Minimum Winterisation To Allow Usage Over Winter

[fishfoxey]

Hi what's the minimum winterisation folks recommend to allow use of the boat over the winter months? I currently have set 2 tube heaters in the engine bay on a thermostat, and a dehumidifier running in the cabin. Will I get away without antifreeze in the raw water circuit or should I just bite the bullet and re antifreeze after each trip out. 

Also what temps for on and off would folks recommend for the tube heaters, currently I have set them to on at 2 deg and off at 5 deg

Thanks

[rightsaidfred]

To some extent depends on engine placement, inboard engine ie centre cockpit or similar not to much of a problem I don't winterise just some heat and remove shower heads, rear engine ie bathtub etc might need more others will know better than me.

Fred.

[Keebz]

I do similar the thing I do that you haven’t mentioned you do is I mix or buy the biodegradable antifreeze and open the top of the strainer and using a big bottle like a ad blu bottle once engine is warn start with no revs (you’ll need a helper) and poor it in (oh and turn valve on strainer off) and when it colours the exhaust water it’s through then turn off, but I keep eye on forecast if we are due a really cold snap then take further steps, I like to use mine all winter for a fishing base 

 

[Cal]

We never "winterised" our boat in the 13 years we owned it. 

We put a large tube heater in the engine bay on a thermostatic switch set to 5 degrees and a smaller tube heater in the heads.

That was it. We never did anything else.

We plan to do much the same with the motorhome. It will never get fully drained down or winterised because we plan to use it all winter.

[ExSurveyor]

I only drain the water tank and pipes, heater in the engine bay, heater in the centre cabin and a dehumidifier.

[annv]

Hi Foxey how cold will it get this winter and for how long?? and will your electricity shore supply trip out, I personally work to worst case scenario, £4=00 worth of antifreeze against a new water tank, heat exchanger, raw water pump,water heater matrex and fresh water pump to name a few, leaving a tank half full with taps left open should be safe. Its when the water is enclosed and unable to expand is where the damage accrues,and if below freezing for more than one day. John

[SteveO]

I think a lot depends on where you live in relation to where your boat is moored and arrangements at your moorings. We are 170 miles away and tend to take a "belt and braces" approach, which has been repaid a couple of times - once because the power supply to the moorings was disrupted and the second because a well-meaning individual slackened my mooring ropes but forgot to allow sufficient scope for the shorepower cable to move with the boat. We drain down the domestic water system. disconnect and drain the water pump, open all taps and use anti-freeze in the engine cooling water. We also have tube heaters on a thermostat set to come on at 4 degrees C but, to be honest, I don't think they come on very often as, in a normal winter, it doesn't get that cold in the bilges.  

If we lived closer I would do a "light" winterisation and rely more on the heaters but would couple this with visits to the boat to check the power supply and make adjustments if the forecast was for really cold stuff. 

[annv]

The other thing is how much electricity will you use i have heard of bills of £50=00 for heating over winter against my £4=00 plus 1/2 hours effort. perhaps people will tell us how much it costs them for electricity over winter.  John

[ExSurveyor]

£50 for heaters and dehumidifier, all on thermastats or timer.

[fishfoxey]

1 hour ago, annv said:

Hi Foxey how cold will it get this winter and for how long?? and will your electricity shore supply trip out, I personally work to worst case scenario, £4=00 worth of antifreeze against a new water tank, heat exchanger, raw water pump,water heater matrex and fresh water pump to name a few, leaving a tank half full with taps left open should be safe. Its when the water is enclosed and unable to expand is where the damage accrues,and if below freezing for more than one day. John

Hi yeh I think as I live 2 hours away I will probably do as I did last year and close the seacocks and run antifreeze through, along with the tube heaters and dehumidifier. Then if I use it will just have to re antifreeze it. TBF didn't have any elec trip outs last winter so fingers crossed. 

[Smoggy]

I don't have leccy at my mooring, all I do for a normal winter is leave taps open with pump off, mix freezeban 50/50 with water and pour into weed strainers (open strainer with seacock open to drop water out then turn seacock off before pouring mix in), run till strainer empties then pour a bit more in till gone and shut down engines, job done.

Freezeban in non toxic so better to use than regular anti-freeze as it ends up in the river via the exhaust.

I have a solar panel inside the glass hatch that powers a pc case fan in one of the roof vents to give active airflow when the sun shines, if leaving for any length of time instead of the usual 2 weeks I'll lift the bed cushions and leave a better gap under.

Other than that the soft furnishings stay onboard, I always leave it with all seacocks closed and isolators off and carpet stuffed into bog door to keep it open, also leave fridge door open to stop mildew growing inside.

I like to be able to use the boat at any time so it only takes a few minutes to re-commision and probably less than 10 minutes to re-winterise at the end of the weekend.

I do have a deck shower but fitted it with tee'd valves low down so I can shut it off and drain the pipes to it, it rarely gets used so the pipes are normally empty anyway, I can drain the water tank into the bilge very easily if I want but that is only done for "beast from the east" type conditions.

[Cal]

14 hours ago, annv said:

The other thing is how much electricity will you use i have heard of bills of £50=00 for heating over winter against my £4=00 plus 1/2 hours effort. perhaps people will tell us how much it costs them for electricity over winter.  John

We never had any trouble with our power supply to the boat. They were very good with that. The one time there was a big and prolonged power outage during winter (due to someone killing themselves nicking cables) they brought in massive bac up generators to provide power.

Our electric bills were never huge. Our bollards were topped up with £14 cards and we would use three a year at most.

[TheQ]

Thanks Smoggy, didn't know Freezeban existed will order some tonight..

[Smoggy]

I've always picked it up at jones boat yard at st.ives as it's local to me, comes up cheaper than regular anti-freeze to, they claim you can use it in your water tank but I'm not that brave.