Winterize Houseboat Washdown System
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If you have this on your houseboat you certainly need to winterize it. Most that have this feature will have a faucet at or under the front deck,rear deck, and the top deck. In most cases the water supply is lake water. If you don't know where the 12volt pump is simply turn the breaker switch on for wash down. Open one of the faucets and listen for the pump running. In most cases it will be located in the crawl space beneath the boat. Go to the pump and locate where the pump is getting it water source from. In most cases it will be getting its water supply from a stand pipe sticking up from the hull of your boat. Turn the pump off and if your supply stand has a shut off valve shut it off. Disconnect the plastic hose coming from the stand pipe to the pump. Using marine antifreeze insert the hose either in the gallon jug of antifreeze or in a bucket filled with it. Make sure you have several gallons of this on hand when you start this. Have your mate turn the wash down pump back on. You will have to turn each faucet on one at a time until the pink stuff is coming out of the faucet. It's a good idea to give your mate a bucket to catch the water in. You could instead of a bucket attach a garden hose to pump the water overboard. Repeat this process at each faucet. When finished and your certain antifreeze has filled and replaced the water shut the faucets and pump off. Reattach the plastic feed line to its original connection and you're done. Remember next summer if you want to use it you will have to go down and open the valve. As with any article if you need more information with this just ask.