Need help with Winterizing my 3 unit A/C system on my '96 500 dancer

Steve500dancer

Steve500dancer

Member
Jul 13, 2009
868
Franklin Tennessee (Nashville area)
Boat Info
1996 500 sundancer
2001 340 sundancer sold
2001 270 Rinker sold
1996 240 sundancer sold
Engines
Twin 6v92 Detroit deisels
Well today was a real pain in the ass. I managed to winterize two of my friends house boats for them and played hell with my A/C on my boat.

I have 3 units on my boat that are all fed from a single A/C pump in the engine room. The salon discharges from the starboard side and both state room units discharge port. I removed the strainer and used my Sea Flush system to add the Antifreeze. I could only get it to come out if the starboard discharge. When it was coming out of the starboard discharge I stuck a cork in the thru hull and used a shop vac to suck on the port discharge. I tried everything and could not get it to pump through the port discharge. I used 6 gallons of antifreeze before I finally gave up. I swear I tried everything. Running the pump, turning on the heat, removed the hose after the pump and filled it up with a hose the was way above the engine room.

When I finally did give up, I opened up the sea valve and turned it all back on. A/C, heat and water pump. Antifreeze came pouring out of the starboard side till it cleared out and was nothing but lake water. Starboard didn't get any water or antifreeze out of it. I left and went to winterize another friends boat and when I came back water was flowing out the port side and everything was working perfectly.

Ok guys what the heck am I missing here. I plan on giving it another shot tomorrow and see what happens.

Any tips on this would be greatly appreciated.


Steve
 
Steve, I have the same 3 A/C 1 pump set up but don't have any problem other then it takes a lot longer to get the antifreeze to start coming out of the forward unit because of the distance. Your situation is probably worse because of the size of the boat. It's possible that you could have a partial blockage but if you just want to make sure you get it winterized for now I would disconnect the hose from the pump that leads to the port outlet and manually pump the antifreeze through with a hand pump or something. Not sure why it didn't work when you blocked of the starboard discharge but maybe you didn't give it enough time. Mark
 
Steve, my guess is you have some restriction on the port side. I have to pull our system apart to flush all the time, since we are in salt water. We have a constant issue with barnacles etc. The starboard side is the path of least resistance, so water flow is always better. When the hose leaves the engine room into the salon, it comes out under the couch, dead center. You will find a removable panel, There is a "T" there that probably needs to be cleaned. Next take a garden hose with a fitting and hook to the port side run, turn the hose on and flush, you should be amazed at the crap that blows out of the side. Might as well do starboard side as well. These are two different size lines. There is also a "T" under guest stateroom lower bed. That one seems to clog also. You can hook the garden hose up there too, while you've got it apart. Then do what you did first, it should flow out all 3. Good luck
 
Steve, the SeaFlush procedure (I think it's new) now is to first blow out the lines using the shopvac, squeezing off all but one discharge line at a time using vice grips with duct tape to protect the hose. Then, fill the funnel with antifreeze (not too full) then blow antifreeze through, again one line at a time. This worked pretty well for me this year, which is the first time I've done it this way.
 
Mine 3 AC system was also a PITA with the Sea Flush. I vacuumed out the water using Sea Flush attachment at the 2 strainers which worked very well. When I tried "blowing" antifreeze through the strainer it only blew all over the bilge. So, I tried inverting a gallon of antifreeze in the funnel and turning on the AC units. They sucked about a quart and then got air locked. I tried pulling the hoses off the pump output with the pump going, which cleared the air lock and sucked another quart, but also blew antifreeze all over the bilge. After an hour, a mess, wasting about a gallon of antifreeze, and seeing pink coming out the common through hull at the starboard side, I was satisfied.
 
Steve...since it al worked great when you turned them back on, I doubt there's an obstruction--- toward the end of the season, I was doing some routine maintenance on my 3ac units, and as we blew out the salon and stateroom units, we could not get the cockpit unit to flush out - it was just that the water pressure wasn't strong enough to push it thru the three units at the same time.
You may need more push to get it thru all three.....df -
 
I think I am going to get a five gallon pale and while the pump is still full I am going to remove the hose from the Seacock and drop it in the bucket. Turn the pump and all the units on. If it has water flow right now and the units are all heating it should pull it right through. If that doesn't work I am going to try the other techniques that you fellas have described.

I am also going to go ahead a try and winterize my diesels raw water cooling today. I am just going to remove the line from the sea cock and stick it in a five gallon bucket. I am running wolverine heaters on both Detroit's and one on the Generator. It keeps my engine room at about 65% all winter. I just have a bad feeling about this winter and don't want to take any chances.

I took a 3 gallon compressor and made a hook up for my dock water inlet and blew the heck out of everything on my water lines. I also drained the hot water heater and blew it. I dumped a couple of gallons of antifreeze in the shower sump and down the toilets as well.

I always leave two or three ceramic heaters in the cabin on about 50 degrees just to be safe.

Thank you guys for all your help. It is appreciated

Steve
 
Steve, I have (2) units (1) pump I disconnect one at a time ,and use a bucket and a small submersible pump to pump antifreeze through each system took me literally 10 mins. No mess no fuss. Good luck.
 
Success....it went great today. I didn't realize that there is a shut off valve for the starboard side discharge. I shut off the discharge, hooked up a spare 2000 gph bilge pump that I had and dropped it in a 5 gallon bucket and hit the power. Took just a minute to run it through to the port side. I then opened off the starboard valve and out it come for both port and starboard.

I guess that the A/C pump is a pain to prime so it is time to forget about it. Next year will be a cake walk.

I also winterized my diesels. They took 7 gallons each to completely fill the raw water system. They were pretty easy as well. Just removed the intake hose from the sea cock, stuck the hose in a 5 gallon bucket and ran the engine till she was pouring out the exhaust. This filled up the stainer and the raw water system. I probably didn't need to winterize the motors, considering I have the wolverine heaters on the diesels and generator.However, I have a very bad feeling about this winter. I think it is going to be a bad one here in TN.

Thanks for all your help guys. It is much appreciated.

Steve
 
Steve, don't forget your ice maker if you have one. If you just blow the fresh water system out with air you could still have a problem with the solenoid valve freezing. Mark
 
Steve,

As you found with your experience, the A/C pump is not self-priming pump and that's why you need to provide extra "push" to run the antifreeze through the system. I also have 3 units and the bucket I made about 5-6yrs ago with 110ACV FW pump makes the winterizing job a breeze.

The pic of the rig is missing two hoses. One short that connects the pump to the bucket and the other long hose that goes from the pump's out side to whatever application I'm doing (A/C systems, genny strainer, mains strainer)
AC_FW_Pump_and_AF_Bucket.jpg

I disconnect the 1" hose from the sea strainer, which goes to the A/C pump and connect it to my rig (110ACV FW pump). Then I have someone turn the system on while at the same time I turn on the FW pump to push the pink thru. It takes about 3gal to see clean pink out of all thru-hull fittings. Works like a charm.

BTW, I also wonder why is there a shut off valve and why was it closed?
 
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The valve was open. I closed it when i found it and was trying to run the antifreeze through the other units. It is part of the through hull on the starboard side. I think it is so you can shut off the through hull when you need to clean out the lines. It is the closest unit to the pump.


Steve
 
Thanks, we don't have that setup. Straight from the pump to the first "T"
 
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