Minute Drain

Anyone heard of this or have this in their boat?

http://www.minutedrain.com/points.htm


I think at $300 it's probably wayyyy too much money to be worthwhile, but curious if anyone is using this product and/or what they think of it.

$300 seems worth it to me to be able to winterize your boat that fast and take your boat out on a warm winter day.

I don't think $ 300.00 is too bad for that.

I could see if you were one to use your boat year round with the threat of freezing that it would be worth while.

Great idea. I've worked on my own boat to simplify the process for this exact reason. Interesting idea to add those valves to make it easier to open & close.

Looks nice the problem I see is with my heater, I need to blow that out to get the water out of the heater core, this won't do that. If you just looking for some valves you can also look at the kit skidim has, I bought one of these this year to make it easier to drain the block and manifolds. It works good but I still need to blow out the heater line.
http://skidim.com/products.asp?dept=1128

didn't someone post on here some valves that would fit in place of your freeze plugs that you could quick open?

Neat idea.. I'd love to be able to run mine every month and quick drain it.. sure would be better on the engine to crank often...
Using the theory that all you do is drain the water out using this system, it is really not that bad to drain the block.. not so bad that I wouldn't reload the engine with water and take a ride if the weather was nice enough.. I did disconnect all 3 fat sacs and get all the water out of the ballast system.. that would be more trouble..

you still need to crack open hoses with the skidim setup. that's one of the hardest parts, breaking the seal from the clamps.

everyone use to knock on the skidim drains for getting clogged too. what's to stop that from happening to the minute drain?

I made something similar on my old Prostar using a T fitting & a pair of petcocks. People knocked on that saying they could get clogged but in the 7 yrs I owned the boat I never had a problem with it. Maybe the rust buildup comes a little later. I imagine one way to get past that is to use the largest possible fittings you can find so clogs would be less likely.

I'm not sure about using valves in the freeze plugs, B Webb. I assume your talking about using valves in the drain plugs. The freeze plugs are typically glued in place & don't come out unless something forces them from the inside (like ice).

Seems like putting some kind of easy to open valve on the v-drive hose would help get past having to remove that hose.
I have been wondering about the need to remove the hoses at the thermostat. It seems like if I do those last, they are always dry anyway.

Bill,
sorry, was not thinking.. typed freeze..meant drain..


(Message edited by 04outback on October 21, 2008)

Looks like something you could do yourself, to the same standard for alot less than $300.00.

Or, just remove the plugs yourself for free.

Something this system doesn't take into account is the damp surfaces left in your engine - be those infected with salt or fresh water - they'll rust unless treated with a rust inhibitor like those found in antifreeze.

Pretty weak product in my personal opinion - it just leaves far too much of the problem unsolved.

It's the removal of the plugs, and the reinstall of them, and the various tools needed to do the job that make it not so easy to do. Especially if your going to do it every weekend. The point is to similify the process so anyone can do it error free....... ever go out & someone forgot to tighten a hose clamp??

Seems like if you had that type of setup, you could setup the bucket of antifreeze on one end, close the other valves & it would fill everything easily.

Those of us who leave the engine dry have even less of an issue.

I agree that it looks like something you could do yourself. But the fact that all the parts come from one place is nice.