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In this video, I want to explain how you can easily and reliably winterize a pressure washer
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Now, you really don't need to do anything to the engine, except maybe change the oil
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But the pump, the thing that the engine drives, is another matter
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That's it here. Every pressure washer has a pump of some kind, and it turns the power of the engine into high pressure water
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The problem is that these pumps aren't made to be drained easily
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For a number of years, I did drain this pump by taking out a fitting
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and blowing some compressed air through it, and eventually I got all the water out
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but it's not very convenient. It's kind of a hassle. Some pumps don't have any method of getting in there and draining the water
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So, if you don't have a warm place to store your pressure washer over winter
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then you're going to want to learn about this trick here. And it involves some plumbing antifreeze, non-toxic plumbing antifreeze
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We use a lot of it here in Canada, up in cottage country, where people have seasonal homes with water systems that they need to winterize
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And my process is pretty simple. It's just about putting that plumbing antifreeze into the pump
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so it displaces any water that's there, it mixes with what little water remains
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and it's not going to freeze, and you're ready to go in the spring
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So, every pressure washer has two fittings on the pump. This is the inlet for the water going in from a garden hose
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I've put a quick-release fitting on here. And this is the outlet connected to the high-pressure hose that goes to the spray gun
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So, my method involves making up a rig like this, just a little chunk of garden hose
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Mine has a quick-release fitting on the end. Yours doesn't necessarily need that
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And a funnel. And by connecting the hose here and filling it full of antifreeze
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we can get that antifreeze to work through the pump. Now, many times you have to pull the cord a bit to work the pump
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to get the antifreeze where it's supposed to go, but this is basically what it looks like
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The whole job, if I wasn't doing the video, I could have done this in less than five minutes
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It's just a real quick thing. So, the hose is filled with antifreeze, and there's a little bit in the funnel
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And I'm just going to use this can here to try to catch it as best I can while I pull the cord
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Can you see that coming out there? It's going to be water at first, because there's maybe a cup of water in there
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But eventually, when it all turns pink, like that, you know we're good to go
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So, now I can put this away in my fabric shelter, which has a little bit of a hole in it
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My fabric shelter, which has no heat, and I can be sure that there's going to be no issues in the spring
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It's going to fire right up
