[C320-list] Antifreeze in water lines

[Elizabeth Schwartz]

Ahoy.....Bravo and thank you......I'm going to save  my vodka and give 
this a try.....Joe....#245


On Thu, Oct 23, 2014 at 06:11 PM, Jeff Hare wrote:

> Hi,
>   Sorry, I didn't quite get around to recording the Video this year.
> But my suggestion is to skip the compressor and use a small wet/dry 
> shop vac. For a couple years, I used a compressor.  I found it much 
> faster and more useful for the process overall to use the shop vac. 
> Plus you can use it to suck water out of your bilge lines, exhaust 
> muffler, fridge drain, shower sump etc. I got this little Stainless 
> Steel beauty for the boat this year instead of lugging my full size 
> one and I love it.  http://amzn.com/B00EPH63K0 Powerful, easy to move 
> around and quieter with smaller diameter hose which is more suitable 
> to boat tasks..
>
> Note that the following description is really detailed so it might 
> look complicated and long, but it's really not, I'm just trying to be 
> thorough.  Much of the time I'm working on a beer and letting the shop 
> vac do its thing.
>
> Tools: Philips Screw Driver, Shop Vac, 2' section of hose with 
> standard garden hose (house end) fitting.  I use a piece of *clear* 
> hose with a garden fitting on it because you can see the water 
> flowing.
>
> Here's the step by step process I use:  (Takes me about 30-40 min. 
> tops but at the end, I explain how you could reduce that further)
>
> 1. Drain the water tanks and *leave all the faucets open*, including 
> the stern shower Hot & Cold.  2. Unscrew the Stern Shower Handheld 
> sprayer handle from its hose.  3. Unscrew the aerator (sprayers) from 
> the head and galley faucets.
> 4. Take the caps off the water tanks and vacuum out the water tanks to 
> remove remaining standing water and sediment. **Don't screw the water 
> tank caps back on yet**
> 5. While doing the aft tank, take the inlet filter off of the fresh 
> water pump and suck the remaining water out of the supply lines 
> feeding the water pump filter. If your tank valves are still here you 
> just open both valves up and both lines will be emptied and dry 
> quickly.
> 6. If you're a purist, you could remove water tank Vent hoses and 
> vacuum out the vent lines since those sometimes end up with standing 
> water if there's any dip in the line (yuck).  I've occasionally hooked 
> up a hose to flush those out but that's another topic.  I don't always 
> do this.
> 6. Remove the galley sink drawers
> 7. Remove the 5 screws on the drawer frame, lift the frame out and set 
> aside.
>
> That takes care of the prep work so empty the shop vac into the galley 
> sink before starting the next step which is to drain the Hot water 
> tank.
> 8. Connect your short garden hose section to the drain spigot on the 
> water tank and stick the other end of the hose up inside the shop vac 
> hose.
> 9. Turn on the vac and open the water heater drain.  This will drain 
> quite a bit of water out (remember leave hot/cold faucets open).  You 
> can use your hand to help seal the vacuum, but don't go for an air 
> tight seal, not necessary.
> 11. While that is draining, there is a screw on fitting below the 
> pressure overflow on the HW tank that has a short brass check valve in 
> it (looks like a short piece of copper pipe with an arrow on it that 
> has a whale fitting on each end).  This is the cold water inlet. I 
> simply unscrew that whale fitting from the HW tank leaving the check 
> valve and everything intact.  This will allow air in and will drain 
> the tank much faster. I have to empty the shop vac into the galley 
> sink one time while doing this.
> 12. When you don't see any more water coming out the spigot, unscrew 
> the garden hose fitting from the spigot (leave open) and place that 
> hose over the cold water inlet to vacuum the last bit of water from 
> the bottom of the HW tank out the cold water inlet (which I believe 
> extends to the bottom of the tank.
>
> Water Heater Tank is dry and done and you can now close the spigot and 
> screw the check valve assembly back on the tank.  (Good spot for a 
> winterizing port!)
> Finally Drain/dry out the hot/cold lines to the faucets.
> 11. Locate the hot (red) and cold (blue) lines coming straight down 
> from the galley faucet into "T" fittings under the sink.  Disconnect 
> the Hot hose from the "T" fitting,  hold the garden hose end over the 
> open whale fitting and this will suck the water out of the lines from 
> the Head faucet and Stern Shower. When no more water comes out, 
> Replace the Hot line.
> 12.  Repeat with the Cold line but after it appears completely 
> drained, disconnect the blue cold water supply line from the water 
> Pump outlet to be sure that line is dry also then reconnect the 
> hot/cold lines under the sink. Be sure to push the plastic PEX pipe 
> firmly into the fitting until they pop all the way in and are seated.
> 13. Clean and replace the Stern Shower sprayer, Galley and head faucet 
> aerators.
> 14. Final step is to lay a paper towel over the Bow and Aft water tank 
> openings and set the caps on top of that.  This lets the tanks dry out 
