Tomcat owners, your checklist for winterization?

[matt_unique]

I will be laying up for the season and doing the winterization within the next few weeks. I wanted to compile a good list from what others have done.

Thanks

[Will-C]

Matt,
I don't own a Tom Cat but there is an easy way to winterize a boat and a hard way. The easy way is pack up all you stuff clean out your bank accounts and drive 1400 or so miles south. You have no reason to stay in the Boston area. Bradey's hurt and you can root for the Devil Ray's while you are down there in Florida.
The Hard way is to
1. drain and refill both lower units if oil is milky you probably need to get a seal replaced.
2. Remove both covers from your motors and spray with WD 40 or Corrosion X
3. drain and blow out any water system related item that could freeze and break, toliet, water heater. I would pump RV antifreeze thru any pump that isn't drinking water. Check your mascerators and fishboxes, bait wells, washdown
4. Get some marine rated StaBil add required amount and top off tanks. Make sure to take the boat for a spin after doing so.
5. Disconnect fuel lines from engines run them till they stop and then drain float bowls with what ever might be left.
6. take some chap stick and with it extended a little do all your female sides of your snaps. They will work better next year.
7.Grease all fittings on your motors
8. If you have a trailer clean and repack you wheel bearings spray winch and coupler with WD 40 or Corosion X and wrap them up in a heavy duty garbage bag when your all though with the boat.
9. if shrink wrapping make sure to add mildew protection and vents.
I'm sure I forgot some things. Go Phillies!
D.D.

[drjohn71a]

Matt,

'Looks like most of the winterizing was covered above, but to be a bit more detailed...

I was amazed that the plastic pump on the bait tank is below water level. A freeze break there would sink the boat fast! That pump must be disconnected and drained after shutting off the thru hull. The deck wash down pump is above water level, but the thru hull shutoff must be closed on it, the hose disconnected and drained.

Drain all the water out of the water heater, etc., then make a simple bypass hose across the bottom of the water heater so you can run RV antifreeze thru all the lines. Add several gallons of RV antifreeze to the storage tank and run it thru all the lines, including the hot/cold shower and head flush lines. Be sure to put RV anitfreeze into the shower drain so the little sump box will be protected. I use the head all winter by flushing with RV antifreeze.

Run the macerators from the cockpit fish boxes to get most water out, then pour RV antifreeze into the boxes and run it thru the pumps.

Don't forget to pour RV antifreeze into both hulls to get the bilge pumps protected. Run the bilge pumps until you see the colored antifreeze come thru. If you store the boat outside without any rain protection water will run into the fish boxes and dilute that antifreeze over time. You may have to add more if a lot of water gets in there.

John

[matt_unique]

Thanks for the tips!

In terms of the water heater...could I just drain all the water, add the RV antifreeze to the tank, then just run everything until I see antifreeze as well as opening the water heater drain until the antifreeze came out? Would that accomplish the same as the bypass hose you referenced?

At the beginning of next season, what do you guys do with the RV antifreeze?

[YACD]

Matt:

Here are my thoughts on this: I haven't performed these steps yet and there may be things I don't understand so let's hope someone can comment on them.

If your cold water tank slopes aft like mine there are about 10g that are not directly pumped out. That means that it will be quite difficult to ensure that all the antifreeze is removed in the spring. Only by mixing and mixing again and again and again..... with clean water can it be diluted and removed. If you install a deck plate in the top of the tank (I posted on that earlier) you can get enough access to pump manually and easily empty the tank.

Once the tank is really empty you don't need antifreeze in it. The pipes to the shower and sink (and head if you don't have an airhead) can be disconnected at the water pump which will drain them (collect the water somehow). This will drain the water pump too. Then no antifreeze is needed there either.

That leaves the hot water tank and shower sump. I'm not near the boat right now but I seem to remember that the hot water drain valve empties into the shower sump. However the drain is not on the bottom of the tank - i guess they leave enough water to cover the heating element. In that case antifreeze will be needed to prevent the residue from freezing. The inlet and outlets to the hot water tank can be disconnected and drained. Why joined together I don't know. The shower sump can be emptied using a small hand pump (I use a baster for small jobs). Then it needs no antifreeze either.

In the spring just remember to reconnect all the pipes before filling the tank, ha ha.

The engine work I leave to the marina and the boat will be shrink wrapped so nothing should collect in the bilges.

More information on the hot water tank would be helpful.

