Plastic plumbing

mad_boater

mad_boater

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My boat has plastic plumbing as many modern boats have.
I am wondering if you didn't empty it ready for winter it would freeze up and burst the pipes.
Anyone had experiance of it.If its ok to leave the water in it winterising would be made a whole lot easier.
I would drain down the calorifier of course.
 
If you have the boat out of the water over the winter it may well freeze and split, or one of the unions may fail and come apart later on. See if you can find a low point in the plumbing under a floor, there may well be a drain valve. If not, worth fitting one for this year and after.
 
I have always drained my domestic system over winter, but am using my Snazi now and then as a crash pad, so will not be draining down. A few strategically tube heaters will be used, hopefully to prevent freezing. VolvoPaul has suggested that I remove the transom shower head and replace with a bung, and use towels to insulate the exposed bits.
 
rafiki_ said:
I have always drained my domestic system over winter, but am using my Snazi now and then as a crash pad, so will not be draining down. A few strategically tube heaters will be used, hopefully to prevent freezing. VolvoPaul has suggested that I remove the transom shower head and replace with a bung, and use towels to insulate the exposed bits.
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Turn off the pumps & open a faucet to release the pressure & leave open so the expansion has somewhere to go. dont forget to isolate & drain the swim platform shower
 
I've had a speedfit fitting burst after being frozen in the aft cabin heads which I didn't have drained or heated one really bad winter. Luckily it wasn't under pressure until I arrived back at the boat and turned the water on, hearing the pump right away meant that I switched it off right away, wasn't too hard to find the problem. So yes, they can burst if not drained or a heater placed nearby to keep above freezing, I'm quite sure that plastic is less likely to burst than copper though.
 
Collected my new boat in November 2010, next day we had the start of a really harsh freeze that lasted a couple of weeks. Total cost to replace plumbing and parts just under 2K (no labour). Its a small sportscruiser but the damaged push fit fittings and pipe alone was over £100. My advice, if no heat on the boat, drain everything you can, dont forget the actual pump(s) :o:o:o


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mad_boater said:
It looks like I will have to do what I have done previous years and use 'Freeze Ban' in the system.

Thanks for all your comments.
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I used to keep our boat inland (Brigg), I used to drain all the water system every winter.
My friend with a Sealine 310 / 350 never bothered.

One year we had a deep freeze that lasted for 14 days, even mid day was still well below frozen.

It took until April for him to find the leak , very petty. I got the job of fixing it , took 2o minutes for the return trip to B&Q, 20 minutes to fit it, we made the tide with plenty of time to spare, much quicker than the time it took me to prat about draining each and every year and then refilling with the usual water spurting everywhere.

If you are coastal based I wouldnt bother, the temperatures seldom remain below zero all day and it takes a few days for sub zero temps to penetrate the whole boat.

I have a tube heater on thermostat next to my water tank/calorifier, if you have power it is easy enough to tap into your immersion heater supply then add a switch to isolate your immersion .
 
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never forget that plastic pipe becomes more brittle the colder it gets, also many components contain different materials such as the speedfit connectors which have stainless steel internals which expand and contract at different rates, so plastic is not exempt and has its own unique problems.
 
I drain off every winter.I then turn a tap on put my "gob" on it and blow until the pressure goes off.Repeat with other taps doing one at a time.
 
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