New Method to Winterizing Air Conditioning??

A

albaris

Member
exMember
Joined
Mar 10, 2002
RO Number
7807
Messages
64
Two weeks ago I purchased a "new to me" Trawler with twin diesels.
Seeing as that I had never had diesels before, I hired one of the most respected names on Lake Ontario to winterize the whole boat while I watched.
With my old Silverton with twin gas engines, I had always done my own winterizing, but I just wanted to be sure this time around.

I was surprised to see how he winterizied the A/C system.

Let me begin by saying that my boat was on the hard and blocked, ready for winter storage.
Then....he uses a 55 gallon drum of antifreeze connected to an on demand pump. He put the hose into the water discharge thru-hull of the a/c, and pumped pink antifreeze in until it came out the raw water intake of the a/c system. Essentially reversing the normal flow of the system.
After about 10 seconds the pink started to flow, he ran about 2 gallons through, and done. It took all of about 3 minutes.

Has anyone ever heard of doing it this way......and what are the cons?
I was used to taking the intake hose off the seacock and turning the a/c system on while pumping pink through the intake waiting for it to come out the discharge thru-hull fitting.

Any comments would be appreciated.

Thanks,
 
Its done in reverse all the time.

Not a problem.

Personally I use compressed air to blow out the lines. More than one way to skin a cat.
 
That's the way we always did it. I used a hand pump to push the juice through the system,.
 
Been doing it that way for several years, and we have mentioned it here many times before.
 
Same here. Was a bear getting the pump to prime on the hard. Much easier to push the antifreeze thru the system from the discharge.
 
I do almost the same thing but I use compressor and force air into the two (2) discharge thru hulls. No pink stuff needed. I do separate the head on the pump about an 1/8" so there's no residual water in pump. My pump has four or five wing nuts holding head to pump. Easy to separate. Been doing it this way for over 20 years without any problems.
 
I am glad others are doing it that way. I had never heard or seen it done that way before.

Thanks for your answers.
 
I just take the hose off the strainer, stick a funnel in it and hold it above the pump. I pur two gallons of antifreeze through using the raw water pump. Never had a problem.
 
I winterized my AC heat pump exactly as you described. In fact, I use the same procedure to winterize my faucets, too.

I attach a hose fitting to the pump, screw it into the dockside water connection, and then plug in the pump. The pump pressurizes the water system and then turns off. I go to each sink on board, open each faucet until pink comes out. The pump keeps the pressure in the system as the pink flows. I draw from a five gallon pail of RV antifreeze. It works great.
 
I had trouble doing this Saturday. I have one pump two units. I started with blowing air into the forward thru-hull. I was solo so I didn't see if anything came out the bottom of the boat but a few squirts did come out the thru-hull for the aft unit. I then tried pumping pink into the thru-hull but it would not take any, it just kept spitting back at me. I got into the bilge and disconnected the discharge side of the pump and tried to pump pink toward the compressors, same thing, it wouldn't take. I gave up and moved on to the engines.

Yesterday, I started with the front unit and disconnected the hose on the inbound side on the compressor, ran clean water through, blew air, and ran pink through. It came out the thru-hull just fine. I repeated for the aft unit. I then ran pink into the inbound line toward the pump and it ran through the pump, filter and out the bottom of the boat.

Do you think on Sat I had a vapor lock or something and it dissipated over night?

Fizerocks…I bought a $12 bilge pump at Wal-Mart and mounted it on the bottom of a dry wall bucket. I put alligator clips on the wires. I used clear ¾ tubing out of the pump and I stick a short length of 5/8 into the ¾ if I need something smaller. I fill the bucket with antifreeze and turn the pump via a battery I lug around.
 
nwaring, not sure who you were addressing you post to. I also have 2 units with one pump. As I stated I separate pump head and any water in lines comes out thru separation of pump. True it goes in bilge....you could put bucket under pump if there's room but there really isn't all that much water.
 
Bob, no one in particular, just soliciting thoughts on why I had problems. The manual for my units recommended one of 4 ways.
1 - Disconnect the discharge side of the pump and blow air in
2 - Pump in the pink at the same spot
3 - Blow air in the thru-hull toward the pump
4 - Pump in the pink toward the pump.
I choose to do both air and pink on all water lines but on Sat it wasn’t working and the only thing I could think of was a vapor lock.
Niles
 
I also flush first with a garden hose in reverse, to remove any dirt and sediment in the consenser. You would not believe the dirt that comes out after a season in murky water.
 
Has anyone ever used a wet/dry vac? I know a few people that disconnect the hose from the a/c pump, and suck the water out with a heavy duty shop vac. They also suck out the pump itself, and strainers. I have also seen them use the vac on their engines. One guy said he's been doing that for years without any problems at all. I suppose it would make sense considering it's just like blowing air into it, except it's in reverse.
Has anyone done that?
 
Darin, kind of. The only strainer I have is on the genny and before winterizing it I sucked the water out of the strainer with a wetdry vac, cleaned the screen and filled with -100 antifreeze before hooking up underneath and starting the genny.
Niles
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top