Page 19.11 bentley 3b cooling system draining

[Steven Murray]

It says to remove a u-shaped hose from the engine, but it seems pretty  high up on the block to be very effective. 

It also says to set the heater on high and remove a heater hose from the rear of the block.  I seem to have automatic degree set heat and the battery has been removed.
Bottom line is it's supposed to drop to maybe as low as 2 degrees F soon and on this recently purchased 20v I can't get a solid read on how strong the antifreeze is.   Tommorrow will start at 20F and go down hill all week.    I have no experience with a a type 44.     Any tips?    I thought I calibrated my 2 antifreeze testers by making up known mixes using prestone but the same # of balls didn't float using Pentosin NF antifreeze.   

UNhooking that U shaped hose seems like it would make quite a mess and not be easy to capture escaping coolant.      Do I need to hookup the battery and  switch the ignition on to open the heater valve since i cannot set it on high manually. 
I did not want to start the car until i had a chance to look at the timing belt.   It runs of course I drove it home .