Winterizing 400ss water system
 

Hi everyone, I am trying to get antifreeze into my fresh water tank on the boat so I can winterize the tank and lines.

The problem is, the only inlet for the water is a connect for a garden hose... and it needs the pressure from the city water to fill the tank.

Anyone have any ideas or suggestions on how to get anti-freeze in there?

Thanks in advance!

You don't have a deck fill? I've never heard of a boat that didn't have one somewhere.

That is really strange that there is no deck fill. Can you access the top of the tank and pour straight in there? depending on how long the run is from the hose connection to the tank, it should drain into the tank, and I would not really be worried about that section freezing. On the carver we use the deck fill then run all the faucets, showers, toilets, then drain the system.

I cannot seem to find a deck fill anywhere.

There are the deck fills on each side for the gas. Then the water fill area that is strictly a hose connection, back near where you plug in the shore power.


I talked with the previous owner... he found the water tank ventilation hose and said he always poured in his antifreeze in there.

I was thinking about just going to Ace Hardware and getting a small electric water pump and using that to put it in through the hose connection on the back of the boat..!? :(

Fixx
 

put a shop vac on the blow side,turn on all the spickets in the boat,put the shop vac over the hose inlet and apply pressure over the outside fitting with the shop vac hose and see if it will pressurise the system..when the spickets stop draining get a small funnel and try to fill it with rv antifreeze then blow it through the lines again with the shop vac..

ps dont forget the generator coolers of you have one..

I once put an extra bilge pump in the bottom of a 5 gallon bucket connected to an outlet hose and wired to a jump box to force antifreeze in somewhere....maybe that would work for you?

I have a Fountain Lightning with exactly the same set up. I bought a short length of garden hose, a medium funnel, and a hose clamp. I put them all together, hooked up the the inlet, and poured four gallons of pink stuff into the fresh water tank. I then ran the faucets and vacuflush until they were solid pink color. Done.

I haven't seen a Formula set up like that but I have seen a Fountain like that and as billeickmann says, you don't need pressure, just pour the A/F through a hose into the tank.

Did you look under the kid that covers the anchor windlass?

Did you look on the port side down by the transom shower?
That's where mine is on the 370

Formula changed the design on the 400 in 2002-2003 and eliminated the deck fill option. basically you have a check valve solenoid that is routed through to the water tank. In the cabin there is a switch to allow the system to by pass the water tank and run off city pressure, or allow the tank to fill through the solenoid valve, or run of the water pump. On my 2003, I drain all the water out of the tank running all faucets. I then drain the hot water tank. I have installed a bypass valve system so that I can by pass the hot watertank.I then disconnet the quick fit connector at the pump. If you look at the set up, you can trace the flow past the valve to where the tube enters the tank. That can be disconneted and antifreeze can be added to the tank. I then attach an extension tube to the pump, prime the pump and have the tube inserted into a 5 gallon bucket of antifreeze. From there, simply turn on each faucet one at a time, for both hot and cold and run the water pump. As I said, I have bypassed the hot water tank, so there is no need to have it filled. To be honest, the water tank is aluminum, and if completely emptied would not have enough water in it to crack it. I am in Michigan and have not had a problem with water in the water tank. I have yet to add antifreeze to it.

After looking at it earlier, I basically came up with this as well. I couldnt figure a way to bypass the water tank without extra push connectors and hoses.... That will be on the project list next year.

I appreciate all the info and help from everyone!!

Happy thanksgiving

I can give you the part numbers and pix of the kit i used if you like. Only tricky part is that the kit is standard id, and the hoses and fittings formula uses are metric. pm if intrested.