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Windshield washing fluid in livewells.


LucG

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Just a quick question...Someone suggested I run a bit of windshield washing fluid through my live wells and bilge pump to avoid any issues with freezing as I store my boat in an unheated garage all winter.

 

Has anyone ever done this? I know it would probably do the trick just fine, but I was worried the chemicals may deteriorate any rubber seal/gaskets etc that may be withing the pump or system.

 

Any tips or suggestions?

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95% of you will get by just fine with pulling the boat out and putting it away... however be damn sure to have a look at how your pump outlet lines feed your livewell from the transom thru hull pump before you take the gamble. Many drop down from the pump to the hull bottom and then up to the livewell (trapping water there). I'd rather waste an hour and $5 on antifreeze than have your boat sink in the spring.

 

The marina put a Lund 1950 Tyee in out of storage this spring for a customer... he arrived shortly after it had hit the water, loaded his family and all their belongings and headed up the lake to their island. Tied up, unloaded and went about getting their place in order.

 

He went down to the dock the next morning to find it hanging tight on the ropes, floating level flotation. Gas powered pump to float it again, tow to marina, extract from lake and we found his front livewell pump had almost cracked off completely.

 

As I've shown before... I feed both of mine (as well as the power washer) with a hose and funnel and then cap the intake ports so the system is water tight for late fall Muskie fishing. Then when it's finally storage time I pull the caps to make sure no water did get back in.

Edited by irishfield
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5 years of strong my boat and never used antifreeze.

 

My thoughts are if you have 15+ feet of live well hose and maybe a 6inch low spot in there somewhere holding water, let it freeze and the water would just expand up the line a bit. It not like these are copper pipes - no big deal.

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That's why it's the elbow and pumps that break and not the rubber parts

In all my years I only had one pump freeze and break in a bass boat. Access to repair it was almost impossible. A bit of antifreeze would have been easier Lesson learnt

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95% of you will get by just fine with pulling the boat out and putting it away... however be damn sure to have a look at how your pump outlet lines feed your livewell from the transom thru hull pump before you take the gamble. Many drop down from the pump to the hull bottom and then up to the livewell (trapping water there). I'd rather waste an hour and $5 on antifreeze than have your boat sink in the spring.

 

The marina put a Lund 1950 Tyee in out of storage this spring for a customer... he arrived shortly after it had hit the water, loaded his family and all their belongings and headed up the lake to their island. Tied up, unloaded and went about getting their place in order.

 

He went down to the dock the next morning to find it hanging tight on the ropes, floating level flotation. Gas powered pump to float it again, tow to marina, extract from lake and we found his front livewell pump had almost cracked off completely.

 

As I've shown before... I feed both of mine (as well as the power washer) with a hose and funnel and then cap the intake ports so the system is water tight for late fall Muskie fishing. Then when it's finally storage time I pull the caps to make sure no water did get back in.

Yes sir Wayne...last year I was wondering why my boat always seemed to have a little water in it... it turns out the livewell pump had cracked over the winter...the auto bilge looked after it but if the battery died it could have sunk!!!

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