Winterize ballast ?

[RudyMuller]

Besides draining them, what else do you have to do?

17 axis. 

Thanks. 

[wedge88]

I always pull the PnP bags out of the boat and store in basement.  I haven't done anything to the other hard tanks or pumps, other than drain.  I know some dump AF in but I don't see the point.

[Simo]

Same here. I take the bags out and give them a good cleaning, a little bleach and rinse inside, dry and store in the basement. No good reason to store inside except that I always find something to tinker with in the off-season and keeping the boat empty makes it much easier.

On a side note

Anyone have a reversible pump and not drain it? In the past I always drained them but now have one behind the kick panel and sub and I really don't want to get into all of that if I don't have to

[robbennett]

Can always just pull the cartridges off the pumps for the ones easily accessible. In our climate its not a huge deal but if I were in a northern state or Canada I'd pull all the cartridges and pour antifreeze in the drain lines of the ones you can't easily get to. The tanks are good with a little in the bottom because if it freezes it will have the whole tank to expand to. The fill pumps will drain when you pull the boat out of the water. 

[SomeYeahoo]

Just the engine block and the heater here. I disconnect the bags but that's it for the ballast. No problems in 2 long winters.

[klingsdesigns]

To the people that don’t do anything to hard ballasts for winter. Do you store it in heated or cold storage. 

Edited October 24, 2017 by klingsdesigns

[BaBaLoO]

I've done cold, never had an issue, just drain them on an incline, you'll be fine. 

[OliverKlozoff]

So is my local Axis dealer taking me for a ride when he charges $150 for ballast tank winterization?  Can I really just pull the bags and forget it?  I have a 2017 T-23 by the way.  If I did pour some antifreeze into the system, would I use the ports on the side of the boat where it expels water?

[robbennett]

21 minutes ago, OliverKlozoff said:

So is my local Axis dealer taking me for a ride when he charges $150 for ballast tank winterization?  Can I really just pull the bags and forget it?  I have a 2017 T-23 by the way.  If I did pour some antifreeze into the system, would I use the ports on the side of the boat where it expels water?

Yes. Worst case just pour a little antifreeze in each tank. You can only can really justify that in colder climates. Where are you located?  The fill pumps drain themselves completely when you pull the boat out of the water. 

[wedge88]

3 hours ago, OliverKlozoff said:

So is my local Axis dealer taking me for a ride when he charges $150 for ballast tank winterization?  Can I really just pull the bags and forget it?  I have a 2017 T-23 by the way.  If I did pour some antifreeze into the system, would I use the ports on the side of the boat where it expels water?

The only reason I could see a justification for this charge would be if they were completely filling the hard tanks with antifreeze (basically $150 is cost of materials) but I don't see why this would need to be done.

[robbennett]

Water freezing in the bottom of the tanks is no big deal because it would never expand enough to pop the tank. The drain pump is the only thing I could maybe see is at risk and just a little antifreeze poured into the drain line would fix that no problem. Not really sure if water froze in one of the aerator pumps that it would do any damage. If you have a reversible impeller pump I would make sure it is drained.