getting pink into the dockside water fitting and beyond

[rondds]

it always bothered me that the short segment of plumbing from the dockside water hookup to the checkvalve that lurks somewhere in the bilge doesnt get "pinked" during the standard winterization process. if that small segment freezes and cracks, it could involve taking 1/2 the boat apart to get to the busted pipe. here is my solution...

bought the cheapest 1 gallon garden sprayer home depot sells. took off the hose they provide and cut a small length (5') of garden hose and clamped it to the outlet point of the sprayer. put a male hose connector on the other end of the short length. screwed (actually quick connect) that to the dockside water hookup. turn off the fresh water pump on board. open the galley faucet, pump up the sprayer and turn it upside down until pink comes out of that faucet. done.

i know that some folks use the dockside hookup to blow out the entire fresh water system with a compressor but i'm not sure i trust that method.

interesting to note... if you leave the the sprayer empty, pumping it up will generate enough pressure to blow out that small segment of plumbing that is usually neglected.

 

[fwebster]

I can argue with your methodology..........but if it matters, the regulator/check valve us usually right behind the water inlet and connected with hard or threaded piping likea close nipple so there is no risk with high line pressure from shore water supplies.

 

[Dave S]

Can either of you comment a bit further on this? This will be my first time winterizing a portion of my water system and this particular fitting was and is still a big gray area for me. I have planned to disconnect all of the water lines going to the lazerette, the stern shower and the sink in the cockpit. I will disconnect these lines at the various "manifold points" in the bilge and then cap all of the manifold points. That way I can use the rest of the fresh water system which will be protected by my bilge heater and my cabin heater. I know the water for all the other lines will drain out just fine but I was and still am unsure about the freshwater hookup line. Will this drain sufficiently or not because of the check valve? If I use compressed air at the fitting, will that do it? I really haven't looked at this line carefully yet so I am looking for opinions.

 

[rondds]

dave: that sounds pretty complicated but i suppose it's the only way to do it if you want to use the other water systems during the colder months.

not sure if this will apply to you, but here's what i do...

since you are comfortable with disconnecting stuff and if you know where your fresh water pump is located, run all the water out of your fresh water tank by turning on all faucets. then disconnect the IN and OUT of your hot water heater and put a bypass in (a u-shaped thing you make out of PVC and connector parts available at Home Depot), in essence, creating the tiniest hot water heater in the world. then open the drain valve on your hot water heater to get out as much water as possible.

at this point you decide if you want to blow compressed air in to empty the system of water, or if youwant to run pink stuff into all the water lines. if you choose to use air, connect a compressor set to 40psi to the dockside water hookup and open one faucet at a time til only air comes out. do a rotation of faucets, the go back and do each one again.

if you go the pink route, connect a bucket or flush out container filled with pink to the TANK SIDE of the fresh water pump. you bypass the large fresh water tank and are now sucking directly out of the container. then start turning on all faucets, one at a time, starting farthest away from the pump. this will get pink in every nook and cranny. it is up to you whether you pour any pink into the HW tank and fresh water tank. to do this i use about 3 gallons of pink stuff, and i have galley and head faucet, fresh water washdown, bar sink on the flybridge and the shower.

FRANK: i dont understand your point. could you please re-iterate. sorry

 

[Amberjack01]

First year we had the boat the selling dealer did the winterization and forgot the dockside water inlet...come spring it was like "Old Faithful" on the first use. Yes, the check valve/regulator is just behind the inlet. Now I use a small submersible sump pump and a 6 foot piece of hose to connect from the pump to the dockside inlet. Pour a gallon of pink into a paint bucket and place the pump into the bucket. Turn boat's water pump off, open a water line (transom shower, etc), plug in sump pump and when pink comes out of the open water line your done. I also use this technique on the AC system. I was told once that you can reverse flush this system with pink. I open the sea water strainer, place the end of the hose from the pump onto the AC sea water outlet, turn on the pump and have someone in the bilge let me know when pink is running into the strainer. I assume this is sufficient because year after year the AC has always ran fine. Good Luck!

 

[Amberjack01]

By the way, after I use the pump method on the dockside inlet, I "pink" the boat's water system the typical way most of us would.

 

[rondds]

the air condx system is passive - there is really nothing (other than gravity) to stop the flow of water through it in either direction. so it makes sense that flushing it in reverse would work. they are a pain to flush with the pump on since the pump loses prime so easily. i used a thoroflush-type strainer cap on my AC strainer and was able to push pink from a 5 gallon spackle bucket through the entire system (two ac units) by simply raising the bucket up about 6 feet off the deck. it pushed pink through the idle (off) pump and to both AC units with the greatest of ease.