Roy

[drjohn71a]

Roy,

Like you, I have in the past used draining and blowing the liquids out as a form of freeze protection. The problem is that most of us really do not know exactly where bits of water could remain, or vaporize and condense to over time. I've had to replace a water pump, an ice maker and some other things over time by not using antifreeze.

I do not use the supply tank water for drinking unless it has run thru a pitcher filter, but generally use bottled water for drinking and cooking, so any left over antifreeze is not a problem.

Considering that, like you say in your supply tank's configuration, residual water may be left in odd places even after draining and air pressure, I think using antifreeze is even more important.

In some of my old campers and motorhomes, that air purging could blow thru water accumulations without lifting all the water out and then those areas would freeze. Even it you air purge, you need antifreeze to my thoughts.

I've used mine over two winters on the water with no damage and little work to protect the pipes.

Matt,

As for bypassing the hot water tank, I just got some 1/2" (i think) hose that would go over the threaded inlet and outlet at the bottom front of the hot water tank and two SS hose clamps and place that in place of the threaded connections for input and output on the tank. It does not have to be totally water tight since you're only running pressure long enough to get anti-freeze in place. In the off season that hose and clamps just sit on the floor inside the hot water heater cabinet.

If you try to run antifreeze throught the lines via the supply tank, the hot water tank will have to fill up before the antifreeze will run out the hot lines. You will need 6 plus gallons of antifreeze before any goes to the shower and sink hot water tap.

At first I tried to find a water heater bypass "Kit" and actually bought a couple that did not fit. I finally saw that just about 14 inches of tubing and two hose clamps would easily do the trick to bypass the heater.

Thanks for posting - this is an interesting topic! John

[matt_unique]

Good points I did not consider Roy, thanks for the post. I would sure want to avoid brushing our teeth and doing dishes with a water/antifreeze mix

I have a bit of a learning curve ahead of me with the water system...there is very little in the manual.

[Dreamer]

Matt,

As usual, a wealth of knowledge from the C-Brats. I recently got four 7/8" plugs similar to a bath tub stopper. I put them in the Wallas exhaust, sink drain through hull, shower sump through hull and the through hull for the head pump out. We occasionally get critters and insects trying to make nests, etc in any open hole.

I'm just finishing up with the RV antifreeze treatment so this has been a great thread. Thanks for bringing it up.

[YACD]

Roger's post reminded me that the Wallas is meant to be 'winterized' by disposing of the old fuel and replacing a fuel filter. I think I saw this on the Scan Marine web site.

[drjohn71a]

OK - several key thoughts:

First, be sure to put masking tape on the Water Heater Switch on the Power Supply board in the OFF position. It might be handy to put a tape on the Water Pressure switch on the dash also after draining all the water.

Second, I found the instruction manual for my Seaward S700 which goes into great detail about a different winterizing technique which I will brieflly describe below. I'll be glad to FAX those winterizing pages to anyone who PMs me with their FAX number. It would take quite awhile to type all that myself.

Basically, the Seaward manual says to drain the main supply tank until you have a bit more water left than the water tank holds. So, a 6-7 gallon water heater would need 7-8 gallons of plain water in the supply tank TO WHICH YOU ADD SUFFICIENT POTABLE ANTIFREEZE. You then have to remove the drain plug on the water heater to remove the anode, if there is one, and replace that anode plug with a normal 3/4 inch pipe plug since any type of antifreeze will damage the magnesium anode. I don't think my tank has an anode, but I don't run antifreeze into the tank - I bypass it and drain it.

To continue with Seaward's technique, you then run the hot water out until you see the color of the antifreeze-mixed supply water coming thru the hot water taps, then stop. Then run the antifrozen (?) supply water thru the cold water lines/taps until the colored water comes thru. Then, they have you drain the hot water tank, open the pressure release valve and leave them open over the winter.

Although the Seaward manual specificallly states that the tank drain valve will fully empty the hot water heater tank, my experience in adding a bypass line, AFTER draining the tank with the provided drain valve, is that over a quart of water comes out of those removed lines as they are unhooked from the water heater tank. Maybe it is from non-tank areas, but that water certainly does have access to the tank if the lines are not disconnected and drained.

Third - After running all the supply water out. - To INSTALL YOUR OWN BYPASS: Looking at the side view from the open cabinet door you will see FOUR pipes coming out of the Heater Tank. The one on the lower left has a valve on it and an opaque white drain hose which drains the tank thru a thru-hull fitting overboard when the valve is open. The diagonally located UPPER RIGHT pipe has the Pressure Release Valve on it and the same type of opaque white drain hose which drains to the bilge (per Seaward instructions). You will need to open both of these valves to drain the tank and let air in. The Upper Left pipe is the COLD Water Intake and the Lower Right pipe is the HOT Water Outlet. Both of these have a 1/2 inch nylon barbed fitting over which their respective hoses are clamped.

