winterizing 178 blue model

Was, especially if you don't air blow first.  By rv fluid only, apparently because of that check valve the water in the inlet line stays put unless you push in the check valve button releasing the water out until you get pink.

Sounds like  good system!! 

StephenH is located in North Carolina where the winters are not as severe as where I am in northern Michigan.  The jury will be out until next spring when he can let us know how it all pans out.  I am with you zappa in that I don't want any water in my lines when I winterize.  Yesterday morning was 15 and it is not uncommon to hit the -20 degree range or more when winter hits in mid January.  I doubt it gets anywhere near that in North Carolina during the winter, so if it works for him there - great!

You are one brave soul Dave to work on those towers, those guys are TALL !  On the other side of the temperature gauge you could go to Guyana, South America.  The last couple of times I've been there (December and January) it is not uncommon for the temps to go above 120 in the shade.  How much above I don't know because that was as high as the gauge would read.  Pretty tough working in those conditions, need to drink water every 15-20 minutes to avoid de-hydration.  Bringing this back to the topic my point is that StephenH is probably very safe in his location even with some water in his lines.  Even where you are in Lexington, temps probably don't get below 10 or 15 degrees do they?

Wake County falls in the eastern Piedmont region of NC (as opposed to the Coastal Plain or the Mountain regions. Our average January temperature is 28.93. I believe it has hit the teens, but most often, it gets into the 20's and is generally above freezing during the day. We have gone for a few days where the temperatures stayed sub-freezing. We are only a little over 300 ft in elevation.
I don't recall there being much more water in the lines after draining them through the low point drains with the faucet valves open than there was when I used air to blow the water out. I don't think I need to worry about freezing water lines, even if the antifreeze was a little diluted. I did let it run until I saw a good flow of pink, so I don't think it is diluted. The RV antifreeze I used stated it was good to -75F. We did travel out west when the weather was in the low single digits. We did not have any problems, but that was a time where I used air plus antifreeze.
We do get snow occasionally. What is bad is that we usually also get ice to go with it. Because it usually does not stay below freezing, it will melt, especially if it is a place where the sun will hit it. Shaded spots can be a problem as the snow and ice can stick around for several days.