winterizing head

[tackleshep]

Getting ready to winterize the boat and have everything figured out except the head. It's a standard pump system and pulls water from the sea. Do I have a sea cock or shut off for the pump or is just gravity?

[Horizon]

Hi tackleshep,

You've probably winterized by now, but I can only say what I do to winterize. I also have a manual pump.
First is the obvious pump-out/ refill a few gallons with clean water and continue the pump.
Then boat is hauled.
Leave sea cock open.
Fill one gallon of antifreeze into toilet
pump through leaving a small amount in toilet.
Have no problem each year.

[shrew]

I do the same as Horizon described. I also throw a small bottle of holding tank deoderant along with about 1-2 gallons of the pink propylene glycol AF. Dry flush the holding tank chemicals and AF into the head. and you're good to go. The head and holding tank are probably the easiest to winterize, provided you get a pump out and flush prior to hauling the boat.

[tackleshep]

Thanks guys, actually dug into everything yesterday. Once I got into the engine compartment I found the sea cock which I hadn't seen in the past. My boat is winterized on the water and left there for the winter months so being my first time I was a little concerned with the process.

I probably went overboard just a bit, I closed the sea cock and removed the hose, using a funnel I had my buddy pour a gallon through the hose and I pumped it into the toilet. Then pumped out the dump tank and poured another gallon in for the winter.

I actually did the same thing for both the air conditioner and the generator. It worked really well for a little winter security. Drained all the water from the AC and Generator at the sea cock then poured a gallon of AF into the hose while turning on the unit. Had somebody stand and watch outside the boat till everything ran pink and shut it down. Now I feel like I know there is no small amount of water hanging around in the system.

[Horizon]

The one thing I do as it relates to winterizing, is getting ride of any pink antifreeze in systems that can be accessed.
What I mean is; a system like the toilet can't be fully flushed of antifreeze. All you can do is remove any water and pump a gallon of pink and then you are done. A system like the water lines can be blown out with compressed air so that there isn't anything in the lines except a residual amount of pink.
The theory is that if there isn't anything in the lines/engine/tank it won't freeze and eventually crack.
This happened to me when I had my first cruiser. Previously I would only drain water from engine since that was the only thing I had to worry about with no problems for 5 years.
When I got a larger boat with different systems I didn't want to make any mistakes and asked a mechanic how to winterize. He said they drain water and then fill completely with pink. So I did.
In the spring I had a cracked hot water tank, and freeze plugs popped and block cracked.
Now I go one step further and I get rid of any pink by blowing compressed air or draining completely the hot water tank, after the normal winterizing procedure. I also pull hoses off and open drain cocks in engine after fogging and pink the engine. This method works great for me and no problems.