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Winterisation but regular weekend use......


Matt&Jo

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OK my system which has stood me in good stead for years - assumes a hook up

Check antifreeze levels (and age) htg and engine 50:50 of red 5 year antifreeze preferred 

When I leave ……..

Always leave all internal doors and drawers open to the cabin incl fridge

Buy 1 greenhouse style 120w tubular heater per 10ft and leave plugged in whenever you leave - put in strategic locations eg by the pump, by/under the engine, close to front and back doors close to or in the kit cupd (you get the idea)

Turn off the water supply at the stop cock between the tank and the pump open all taps showers and leave open, take down shower head/hose and put it in the shower tray, pump out the shower tray

Hope that helps

 

Edited by Halsey
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1 hour ago, philjw said:

 Given the level of insulation on the tank I do wonder if it is worthwhile.

Insulation alone does not keep things warm

 

2 minutes ago, bizzard said:

Leave the fridge door ajar to ventilate it or it'll stink.

Or leave it switched on.

 

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13 minutes ago, MartynG said:

Insulation alone does not keep things warm

 

Or leave it switched on. 

 

I suppose that leaving it switched on, and, with the door open helps acclimatise the boat to cold weather.

Maybe because it will be running continuously the 'heat' generated will more than offset the 'cold' generated ??

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1 hour ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

 

 

I suppose that leaving it switched on, and, with the door open helps acclimatise the boat to cold weather.

Maybe because it will be running continuously the 'heat' generated will more than offset the 'cold' generated ??

 

Rather than leave the fridge off and the door ajar I mean leave the fridge switched on and the door shut. That keeps the interior of the fridge from any issues such as mould , as it does in a house.

It costs very little in electricity

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We once had to take a gamble and leave the boat quiclly for a couple of weeks with only a partial winterisation, unfortunately we couldn't get back before a really cold spell. Calorifier and macerator box survived but water pump, shower mixer and macerator toilet bowl were destroyed. After that I used to pour some antifreeze into the toilet and make sure water pumps were drained. Also hung shower head down to drain it, along with a drop of antifreeze in the shower drain. And drain calorifier even though it did survive. 

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14 hours ago, Matt&Jo said:

Okay so water first......isolate the water supply into the boat and turn on a tap yes.....drain that water then switch off the pump......is that correct? 

 

Drain down the calorifier that does not sound a simple task or is it simple really? Its under our bed. Is this a manual drain down from a valve on it etc or will it drain when we run the tap and isolate the supply......sorry for the dumb questions

The OP is a regular weekend visitor.

14 hours ago, rusty69 said:

No. to be honest, its not a 5 min job, and doesn't involve just opening a tap after isolating the supply. If you intend to make use of the boat during winter,and it has a shore power connection you can rely on, then heating the boat on low is probably a better option.

 

You could install a device to alert you if the power goes off (see recent thread).

The OP is a regular weekend visitor

14 hours ago, Alan de Enfield said:

We have two tubular greenhouse heaters in the engine room (which is below the saloon). These are on timers (rather than thermostats) so are maybe on when not needed.

 

Have one on most of the day, the other one most of the night with both on for a couple of hours dawn and dusk. Cost works out at £0.90 per day. so around £100 for the whole of Winter. Its not worth the hassle of draining down the systems when we know we are going to visit regularly,

The cauliflower is in the engine room and remains 'full'.

I turn of the cold water supply, open all taps and showers let them run dry. Turn off the pump.

Shower heads are taken off the hoses and hoses and shower heads laid in the bottom of the shower.

 

At last, someone who reads the question!

12 hours ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

 

 

I suppose that leaving it switched on, and, with the door open helps acclimatise the boat to cold weather.

Maybe because it will be running continuously the 'heat' generated will more than offset the 'cold' generated ??

If you run a fridge with the door open the whole space gradually gets warmer. It must do, because work is being done (energy is used). A fridge doesn't generate cold, it is a heat pump, so it merely moves heat about - but you knew that. The question is whether the heat from the fridge will offset the heat losses from the boat -- I suspect it will not!

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23 minutes ago, Machpoint005 said:
15 hours ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

At last, someone who reads the question!

Just cos the OP is a weekend visitor doesn't preclude draining the calorifier.

If the shore power will not support heating then it is otherwise a risk.

 

If it was mine I know which I would prefer,but each to their own!

