container with 3/4” male hose spigot on it.
I use one of those 5 gallon winterizing jugs that they sell for winterizing I/O’s and outboards with muffs because I got it for free about 10 years ago.
You could easily make something up with a cheap bucket, plastic spigot and a drill.
Procedure:
With boat in water, close AC seacock, remove Perko lid, use a shop vac to pull water out of strainer, thread your PVC contraption on, connect washing machine hose between your PVC contraption and your container with the pink in it.
Do any of the following:
A. Put container up higher than highest point in AC system and let gravity do it’s thing.
B. Get an assistant to turn on AC and yell for them to turn it off once a gallon of pink gets sucked in.
C. Insert a pump like described above inline and pump it through.

If your AC strainer doesn’t have a threaded cap you can close seacock, remove cap, shop vac out remaining water, remove intake hose from through hull, make yourself up a short lengthy of cheap hose with 3/4” female hose on one end and a nipple on the other that will fit in the intake hose. Connect hose contraption to your intake hose and container and do either a, b or c as described above.
 
Don’t forget the washer/ dryer. I thought about blowing air through all systems since it’s a pain to get the the pink out of the water tank in the spring but feel better pumping antifreeze through all systems.
 
Sorry if this is a dumb question but here goes...I have 2 ac systems on my 400 EC. One in the salon and one in the forward cabin. Do both systems use the same pump or is there a pump up in the bow somewhere?
 
Don’t forget the washer/ dryer. I thought about blowing air through all systems since it’s a pain to get the the pink out of the water tank in the spring but feel better pumping antifreeze through all systems.

I do not winterize because we use the boat all year and use a bilge heater. However, when we had our 260DA on a trailer, I had to winterize it. No need to put pink in the water tank. I had a 5-gallon bucket with a male garden hose fitting attached as close to the bottom as possible. Take the inlet hose loose to your on board FW pump and attach a length of garden hose between the inlet side of the FW pump and the 5-gallon bucket. Fill the bucket with pink antifreeze. Turn on the FW pump and go to each faucet/head and run until you get pink coming out. Do this after you have pumped all of the water you can from your tank. The residual water in the tank may freeze, but cannot expand enough to hurt a thing. Fill the tank in the spring and run all of the pink out of your lines. I never put any pink into the water tank.

Never had a problem.

Bennett
 
Sorry if this is a dumb question but here goes...I have 2 ac systems on my 400 EC. One in the salon and one in the forward cabin. Do both systems use the same pump or is there a pump up in the bow somewhere?

My boat has one pump for two units. There is a split right after the discharge side of the pump with a hose feeding each of the two units.
But there are two discharges in the side of the boat.
One for each unit.
If you have one pump there will be water flowing out of both discharges when you only have one of your AC units on because the water is being pushed through the AC unit that is not turned on too.
 
The 400EC has one AC water circulating pump. Make sure you get the non tox through both the forward and the salon ac units.
 

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