> over the winter without letting debris and dust in.
>
> So, when you get good at this, it'll take you ~30-40min start to 
> finish in the fall.  In the spring, just replace the caps and fill the 
> tanks. Nothing else to do, no flushing or sanitizing required.  So 
> while using the pink stuff is faster in the fall (10 min and you're 
> done), it takes at least a half hour or more in the spring to flush 
> the pink stuff out and much-much longer if you want to flush all the 
> bad taste out.
>
> Again, sorry I didn't do the video.  It's actually way easier to do 
> than to explain.  There are also several things that could be done to 
> make it unnecessary to remove any Pex pipe from the fittings and then 
> the process gets REALLY easy to explain:
>
> Adding "T" fittings with a shutoff or garden hose end caps to a 4 
> strategic spots would eliminate much of this work.  Here are spots 
> that would work well and cut down the time a lot.
>
> 1) One between the Water Heater Cold Water inlet and the Check Valve 
> (allows air/water past check valve when draining water heater).
> 2) One between the Water Pump's inlet filter and the tank valves 
> (drains all lines between fresh water tanks and pump)
> 3) One on the Pump outlet cold water pressure line. (drains all cold 
> water supply lines to galley, head and stern shower)
> 4) One on the Galley sink Hot water supply line (drains all the hot 
> water lines to galley, head and stern shower)
>
> Then you'd just move the shop vac hose to each of the following places 
> in sequence:
> 1) Water Pump Inlet fitting to dry the tank supply lines
> 2) HW tank Cold water inlet. Once you start the vacuum, then open the 
> drain spigot to let air in.
> 3) To the Galley hot water drain for clearing the hot water lines.
> 4) To the Pump outlet to drain the cold water lines.
>
> Done...  Bet this wouldn't take much more than 20 minutes start to 
> finish.
>
> -Jeff
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: C320-list [mailto:c320-list-bounces at lists.catalina320.com] On 
> Behalf Of Jason Alexander
> Sent: Thursday, October 23, 2014 2:20 PM
> To: c320-list
> Subject: Re: [C320-list] Antifreeze in water lines
>
> Jeff,
>
> Where can we see this video.   I'm looking to use my air compressor 
> this
> year.  Tired of the pink taste in the spring.    Do you just connect 
> the
> air supply to the output of the water pump.  What are you secrets?
>
> Thanks,
> Jason
>
>
> On Wed, Oct 15, 2014 at 8:00 AM, Jeff Hare  wrote:
>
>> We've never used antifreeze or vodka in our water system.  We only 
>> use a small shop vac to suck out the water.  With the process we use, 
>> our boat water system is just fine to drink with no noticeable tank 
>> taste so we drink and cook with it.
>>
>> This year I may make a short video or do an illustrated article on 
>> how we do it.  It took less than 30 min last year start to finish and 
>> in the spring, we fill the tanks and we're ready to go, no clean out 
>> process required.
>>
>> -Jeff Hare
>> #809
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: C320-list [mailto:c320-list-bounces at lists.catalina320.com] On 
>> Behalf Of katchu at chartermi.net
>> Sent: Tuesday, October 14, 2014 7:42 PM
>> To: c320-list at lists.catalina320.com
>> Subject: [C320-list] Antifreeze in water lines
>>
>> Lou - there are many articles in the association site about 
>> winterizing.
>> My process goes something like this:  1)Drain both tanks in the 
>> water.
>> 2)Once in the cradle, drain the forward tank further.  3)Remove the 
>> front of the cabinets for access to the water tank - Drain it and 
>> blow it out with compressed air as a lot of water remains after 
>> draining. 4) Bypass the tank, connecting cold to hot. 4) Add two 
>> gallons of water to the front tank and pressurize the system -then 
>> blow out all faucets in the head, sink, rear shower and the high 
>> pressure water inlet 5) Pump antifreeze through the head, shower 
>> drain, and refrigerator drain. 6) put antifreeze in the sump and pump 
>> out with the electric bilge pump and also the manual whale pump. 7) I 
>> use a west marine Engine Winterizing kit to pump antifreeze through 
>> the engine. I mount it in the cockpit and run the line to the water 
>> strainer, then start the engine and watch for the exhaust water to 
>> run pink.
>>
>> Total antifreeze use is 5-6 gallons.  I think that Jeff Hare has a 
>> completely antifreeze free method using compressed air, but I have 
>> not tried that.
>>
>> Chuck Mueller
>>
>> Northwind #676
>>
>> Holland, MI
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Message: 2
>> Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2014 16:53:04 -0400
>> From: Colleen Reszoly To: "C320-List at Catalina320.com" Cc: "" Subject: 
>> [C320-list] Anti freeze in water lines.
>> Message-ID: <7571469F-9B12-4D4C-8A13-B9AAB6A3B6DA at aol.com>
>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
>>
>> Hello
>> How many gallons of anti freeze should go in the holding tanks for 
>> winter.
>> Is it best to drain hot water tank or let it fill with antifreeze.
>> Lou r 429
>>
>>
>
>