I have been winterizing my boat the last few days, and now need to address the AC/Heat system. Unfortunately, I am clueless on how to do this. I believe this is a self-contained system, and water is drawn in through a seacock. But how do I flush it out, or circulate antifreeze through it? Any help is appreciated. Boat is a 2008 Sailfish 282 with factory AC.
How To Winterize AC System?
- Thread starter RobboNJ
- Start date
on our old tiara, there was a sea strainer after the seacock. Open the sea strainer, start the a/c and pour antifreeze into it until it's spitting pink (or purple) from the output. If you don't have a sea strainer, you might be able to put a 'T' into the line with a hose connector to feed it antifreeze.
Another option...
Get a cheap hand pump and put one end in a jug of antifreeze and the other end... jamb it into the A/C thru hull exit fitting on the side of the boat. With the seacock open, pump antifreeze in till you see it come out the pickup on the bottom of the boat.
Get a cheap hand pump and put one end in a jug of antifreeze and the other end... jamb it into the A/C thru hull exit fitting on the side of the boat. With the seacock open, pump antifreeze in till you see it come out the pickup on the bottom of the boat.
Dennis, you're proposing a reverse flush. I like the simplicity of it, will the flush get through whatever pump is in the middle?
Pump should be right after the sea cock and strainer. If you have anti freeze coming out of the sea cock, them the entire line has been flushed.
Backflushing through the outlet with antifreeze is the way to go. Simple and easy with a water pump. I usually run 2 gallons of antifreeze through on my 305.
teaklejr
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Open strainer, turn ac on, pour into strainer till it comes out side of boat, turn ac off then put strainer cap back on. No need for a extra tool to do the job. You do need 2 people to do it, one to pour and one to turn ac on and off.
Yes. That's why you'll see it come out of the thru hull on the bottom of the boat
The A/C is basically just one long tube. Both ways work equally well.
So I was able to open the strainer and fill it with antifreeze, but it stopped pumping out the side. I think I have a blockage in the pump or it got air locked. Next step is the reverse flush. I can buy a drill pump for $12 so not a big expense.Yes. That's why you'll see it come out of the thru hull on the bottom of the boat
The A/C is basically just one long tube. Both ways work equally well.
If you need to, add tape to the hose till it fits snugly into the hole in the side of the hull.
I plan to use a hose with a tepered rubber stopper on it. Hopefully that will seal the drain hole and all the antifreeze will get pushed out the thru hull in the stern. I am traveling for a week so will post updates after I return.
Reverse flush has worked for us on our Marlin, it just depends how the system is laid out. I have tried the first method of adding "pinkstuff" into the line with the unit on and it didnt work. In order to get reverse to work, at least for us, you need to make room for the pink to push anything out of the line. As simple as opening up the seacock and pulling water out the seastrainer with a turkey baster. Use a funnel into the discharge line and pour the pink stuff in, no pump needed! If you hearing or see it pouring out of the inlet and onto the ground, you are done! If you are on instagram, check out @lisboatingandfishing - there are some pictures.
We were not exactly sure how to do our ac this year and this was very helpful. I ended up just putting a cut off funnel over the sea strainer and it pushed all the water out and I added some pink antifreeze to the funnel and forced it through with the shop vac, worked great!
Got back to completing the winterization today. Bought a Drill Pump "Kit" at HD for $20 and it worked great. The hose attachment that comes with the pump fits perfectly and snuggly (as in no leaks!) into the thru hull fitting for the AC discharge. Put the intake end of the pump into a gallon jug of pink antifreeze. Opened the seacock and started the drill. Immediately saw the level on the jug going down and after 10 or 20 seconds had pink coming out of the bottom thru hull pickup. Let it run for a bit longer and turned it off. Mission accomplished! Thanks again to all for your advice and instructions!
Good - glad that you got it done and found it easy! Probably easier than you imagined it would be?
On our Marlin we suck the salt water out of the sea strainer with a baster and literally pour pink stuff in the discharge with a funnel. Ezpz!!