 

Quote

Check antifreeze strength in heating system and engine cooling circuit.

 

If you have a calorifier, consider draining it down or taking measures to prevent it freezing with use of shore power.Same with instantaneous gas heater if you have one.

 

Drain fresh water pipes on leaving the boat

 

Put cat out.....

 

ETA.Did you actually read post#3....at last someone who reads the thread:)?

Edited by rusty69
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For about 2 years I worked away from home/boat only back on the weekends, this happened to coincide with a very cold winter, so cold the Llan froze solid for about 4 weeks, with no problems on the boat.

Early Monday morning I would bank the fire and turn down low, switch all the electrics off, turn the stop cock on the water tank off, open all the taps including shower and let the showerhead hang into the shower tray.

I am not suggesting this is the way for everyone but it worked for me with no problems,  well apart from the olive oil in the cupboards went cloudy

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We leave a big tube heater in the engine bay, a smaller one in the shower room and an oil filled rad in the cabin.

 

That's it. We leave them on 24/7 No pratting around with timers or thermostats. They use bugger all electric and keep the boat well above freezing. 

 

We don't drain anything down so the boat is always ready to go cruising.

 

Done this for the past ten years with no problems. 

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15 hours ago, Matt&Jo said:

Okay so water first......isolate the water supply into the boat and turn on a tap yes.....drain that water then switch off the pump......is that correct? 

 

Drain down the calorifier that does not sound a simple task or is it simple really? Its under our bed. Is this a manual drain down from a valve on it etc or will it drain when we run the tap and isolate the supply......sorry for the dumb questions

It can be made a simple job. I am a bit obsessive on this point, I know.  I've added various drain valves and a pump, and emptying the calorifier takes about five minutes, and a bit of groping under the bed (where the calorifier is). The pipe at the top goes to the cold water inlet on the calorifier, and the one just belowt to the hot side of the calorifier, to drain the hot pipework.

bilgepump.jpg.c2493e81054667e9251b0e32c36812a8.jpg

Edited by Scholar Gypsy
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4 minutes ago, Scholar Gypsy said:

It can be made a simple job. I am a bit obsessive on this point, I know.  I've added various drain valves and a pump, and emptying the calorifier takes about five minutes, and a bit of groping under the bed (where the calorifier is). The pipe at the top goes to the cold water inlet on the calorifier, and the one just belowt to the hot side of the calorifier, to drain the hot pipework.

bilgepump.jpg.c2493e81054667e9251b0e32c36812a8.jpg

Yep. Agreed. I too have a pump to aid drainage now days. Much quicker now as opposed to the bad old days without and cheaper than heating an empty boat. 

Edited by rusty69
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1 hour ago, tree monkey said:

For about 2 years I worked away from home/boat only back on the weekends, this happened to coincide with a very cold winter, so cold the Llan froze solid for about 4 weeks, with no problems on the boat.

Early Monday morning I would bank the fire and turn down low, switch all the electrics off, turn the stop cock on the water tank off, open all the taps including shower and let the showerhead hang into the shower tray.

I am not suggesting this is the way for everyone but it worked for me with no problems,  well apart from the olive oil in the cupboards went cloudy

I've done similar and had no issues.  Certainly would not consider draining the cauliflower.  I don't know how any way. 

 

I did have a problem once where I went away for the night, did no winterizing at all and woke up the next morning with flu.  I was confined to bed for about 5 days.  That five days the temperature remained below freezing 24/7, there was rime on all the trees and it was very very cold.  When I got back, everying was mostly ok. But... All the taps had icicles which has forced their way out, but the taps seemed to heal themselves when thawed out.  All three radiators had icicles which had burst out of them through tiny pinholes.  So I bought this putty stuff from b&q and patched them with that.  They're still like that now.

 

If I go away for a week or so now, with no hookup, my usual system is to charge my batteries fully first and leave my central heating on lowish with the pump thermostat set to about +4C.  Turn all other electrics off.  I've never come back to the boat to find my voltage lower than 12.5-12.6v.

 

 

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So after all these replies why not just do the sensible thing like we did for a hell of a lot of years. We simply winterised the house which was easy. We lived aboard anyway and used the house for days away and holidays. It makes much more sense to live on the boat in every way so there you go.