All you have to do is to turn off the power, drain the tank by opening both valves, disconnect the two clamped hoses (Upper Left and Lower Right) and connect those two hoses that you removed together using about 13 inches of 1/2 inch hose with 1/2 inch double barbs or pieces of plastic 1/2 inch pipe clamped to each end of your 13" bypass hose.

I took a photo, but cannot get it uploaded for some reason.

AFTER DRAINING THE HEATER TANK AND CONNECTING YOUR 13" BYPASS, you pour a couple gallons of RV antifreeze into your supply tank and run it through all the shower and faucet tap lines until you see the antifreeze color run out. Bypassing the tank requires much less antifreeze than the other way and either way you are supposed to drain the tank and leave it open over the winter. DON'T FORGET TO TAPE THE WATER HEATER POWER SWITCH IN THE "OFF" POSITION. POWER TO A DRY TANK WILL RUIN IT!

In short... FOUR PIPES: OPEN THE TWO WITH VALVES AND CONNECT THE OTHER TWO. That is all there is to it!

For DE WINTERIZING the supply tank in the Spring, Seaward recommends 1 oz. of bleach for every 50 gallons of water.

As for winterizing the Wallas, if you use a highly refined fuel like Kleen Heet, there is less risk of "gelling" where a waxy substance is precipitated into the lines. I use my Wallas all winter long without changing the fuel from Kleen Heet and it starts in the coldest of weather. So far...

John

[drjohn71a]

Finally... a single photo of the bypass and the tank inlets/outlets is on Tom-a-Hawk's album along with a brief description.

John

[drjohn71a]

Just two more things for winterizing:

1 - I forgot that you need about 12 inches of 1/2 inch hose to put over the hot water heater's hot water outlet (UR barbed fitting) to help drain the excess water into a large pan instead of having it run all over the cabinet floor. I bet there was over a gallon in that outlet line. You have to pull the inlet hose to let air in and then put the inlet hose back in position to stop the draining while you dump the pan.

2 - Whatever boat you have, the batteries will stay fresh if you fill them with water, turn off all power drainage, and attach one of the 600 Milliamp Float chargers from Harbor Freight over the winter months. I use these cheap little float chargers (about $5) on all my motorhome, tractor, mower an unused car/truck batteries over winter.

John

[macmac]

If you are going to be laying your boat up for several months, there are several tips we can provide for keeping your Wallas unit happy:

1. One option for some users is to start and run your Wallas furnace or stove once a month during the layup period. The balance of these tips are for those who can't or don't want to exercise their unit on a regular basis.

2. Start your furnace or stove. Once it is up and running, pull the fuel line out of the tank, or otherwise disconnect the fuel supply and let the Wallas unit run until it quits for lack of fuel. When you come back to the boat after the layup period, you will need to re-prime the Wallas unit, but this process will help prevent gumming deposits inside the Wallas.

3. If you are running kerosene or kerosene substitutes for fuel, please dispose of whatever is left in your tank at the end of your season. You can re-fuel your tank when it is time to get back to boating. Be sure to buy kerosene products in small quantities and use them up within one year of purchase, keeping them out of sunlight and protected from big temperature changes.

Thanks for using Wallas and let us know if we can help. Check ourt our Tech Talk section on our web site at:

http://www.scanmarineusa.com/techtalk.html

[matt_unique]

Thanks for the good advice.

I have a stupid hot water heater question...how do I drain it? The manual says open the "drain" valve on the lower left hand side and open the T and P valve to release vacuum pressure. When I do this nothing happens.

I also have 3 or 4 hoses going into my shower drain. The shower drain works great but I don't know what the others are for. Perhaps one is supposed to be for the water heater drain? Perhaps one for tank condensation overflow or something?

Thanks for the help.

[Captains Cat]

Matt, I'm sure one of those hoses is the water heater drain. Notice I didn't call it a Hot Water Heater....If it was hot, you wouldn't have to heat it...

When I drained mine last fall, the pump kicked on and pumped the sump dry until the water heater emptied. Not sure how many mine has, I'll look the next time I'm down there. I would think just two, the shower and the water heater but I'm not sure.

Charlie