Antifreeze my sea toilet?

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pcatterall

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Yes; I guess is the short answer as there will be lots of water ready to freeze up and do damage over winter.
I guess I could just pour an antifreeze mix down the bowl and pump till It comes out.
This would just leave tha section from the inlet to the pump....worth bothering about?

Is that the right idea and do I need special antifreeze or will engine stuff do?
Cheers
 
Are you on a FW lake or in the far North where sea water regularly freezes? I've never needed to take any precautions with my sea toilet when left afloat in N Wales & it dries out twice a day which makes it more susceptible to cold air.

Even on the hard it has never frozen solid.
 
pcatterall said:
Yes; I guess is the short answer as there will be lots of water ready to freeze up and do damage over winter.
I guess I could just pour an antifreeze mix down the bowl and pump till It comes out.
This would just leave tha section from the inlet to the pump....worth bothering about?

Is that the right idea and do I need special antifreeze or will engine stuff do?
Cheers
Click to expand...

please Peter re read all the other answers to posts you have already asked :rolleyes:
 
Pump out as much as you can and close the seacocks. Unless you have very long pipe runs, I doubt that you'll get any bursts because there will be room for expansion along the empty sections of pipe.
 
maby said:
Pump out as much as you can and close the seacocks. Unless you have very long pipe runs, I doubt that you'll get any bursts because there will be room for expansion along the empty sections of pipe.
Click to expand...

Hmm I've always drained as much as I can, left my cocks open and stuffed rags in the pipe hole. It seems to work ok for me.
 
Captain Haddock said:
Hmm I've always drained as much as I can, left my cocks open and stuffed rags in the pipe hole. It seems to work ok for me.
Click to expand...

Ah, but that assumes that the boat is out of the water - ours is used almost every week of the year. If you haul out, then I would agree with you.
 
I would prefer to drain it. Not too difficult in most cases, just loosen the screws holding the joker valve housing together to empty the loop, then open the drain plug in the base of the toilet. The seacocks will be underwater, as will a short length of hose, but these should resist freezing OK. It seems that ball valves can fracture on freezing but I have not heard that Blakes types do.
 
Thanks all, speciall thanks to sailorman who has contributed to my knowledge many times recently. Yes I touched on this question as part of another thread so decided to ask again as a specific question. I did note one comment suggesting antifreeze but as sold by caravan shops specifically for toilets. There are no caravan shops any where near the boat in central France and it is difficult carrying stuff like that on easy jet, hence my question would engine antifreeze be ok or damage the seals etc.
Thanks again
 
I'm sure you'll make yourself very popular with the French if you start pumping anti-freeze into their canals along with your raw sewage.
 
Screen wash might be kinder to your seals etc (and the canals!) and is probably cheaper. Lidl screenwash is good down to -30 degrees undiluted - should be enough, even in central France though we get -20 sometimes ... ... ...
 
Thanks all. Creaky Decks......There has never been any raw sewage pumped out of our boat which is more than I can say for some of the hire boats I have seen dump their entire tank inc paper in the marina.
We allways collect in a bucket when winterizing the engine and I guess that we will have to diconnect the pipe at the seacock to either drain or flush through the loo.
Thanks
 
pcatterall said:
Thanks all. Creaky Decks......There has never been any raw sewage pumped out of our boat which is more than I can say for some of the hire boats I have seen dump their entire tank inc paper in the marina.
We allways collect in a bucket when winterizing the engine and I guess that we will have to diconnect the pipe at the seacock to either drain or flush through the loo.
Thanks
Click to expand...

Sorry, misunderstanding of what you meant by "sea toilet". I thought that was one that pumped straight into the sea.
 
It will pump straight into the sea!! We don't use it anywhere inland and have a portaloo in the after heads for emergencies! We would have to disconnect the toilet hose at the sea cock to avoid getting the antifreeze into the marina.
Cheers
 
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