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Winterising water tanks.


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On the airplane tomorrow morning with one little problem remaining.

I have emptied the water tank, disconnected the domestic supply line from the tank and sucked fresh water safe antifreeze through it until it came out of the taps.

However, I want to put the boat on an even keel so would like to put a 100 litres of water back into the tank. This would make it one quarter full. In freezing weather pipes burst with no antifreeze because the water expands with nowhere to go. Does the same hold true for a large tank with plenty of space for expansion,so long as it's upward?

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We lived on the US East Coast for years (Maryland and further north).  I went through this process for more than a decade and never had a problem.  But, I kept the water in the tanks at a percentage of antifreeze that would be expected to form slush and not freeze solid (ratio depends not he batch and I would use the recommendations on the bottle).  My worry would be what happens when you dilute out the antifreeze in the lines with the fresh water -while you may not mix it intentionally a few weeks of freeze thaw in autumn before the big freeze will mix it pretty well (don't close the valves to the distribution lines as while the antifreeze wont freeze it will expand/contract with the temperature changes).  The treatment system is pretty forgiving but the biggest change, and surprise, in coming home was that I no longer had any growth issues in the tanks (clean filters vs always having some green slime) after a winter here.  This was despite always following a spring bleach, soak, rinse, soak, rinse, fill routine after getting rid of the antifreeze.  Good luck

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We are home now, and ended up leaving the water tank completely empty and getting the boat onto an even keel by shifting all the heavy moveable stuff across to the starboard side. Go her to within a degree or two of upright.

The domestic supply line was disconnected at the tank and then used the fresh water delivery pump to suck 15 litres of potable antifreeze through the system including the water heater. When it flowed pink out of the taps we figured that the system was full of antifreeze so hopefully all's well. Will know in April next year when we go back on board.

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