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Ballast System Winterization on these newer boats


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Hi Crew,

I'm am preparing to winterize my 2021 23 LSV for the first time and wanted to ask you all if you do anything special in terms of winterizing the ballast systems?  I have spoken with my dealer about it and they said just drain as much water as possible with the ballast drain pumps and you are good to go.... however, I am still skeptical (no offense @COOP it's just my nature ;)).  Especially on my center ballast tank the "gauge" on screen still shows that there is some water in there after the drain pump is no longer pumping.  I'm not concerned so much about some minute amount of water remaining in the tank itself, but if there is water sitting at a pump connection, fitting, or in a pump volute freeze damage could occur.

With my previous boat I always pulled all the bags and made sure there was no residual water in any of the pumps.  I realize things are different with the hard tanks.  Just wanted to ask if anybody does anything special or has seen issues if these ballast systems are not winterized properly?

TIA!

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Just for peace of mind I used to dump a couple gallons of RV AF through the vents and then pump it out.  Not sure it did any good but made me feel better.  I recently took the ultimate step and got rid of the wake boat and got a Response.  Now I never worry about my ballast freezing.😁

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15 hours ago, dtb said:

Hi Crew,

I'm am preparing to winterize my 2021 23 LSV for the first time and wanted to ask you all if you do anything special in terms of winterizing the ballast systems?  I have spoken with my dealer about it and they said just drain as much water as possible with the ballast drain pumps and you are good to go.... however, I am still skeptical (no offense @COOP it's just my nature ;)).  Especially on my center ballast tank the "gauge" on screen still shows that there is some water in there after the drain pump is no longer pumping.  I'm not concerned so much about some minute amount of water remaining in the tank itself, but if there is water sitting at a pump connection, fitting, or in a pump volute freeze damage could occur.

With my previous boat I always pulled all the bags and made sure there was no residual water in any of the pumps.  I realize things are different with the hard tanks.  Just wanted to ask if anybody does anything special or has seen issues if these ballast systems are not winterized properly?

TIA!

No offence taken. :)

On the new boats Malibu have actually come up with a procedure. 

From the Malibu:

1. With the vessel on the trailer or out of the water, press the FILL ALL button and allow all ballast tanks to RUN FOR ONE MINUTE. 2. After one minute has passed, press STOP ALL. 3. Next, press the DRAIN ALL button and allow all of the ballast tanks to drain. If the Ballast Tank(s) show 0%, the Auto-Shutoff Timer will stop the pump(s) after one minute.

 

This new procedure only applies to the new boats with the electronic valves.

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I had my 2020 stored inside a non-heated pole building in MN last year without any issues. I just drained the tanks via the pumps.  I actually tired taking the bags out last year but gave up after it seemed more trouble then it was worth as I never had an issue with my 2016.

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