T&T: re Winterizing a boat

[Peggie Hall]

A few words about winterizing plumbing:

Sanitation systems:

The tank: pump out and THOROUGHLY rinse out to remove any sludge. Sludge 
left in a tank can harden into a "concrete" that nothing will dissolve 
that won't also damage the tank and/or the plumbing.

Raw water toilets: Nothing poured into the bowl can make it into the 
intake hose, pump and channel in the rim of the bowl...we used to sell a 
lot of bowls each spring to people found that out the hard way. To 
winterize a raw water toilet, disconnect the intake line from from the 
thru-hull (it would prob'ly be a good idea to close the seacock first 
<g>)...stick the intake line into a jug of antifreeze--use ONLY 
non-toxic potable antifreeze ("the pink stuff")...never automotive 
antifreeze...pump the whole gallon through the toilet into the tank.  If 
  your toilet uses onboard pressurized flush water, winterizing the 
fresh water plumbing takes care of everything but the tank...you can 
flush the recommended amount of antifreeze through the toilet.

Fresh water system:

Water heater: Drain (see manual for the location of the petcock on the 
bottom of your water heater) and bypass it before winterizing the 
plumbing. Bypass kits are available from most marine and RV stores.

Plumbing: Drain the tanks through ALL the faucets. You can either blow 
all the remaining water out of the system--which requires taking several 
connections apart on most boats--or just add antifreeze...Again, use 
ONLY "the pink stuff"...recommissioning the system in the spring--which 
should be done annually whether you winterize or not--according to the 
directions I've posted several times (and will again next spring) will 
completely remove all the taste smell of the antifreeze.

Leave all faucets open...and all seacocks too if the boat is on the hard.

Vodka will NOT protect a tank that has any water in it. Straight uncut 
vodka won't freeze--at least not up to -10 F...but even an 80-20 cut 
with water will. So if you have 5 gals of water left in the tank, you'd 
need at least 50 gals of vodka to achieve a mix that won't freeze.  If 
there's NO water in the tank, there's no need to put anything in 
it...'cuz it isn't freezing temps that damage tanks and plumbing, it's 
the expansion of water when it freezes.

-- 
Peggie
----------
Peggie Hall
Specializing in marine sanitation since 1987
Author "Get Rid of Boat Odors - A Guide To Marine Sanitation Systems and 
Other Sources of Aggravation and Odor"
http://shop.sailboatowners.com/boat_odors/