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so far the only casualty of ice on our boat has been the filter / strainer on the shower drain pump (which may have already been damaged before we bought the boat)

 

our winterisation process (engine and alde heating are known to have correct mix of anti-freeze / possibly a little too rich)

1. run the taps until air comes out (especially the hot tap), the calorifier makes some wonderful glooping sounds (leave taps on)

2. turn pump off at power

3. flush the loo twice (leaves it's feed and the bowl empty)

4. put shower head on floor and turn shower taps on
5. take the drawer under the cooker out and remove strainer bowl from shower drain pump

6. curse because we now have a dirty strainer and no water to clean it with

7. place strainer and bowl on the draining board (so that we don't forget to put it back on next time we come to the boat)

8. replace batteries in alarm sensors (otherwise low batteries die in cold temps and set the alarm off in January)
9. isolate batteries

10. lock doors

11. turn gas off at bottle and lock locker lid
12. leave

13. return to boat because we have left the marina gate key in the cutlery drawer and can't get out

14. really leave.

 

I will add that our boat is not hooked up to mains

solar takes care of keeping the leisure bank topped up (bilge pump etc all run off the leisure bank)

the starter battery is left alone, so far we have had no problems with not charging it over winter but are expecting it to fail at any time (it was originally fitted in 1998)

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Generally, very cold weather is forecast at least a week in advance, so if you are going to be back next weekend you'll know that it is going to drop to minus silly sometime during the week and prepare the boat beforehand. I live aboard, but if I am going to be away for any time in winter I'll do the amount of preperation that the forecast warrents. Boating neighbours that are around and you trust with a key can help with the unforeseen, like shore power loss.

 

Jen

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4 hours ago, Machpoint005 said:

 

If you run a fridge with the door open the whole space gradually gets warmer. It must do, because work is being done (energy is used). A fridge doesn't generate cold, it is a heat pump, so it merely moves heat about - but you knew that. The question is whether the heat from the fridge will offset the heat losses from the boat -- I suspect it will not!

But you end up with a lot of ice after a week :cheers:

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On 01/11/2018 at 19:20, Alan de Enfield said:

Its not worth the hassle of draining down the systems when we know we are going to visit regularly,

 

Being in a marina we mange over  most of the winter with bottles for drinking water - refilled from the pontoon tap. I feel happier with the water drained off .

Refilling the domestic system  it, if wanted, is not a big deal.  Put the hose pipe in and have a cup of tea while it fills. We may do that at new year when we will stop over if we can.

If we have no domestic water on we  go home for a shower as the house is less than a mile away from the boat. The marina shore facilities are adequate when required.

Edited by MartynG
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We did this last winter (spent every weekend at the boat) and we didn’t have any oil filled radiators so we just isolated the tank and opened the taps whenever we left. One thing to note though our fridge used to stop working as the boat would be too cold and so we would turn up to a warm and very smelly fridge! So I would advise turning the fridge off! Bit of a pain as milk tended to go off in a cool bag on a 3 hour journey each way. In fact it’s just got cold enough for the fridge to start doing it again last Friday turned up and warm fridge! We are going to get some radiators this winter

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56 minutes ago, dm6045 said:

We did this last winter (spent every weekend at the boat) and we didn’t have any oil filled radiators so we just isolated the tank and opened the taps whenever we left. One thing to note though our fridge used to stop working as the boat would be too cold and so we would turn up to a warm and very smelly fridge! So I would advise turning the fridge off! Bit of a pain as milk tended to go off in a cool bag on a 3 hour journey each way. In fact it’s just got cold enough for the fridge to start doing it again last Friday turned up and warm fridge! We are going to get some radiators this winter

You've tried a freezer block in your cool bag? At least one way.

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14 hours ago, dm6045 said:

We did this last winter (spent every weekend at the boat) and we didn’t have any oil filled radiators so we just isolated the tank and opened the taps whenever we left. One thing to note though our fridge used to stop working as the boat would be too cold and so we would turn up to a warm and very smelly fridge! So I would advise turning the fridge off! Bit of a pain as milk tended to go off in a cool bag on a 3 hour journey each way. In fact it’s just got cold enough for the fridge to start doing it again last Friday turned up and warm fridge! We are going to get some radiators this winter

We put oir freezer bag in the freezer the night before...same on the boat and it keeps food cold on the return journey....only 1hr to be fair...

 

I shall isolate the tank and open all taps and turn off the pump before i leave when the weather turns a bit colder. Not too concerned currently darn sarf!!!!

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