The storage condo that I keep my boats in (Indianapolis, IN) has a natural gas furnace, and I keep it set to 50-55. The place is pretty insulated and even if the heat were to shut off, it would take a few days to cool down. The other night it got into the low 20's, and I haven't even turned the heat on yet but the inside of the building stayed right at 60. I also get daily alerts texted to me showing the bilge temperatures and battery voltage, so I will know if there is a power outage, and it's 15 min from my house.

All this being said, I drain the water from the blocks, generator, and air conditioners. If I were in a non heated building, I would NOT trust only a bilge heater. Maybe if you had 2 of them on separate circuits and have a backup generator/ auto transfer switch.

If anyone is doing winterizing on their A/C systems and has one of these pumps like the picture, make sure to actually run the pump and not just force feed antifreeze through the system with an outside pump or air pressure. I get calls in the spring with boaters asking why there's water pissing out the side of the pump. That copper tubing you see on the side is actually one long tube about 3' in length before it gets wrapped around the motor. If all you do is force feed the system you get antifreeze in the pump head but not in the cooling lines. The antifreeze will get diluted right where it meets the cooling tubes from the raw water that's in the tube and it will pop the plugs out of the plastic housing and next time you put water through it, it will be filling the boat up slowly.

Thanks to those of you with constructive feedback and info.

The heaters being used for "moored boats" makes sense.

And the dependence on the electricity staying on is a HUGE factor.



Just got back from tubing on a sunny 70 degree day. I guess "extending" my boating season was the main purpose of the heater.



I'm going to have to pay someone to winterize because I'm not a 4 foot flexible boat mechanic, and I can't even SEE most of the fittings, much less get to them. ---
Any idea what I SHOULD be paying ?
I noticed the cost of seervices around here seem to be inflated as though everyone at the lake is super rich.



Thanks !

For all those that dont winterize and have phone alerts and such if something goes wrong..... all I can say is this, you ever emergency winterize a boat when it's 30 degrees out? Not fun.

Again - simplest thing in the world. My 12 year old does it. You will literally spend more time calling the mechanic and scheduling the service than just doing it.

Step 1 - Buy antifreeze at Walmart. $3/Gallon. Assume 7 or 8 gallons a motor at most. Buy more if your heart desires
Step 2 - Fill Rubber Maid container with previously noted antifreeze
Step 3 - Drop in a pump from Harbor Freight and hook it up to your fresh water flush fittings. If you don’t have them spend 15 minutes installing
Step 4 - Fire Up Motor
Step 5 - Turn on pump as soon as the motor fires. Run until pink is clearly coming out of exhaust - probably 15-20 seconds
Step 6 - put pump in rubber maid container and put it all back in the attic until next year.

Note - if you have thermostats I’d pull them out first.

Seaford,

Although we don't winterize at all anymore, now that we keep the boat in my shop, and I'm here everyday (and we now have a 1/2 closed cooling boat), I've done something similar in the past. I do have to say the sump pump is a BRILLIANT idea, and I'm somewhat disappointed in myself for not thinking of it myself. I actually made up a Y connector that allowed me to run a hose to the earmuffs on the outdrive, with the third hose leading to a bucket that was filled with AF. I'd get the engine warmed up, which opens the thermostats, then I would, open the hose to the AF and close the valve to the water. One of my kids would be there ready to pour more AF into the bucket to keep up with consumption. When I was satisfied with the color of the water comming out of the exhaust, I'd fog the carb with engine oil, very lightly at first, increasing the dribble until it all but choked the engine out, then have the other kid kill the ignition. this worked great for the ten years or so we kept the boat in cold storage over the winter. I will say that we usually had troubles getting the engine to consume the AF from the bucket, as we were relying on gravity to feed it by siphon. It worked, but not like clockwork. The sump pump solves that issue. If we ever get back to needing to store the boat cold, I will definitely incorporate that into the process, including upsizing to a plastic storage tote, instead of the 5gal bucket.

Thanks. Brad.

Winterize , every spring someone posts…. Bla bla bla the heater got unplugged/ power went out . But on the other hand I’ve made good money buying boats with cracked block , PM me I’ve got cash .

Yeah Brad - similar here. I went through a couple iterations of Y connectors and gravity fed efforts using ladders and other nonsense. Glad a $50 pump from HF solved it…..

Seaford,

My wife will tell you that I overthink and/or over-engineer everything, which has at least a grain of truth. The sump pump idea is far too simple for me to have thought of it on my own.....

Thanks. Brad.

I used to use the pump to pump in the engine. When I installed the sea strainer, just poured it in. Even simpler.