Winterizing Fresh Water System - City Water "Leg"


rclementtx

rclementtx

Member
I believe all of our boats have a leg of the fresh water system that runs from the city water inlet on the transom to the balance of the fresh water system. I find it easy to winterize most of the fresh water system by draining the fresh water tank, filling with antifreeze, and then running each faucet / toilet til I get a solid stream of pink antifreeze ... and I've already done that. What do you do for that short let of piping that's between the city water inlet and the balance of the system? It appears to be protected by a back flow check valve so it does't drain easily and it's likely to freeze on our cold north Texas cold snaps. Do you forget about it or do you pump in antifreeze? If you pump, what's the simplest technique our forum members use?
 
I blow the whole system out with an air compressor, prior to putting in the antifreeze. Guess I go a little overboard. The air connection goes in through the fresh water intake. This way I know that leg is clear, and I also know that I won't dilute any of the antifreeze, in the rest of the system.
 
I use a drill activated pump with one end connected to the city water inlet and the other in a gallon jug of pink antifreeze to run antifreeze through that section of line. Takes about 30 seconds of running the pump to get enough in the line.

In the spring I use the same pump to run bleach through the system.

Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk
 
I don't have the size water system you guys do, but every year I use only air and have never had an issue. Empty fresh and hot water tank, then connect air compressor with regulator set about 40 psi. Open one and let blow, then one another and close the first, repeat with next until all have blown most drops out. Then leave ones which are furthest away and reopen hot water tank and let air blow for 30 minutes or so while I'm doing other maintenance. Open shower bilge and sponge out water and I'm done.
 
Thanks for the input everyone. The consensus is clear - I can't neglect that loop from my winterization plans. Since I don't have a compressor (and don't want residual compressor oil in the water system), I've just bought a small (1GPM) diaphragm pump on Amazon that I'll use to force antifreeze in from the city water side of the system. Great input. This is the way a forum should work. Many thanks.
 
Now I am confused, I have two outlets, one that the wash down hose is connected to and the previous owner said to use this one for the city water system hook up and to be sure shut off water pump off and there is a leg in the engine room with a cap on it and when I opened the cap pink came out so that leg is pinked out. My confusion, the other outlet or inlet to the right, when I attach city water to that it goes into the bilge somewhere, I tried tracing it to no avail. How does one attach a picture??
 
Botjem said:
Now I am confused, I have two outlets, one that the wash down hose is connected to and the previous owner said to use this one for the city water system hook up and to be sure shut off water pump off and there is a leg in the engine room with a cap on it and when I opened the cap pink came out so that leg is pinked out. My confusion, the other outlet or inlet to the right, when I attach city water to that it goes into the bilge somewhere, I tried tracing it to no avail. How does one attach a picture??
Click to expand...

Botjem - it appears from your pics that the one with the stainless backplate is (was?) a Formula factory installed city water inlet with an after-market quick disconnect fitting installed. The other one looks like its an after the fact installation for some sort of flushing/washdown. Do you have a fresh water flush on your engines? The fact that both of these inlets have after market quick disconnects makes me wonder if the prior owner modified the factory installed piping to turn each of these quick disconnect ports into flush connection for each separate engine. It should be easy to troubleshoot - if you put city water on the connection with the stainless back plate AND you get water flowing from your faucets with the fresh water pump turned OFF, then the connection probably operates as originally designed and needs to be winterized. If you do NOT get water flowing from faucets, then that piping was modified and it is for some other purpose. If these are now reconfigured as engine jacket flushing ports, I still think I'd make sure that they were free of fresh water by either blowing them dry or pumping in antifreeze. I bought this $19.99 pump from Amazon to force antifreeze into my system ... https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N75ZIXF/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
 
