Winterizing the water system

Cableguy Greg

Since I am new to the cruiser arena, I am trying to start a punch list of things to do. The one thing that I am debating is whether to put pink stuff in the water tank and water system or to blow the entire thing out with air. A fellow Rinker cruiser owner that I am friends with uses the pink stuff in the entire system. I don't want to deal with the system smelling or being contaminated with the pink stuff in the spring. What are your thoughts???

Black_Diamond

Are you storing inside/heated or where it can freeze?  If the latter, go pink stuff. Flush in the spring and then run a partial tank with a few teaspoons of unscented bleach, run, let sit, flush. You'll be good to go. 

If inside heated, i just add a bit of pink to the tank for the winter and flush like above in the spring. 

aero3113

Don't put any pink in the tank! Just empty it as much as you can. Then remove the waterline off of the pump and use a hose to pump directly out of the antifreeze jugs. The remaining water in the tank will freeze but will not harm the tank. Once you put the pink stuff in your tank it will take the whole season to get rid of the smell.

rinker312

I have always done the pink stuff and then bleach in the spring as diamond said. 

Dream_Inn

If you'd like I can send you a list (in a word file) that I've created many years ago and updated as my boats have changed.  Should work very well for the average cruise.  Just PM me your email.  I too agree with Aero, remove hose at tank and run pink in from there.

MarkB

My mechanic I'm sure runs pink through the system. 

DanD2

I've only put the pink stuff in my tank once.....that was the first year I owned my Monterey 282. Took me most of the summer to get the sweet taste/smell out, especially on the hot water side. I even bleached it a couple of times. It's best if you can, to bypass the tank. If your boat is not already set up to bypass, it's pretty easy to do.

Cableguy Greg

Thanks for all of the advice. It will be stored inside, but unheated. On my 232, it had a small water system that I just drained everything and all was good. That is why I thought of using air to blow it out. I have the parts ordered for the hot water tank bypass. They should be here in a few days. I have to agree that pink in the tank is a bad thing. My hot water tank smelled like sulfur for half of the season, and I don't want to go thru that again...

Dream_Inn

Greg, I use an air connection on the city water hookup to pressure the system with about 30psi from an air compressor to blow the water out first, then run the pink thru.  I probably don't even need the pink, but it's cheap insurance.

MarkB

I spoke to another mechanic today. They just flush with bleach and then drain the entire system.