 

[fwebster]

Ron,

Sorry, I was not addressing winterizing. You questioned the location of the regulator/checkvalve in the shore water inlet connection and I was just saying that they are usually mounted right behind the inlet itself with a close pipe nipple, so there isn't a lot of water line between the inlet and chech valve to deal with. If you get anything in the shore inlet, its going to go thru the regulator/checkvalve because they are so close to each other.

 

[rondds]

ok, got it. are you saying that the antifreeze from the fresh water pump will reach that checkvalve during the normal winterization process?

 

[fwebster]

As long as your entry or injection point is the shore water inlet, I don't see how it can fail to go through the regulator/checkvalve.

 

[rondds]

my question is, since this check valve/regulator is just inside the bulkhead, will antifreeze, run in from the tank (or in my case, the bypassed tank) find its way to the checkvalve, thus making the process of pumping antifreeze in through the dockside connection after the rest of the system is pinked a waste of time?

 

[Larry]

What I have been doing for the past few years is fill my fresh water tank with all the antifreeze I will be using (after I drained all the water). For winterizing I attach a 25 ft. hose to my fresh water wash down and now I have preasurized antifreeze anywere I need it (i.e. A/C sea strainer, dock side water connection, and even running it through my heat exchangers). This seems to work great for me.


Larry
1998 33 Sundancer

 

[rondds]

larry. that's actually pretty clever! never thought of that. no muss, no fuss, no spillage. i guess the worst part would be pouring 12-18 gallons of pink into the tank through the deck plate!

 

[Larry]

Yes, exectly! I do find that I probably go through a little more antifreeze then I did, but it makes everything so simple it's worth the extra few gallons.


Larry
1998 33 Sundancer

 

[Amberjack01]

Great idea, using the fresh water washdown. I just did my winterization this weekend with my submersible sump pump technique, but next year I'll use the washdown instead!

 

[Sea Ray 300]

Larry,

That's a great idea. Why didn't anyone think of that before! :huh:

Do you use -50 degree pink, or something stronger?

Do you use a clear hose? Or a clear in-line jug to observe antifreeze flow?

When pouring the pink into my deck fitting, I tie a long neck funnel with a strainer to the handrail. The strainer is to insure that a piece of aluminum foil from the top of the gallon jug doesn't go into the water tank.

 

[Larry]

I always use the regular -50 antifreeze, I don't use a clear hose but I made a small adaptor that fits on the end of my 25 ft. hose, 6" -5/8 clear hose with male and female ends to use like a sight glass to verify my flow especialy doing the motors.

Larry

1998 33 Sundancer

 

[osd9]

Larry:

Nice idea.... :smt038 ....how many gallons do you generally use and do you bypass your HWH?

Hope you like the spare props, AND, never need them...

later,

 

[PMvdb395DA]

Yes thanks also Larry,

I also think this is a very easy way.
Only a few questions:

When using the fresh water wash down, how do you connect this hose to the dock side water connection?

And can you describe your method for the A/C sea strainer and the heat exchangers?

Thanks Peter.

 

[Larry]

Dominic,

Thanks again! And thanks for pointing me to this site!

Dominic & Peter,

I usually start with about 20-22 gallons in the fresh water tank. This is usually enough to do all systems including my motors, I flush the exchangers first with fresh water for a little while and then us the antifreeze.
I use to use the fresh water flush kits that my motors have (7.4 Mag. Horizons 380 hp.). But I started just to open the sea strainer (clossing the sea cock)and run my hose into the strainer and let the motor suck from there, the reason I started doing this is I relized that with these flush kits they were not letting antifreeze into the sea strainer, so for winterizing I run the antifreeze directly from the strainer. This is the same method I use for my A/C as well.

And as far as pumping antifreeze into the dock side connection it is as easy as running the hose from the fresh water wash down directly to the dock side connection and openning up the valve (assuming your water system is on).

I use to bypass my hot water heater but I have been lazy the last couple of years and just add the extra 6 gallons, I do drain it as much as possible first.

I should mention I do drain out as much anifreeze as possible from my fresh water system as not to leave it sit with any left over antifreeze over the winter, just makes flushing it in the spring easier.


Larry
1998 33 Sundancer