Question re: Winterizing fresh water system

I blow out my system and then use pink. My boat has seen -40F a time or two and -30F many times. I don't want to worry about it.
 
I winterize our cottage using a compressor to blow things out. I did this for years with no problems. About ten years ago I had a pipe break in the wall where water had pooled at a low spot and it froze and broke the pipe. I modified my procedure to add pink. Once added I blow that through until everything that come outs at the end of the system is solid pink. Just as on a boat, I bypass the water heater which is drained. I don't know this for sure, but there could be low spots in a boat that may cause problems in the spring. In 2014 we saw temps in Michigan where I live of minus 21 degrees. The pink provides piece of mind.
 
Woody said:
I blow out my system and then use pink. My boat has seen -40F a time or two and -30F many times. I don't want to worry about it.
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+1. I blow out the lines to get most of the water out and then run pink through the system. I do drain as much of the fresh water tank as I can get out with the pump, bypass the hot water tank, and then run pink through. Im always suriprised how much left over clear water comes through before the pink. Bypassing the HW heater (conenct inbound and outbound lines together) saves you 6 gal of pink, and no stink if you forget and turn on the HW heater in the spring with antifreeze in it.

Right now WM has pink on sale for 2.99/gallon wiht a dollar extra mail in rebate. For under $20 you have peace of mind and you dont end up having to replace a water line or fresh water pump like two boating friends did this past spring. Luckily one of them got it repalced for free by the company that blew out his water system, but the other did it himself. Just not worth it in my book, especially after the winter we had last year, and predicted same this yesr.
 
On another subject, has anyone tried using CLR to remove scale and hard water calcium deposits? I was thinking about running my tank low the dumping a bottle of CLR in and opening each faucet until the CLR started coming out. Let it sit in the system for a day then do a complete flush. Sound reasonable?
 
I've done it both ways. I'm going back to pink for precisely the reasons sbw1 states. A low spot in the line and splat. Thank God for Sharkbites!!!!! Additionally, I neglected to disconnect my ice maker.....splat. That one is a RPITA to deal with. Add to that, I still need to flush and sanitize my system regardless of how I winterized it.
 
HUMPH said:
On another subject, has anyone tried using CLR to remove scale and hard water calcium deposits? I was thinking about running my tank low the dumping a bottle of CLR in and opening each faucet until the CLR started coming out. Let it sit in the system for a day then do a complete flush. Sound reasonable?
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We've had good results with vinegar for removing mineral deposits left by the hard water. We regularly clean our stainless kettle with it and it works on the shower glass door if you don't let it build up for too long.
 
I have blown mine out for the last 4 years...

1. run the water out with the water pump
2. drain the water heater, then close the valve
3. Conect the complessor to the shore water connection, and blow through each fixture.
4. disconnect the water pump and blow back through the hose to the tank, the blow on the outlet side to the water heater. (do not blow through the water pump)

I then put about a pint of pink in the bottem of the water tank

don't forget the head if you have a vacuflush.

put pink in the drains and through the head system.
 
Thanks Chris, I'll try that first.
 
Chris Nowell said:
We've had good results with vinegar for removing mineral deposits left by the hard water. We regularly clean our stainless kettle with it and it works on the shower glass door if you don't let it build up for too long.
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Vinegar is at least healthful and good for you. Not sure the same can be said for CLR. Go for the vinegar.
 
do they make a fitting for smaller boats that just have the normal perko fill? I can't seem to find one.

image.jpg
 
Not a smaller fitting, but actually larger. I am assuming by the looks of the fitting you guys are talking about, that it is a standard garden hose size? Im wondering if anyone makes a fitting to fit into the threads of the fill fitting with a compressor hookup to blow my water lines out on my boats without a freshwater hookup.
 
PremierPower said:
Not a smaller fitting, but actually larger. I am assuming by the looks of the fitting you guys are talking about, that it is a standard garden hose size? Im wondering if anyone makes a fitting to fit into the threads of the fill fitting with a compressor hookup to blow my water lines out on my boats without a freshwater hookup.
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I think you could make one from plumbing parts to get from the water fill size/thread down to a garden hose but there are other issues. Won't the air just vent out of the fresh water tank instead of blowing the lines out? Also, will the water pump block the flow through the lines?
It may be best to pump the tank as dry as you can and then disconnect the main water line beyond the water pump and blow out hot/cold from there.
 
Lanier Tom said:
I think you could make one from plumbing parts to get from the water fill size/thread down to a garden hose but there are other issues. Won't the air just vent out of the fresh water tank instead of blowing the lines out? Also, will the water pump block the flow through the lines?
It may be best to pump the tank as dry as you can and then disconnect the main water line beyond the water pump and blow out hot/cold from there.
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This is what I used. You can get it from any number of sources including your local west marine and camping stores. It's basically a valve that you put in between the water pump inbound side from the water tank. In the straight through direction, water pulls from your water tank. When you winterize, you hook up to the bypass side and put a tube in your bottle of pink serving as a "tank" or you can hook it up to one of the bigger winterization tanks you use to feed/flush an outdrive. I usually put 2-3 gallons in my big winterization jug and hook it up. Then walk around to all the fixtures turning them on until solid pink comes through.
http://www.campingworld.com/shopping/item/pump-converter-winterizer-kit/6279


There is also a hot water bypass kit, so you dont put pink in your hot water heater. I had a small home made pvc pipe that the PO made, so you just hook the inbound and outbound HW heater lines together.

My steps.
1. Run as much fresh water as possible out of the fresh water tank.
2. Blow out water out of system.
3. Disconnect and bypass the HW tank.
4. Drain HW tank with the valve.
5. Hook up FW bypass kit to pink.
6. Winterize all faucets and head (including shore water connection, stern shower, FW washdown fixture, head)
7. Dump some pink down the AC drain pan, each sink drain, and shower sump box, being sure that solid pink comes over the side.
8. Pink the Air Conditioner cooling water system with a pink backflush after draining the water strainer.
9. Let the marina techs winterize engines and generator (for peace of mind, and limited $$ exposure in the event something goes wrong over the winter)
 
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Lanier Tom said:
I think you could make one from plumbing parts to get from the water fill size/thread down to a garden hose but there are other issues. Won't the air just vent out of the fresh water tank instead of blowing the lines out? Also, will the water pump block the flow through the lines?
It may be best to pump the tank as dry as you can and then disconnect the main water line beyond the water pump and blow out hot/cold from there.
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Sorry I just realized you were looking to blow out the system.
This is what I use but I have a shore water connection (garden hose style). There is no needle in the air hose side, so you could probably blow through reverse, or get a garden hose female connector with a barb fitting on the end to connect into the water line. Screw this fitting into the female to barb fitting, and be good to go.

http://www.campingworld.com/shopping/item/blow-out-plug/4410
 
PremierPower said:
Not a smaller fitting, but actually larger. I am assuming by the looks of the fitting you guys are talking about, that it is a standard garden hose size? Im wondering if anyone makes a fitting to fit into the threads of the fill fitting with a compressor hookup to blow my water lines out on my boats without a freshwater hookup.
Click to expand...

Is this for the 240SD? Do you drink the water from the tank? If not, keep things simple. Just run the tank dry and then dump a gallon of pink into the tank and run the faucets until they spit out pink. 10 minutes and done. If you do drink the water, it just means you need to flush it out a little better in the Spring.
 
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