RCLEMNTXX - I tried to answer you last night but got kicked off and my answer was quite long and now I forgot most of what i wrote, so here I go.I winterized by putting pink in fresh water tank and by mistake I left the stainless back plate connection open and pink was pouring out of it, so I know that there is pink in that leg and there is a leg off of that connection that goes down into the bilge and is capped off and that also is filled with pink. The previous owner installed a 4 way water manifold in the engine compartment to winterize the engines, generator and a/c's, so if I hook up a pump to the stainless backplate connection and connect the leg that is in the engine room to the 4 way manifold then I CAN WINTERIZE ALL FROM OUT SIDE? BUT how does the water know to go to the engine and not to to the water tank or faucets, I was told there is a check valve in the system. Also I gravity fed the other connection and pink just went down into the bilge through a hose that went to the plate near the engine bulkhead. Still don't get that. Now can you see the back of the transom connections?? I tried but may need to remove the batteries for the stern thruster, but from my first look all I could see was a hole in the fiberglass where those two hoses that go into the bilge goes through.
QUOTE=rclementtx;70853]Botjem - it appears from your pics that the one with the stainless backplate is (was?) a Formula factory installed city water inlet with an after-market quick disconnect fitting installed. The other one looks like its an after the fact installation for some sort of flushing/washdown. Do you have a fresh water flush on your engines? The fact that both of these inlets have after market quick disconnects makes me wonder if the prior owner modified the factory installed piping to turn each of these quick disconnect ports into flush connection for each separate engine. It should be easy to troubleshoot - if you put city water on the connection with the stainless back plate AND you get water flowing from your faucets with the fresh water pump turned OFF, then the connection probably operates as originally designed and needs to be winterized. If you do NOT get water flowing from faucets, then that piping was modified and it is for some other purpose. If these are now reconfigured as engine jacket flushing ports, I still think I'd make sure that they were free of fresh water by either blowing them dry or pumping in antifreeze. I bought this $19.99 pump from Amazon to force antifreeze into my system ... https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N75ZIXF/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1[/QUOTE]
 
Botjem said:
... The previous owner installed a 4 way water manifold in the engine compartment to winterize the engines, generator and a/c's, so if I hook up a pump to the stainless backplate connection and connect the leg that is in the engine room to the 4 way manifold then I CAN WINTERIZE ALL FROM OUT SIDE? BUT how does the water know to go to the engine and not to to the water tank or faucets, I was told there is a check valve in the system.
Click to expand...

Botjem ... Wow! Your life is much more intricate than I imagined when I first answered you. What you've described is entirely plausible but I surely can't help unravel it from here. I can tell you that my system does indeed have a check valve somewhere in the fresh system ahead of the fresh water tank that keeps city water fed from the transom connection from going into the fresh water tank. Thus the city water pressurizes all of the faucets and toilet but doesn't back feed into the fresh water storage tank. If all you have to do in order to winterize your engines, AC(s) and generator is to install a jumper on the 4 way manifold, that's a cool solution. I trust that each of those units has their own valve to isolate it from the winterizing water circuit so you can pump antifreeze thru each one individually in order to know that you got all of the fresh water out. With regard to the transom fitting that simply empties into the bilge there's got to be an explanation for it ... perhaps other more experienced folks on here can opine on it. How about the previous owner?? One other option is to give the Formula TAD group a call and ask them to send you an "as constructed" piping diagram from your boat with location of check valves marked. That will at least give you an idea of what you have. TAD did that for me months ago and it was helpful. They did the same with wiring diagrams.
 
rclementtx said:
Botjem ... Wow! Your life is much more intricate than I imagined when I first answered you. What you've described is entirely plausible but I surely can't help unravel it from here. I can tell you that my system does indeed have a check valve somewhere in the fresh system ahead of the fresh water tank that keeps city water fed from the transom connection from going into the fresh water tank. Thus the city water pressurizes all of the faucets and toilet but doesn't back feed into the fresh water storage tank. If all you have to do in order to winterize your engines, AC(s) and generator is to install a jumper on the 4 way manifold, that's a cool solution. I trust that each of those units has their own valve to isolate it from the winterizing water circuit so you can pump antifreeze thru each one individually in order to know that you got all of the fresh water out. With regard to the transom fitting that simply empties into the bilge there's got to be an explanation for it ... perhaps other more experienced folks on here can opine on it. How about the previous owner?? One other option is to give the Formula TAD group a call and ask them to send you an "as constructed" piping diagram from your boat with location of check valves marked. That will at least give you an idea of what you have. TAD did that for me months ago and it was helpful. They did the same with wiring diagrams.
Click to expand...
Why thank you I think, LOL. The 4 way valve is like what you for put on your outside hose bib to hook up four hoses, so yes there are valves to open and close. I spoke with the previous owner and he said he just used the second port to flush out the bilge but it does not look factory installed. I will take your suggestion about contacting TAG. I text the previous owner at least 3 times a week and he hasn't stop answering since August 15 and Bryan at TAG gets e mail from me at least once a week - think both of them will tire of me soon. The previous owner told me that the stern and bow thrusters had their own battery charger and not realizing it I thought I was charging them whenever I plugged in to shore power and flipped the battery charger on, unbeknownst to me after a month and a half of using thrusters daily or every other day they stopped working, I figures I over worked them and after texting with Previous owner he informed me the ACC breaker (Bottom Right ) on DC panel controlled that charger, wow I it at least 30 times without charging batteries.
 
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