Winterize Ballast or Not?

[Evening Shade]

I'm curious, do most people winterize their ballast or not? If you do winterize it what is the easiest way to do it.

I've never winterized by ballast in any of the wake boats I've owned and never had any issues, but it seems like several people on PN winterize their ballast.

Granted it doesn't get terribly cold here in GA, but we do see freezing temps several times in the winter.

[Nautiquehunter]

I am at Lake Lanier GA same temp as you. I am from the north so my winterizing is a bit overkill for GA. I have 5 boats so winterizing them is a project . I use 30 % green antifreeze giving protection down to zero. I like the green because it has rust preventers in it and you can add more antifreeze to the mix to get lower freeze point. I use 1 gal of RV antifreeze in each ballast tank. I use the ballast pump to add the antifreeze just remove the suction hose and put a different hose from the pump to the gal of antifreeze. It will suck it dry in seconds.

[NautiqueOasis]

I use a Fake-a-Lake to winterize my ballast tanks; place the fake-a-lake over the intake under the boat; run a hose to a bilge pump in a bucket full of RV antifreeze; plug the pump into my 12v receptacle in the boat; fill tank for a few seconds to put maybe a 1/2 gal in each tank; then hit empty tank to run antifreeze completely thru pump. My boat is stored on the KY/TN border near my houseboat dock.

[Infinity]

I know some of you guys have hard tanks....I remove my bags and just pour about a 1/2 gallon of anti-freeze into ballast hose leading to pump and bump the "empty" for a few seconds to suck anti-freeze thru pump (since my pumps are reversible)

[max 1.6]

And just make sure you have antifreeze in the hoses where it can accumulate water.... Making sure you won't have residual water anywhere

[DocPhil]

I have a 2014 G21 and I confirmed this with 2 local Nautique dealers in MICHIGAN. It gets cold as balls up here.

Both said run the tanks on empty for a bit then pull ballast impellers. Done. No need to add AF.

[scottb7]

I have a 2014 G21 and I confirmed this with 2 local Nautique dealers in MICHIGAN. It gets cold as balls up here.

Both said run the tanks on empty for a bit then pull ballast impellers. Done. No need to add AF.

Thanks for checking, with dealers. since the manual is clearly wrong at least for g boats, due to having anti siphon valves not allowing pour in of antifreeze.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G925A using Tapatalk

[hondaprlud]

My dealer also runs them dry. No antifreeze.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[homer12]

How about those with aerator pumps? That's what I have.


Sent from my iPhone using PLT Nautique