[C320-list] Antifreeze in water lines

[Mark Gillingham]

Thank you Jeff for writing your technique (again). I followed your
directions from last season with success, apparently, because I had no
damage even with the extreme cold we had last winter. I noticed a couple of
steps I could add this season and really appreciate your effort to help us.

Speakeasy runs to the yard this Saturday so I'll get to try out this
procedure soon.

Mark
Speakeasy #612

Mark Gillingham | @markgillingham | gplus.to/MarkGillingham | Support a
struggling student <http://101010scholarship.info> | Harbor-To-Harbor Blog
<http://www.loftnet.com> | Speakeasy Photos
<http://picasaweb.google.com/mark.gillingham>

On Thu, Oct 23, 2014 at 5:11 PM, Jeff Hare <Catalina at thehares.com> 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 <Catalina at thehares.com> 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 <colloua5 at aol.com>
> > To: "C320-List at Catalina320.com" <C320-List at Catalina320.com>
> > Cc: "<C320-List at Catalina320.com>" <C320-List at Catalina320.com>
> > 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
> >
> >
>
>