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Air purged water lines. Rv antifreeze needed?


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First time winterizing rv.  Have drained the hot water tank. (Previos owner said rv was winterized when purchased in may, 2017 ???, Was not pink or red water at all). No tank bypass.  Lucky no leaks and tank held air pressure when I air purged the lines at the water hookup and then removed the heater drain plug again.

Have drained all tanks and air purged the water lines at the faucets and toilet. Shower was hardest. First I ran the water pump briefly for 10 seconds and after air purge i disconnected the pump inlet hose, no water drainage at all.

Used one rv antifreeze bottle and poured some in all drains, toilet, and all 3 tanks.

Don't believe there is any water left anywhere, so do I really need to pump more antifreeze into the water lines until the faucets run red?

Thanks.

 

 

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RV antifreeze costs under $3/gallon.  When I bought my RV, the previous owner said that her husband blew out the lines every year  However, the water heater was split because it had water in it.  I will spend the money on 3 gallons of antifreeze and run it through the system because a new water heater is more expensive.  

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If your water heater is 6 gallons and no bypass wouldn’t you need @ least 6 gallons of antifreeze or more to winterize the entire system? 

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Not really if you are using air pressure. The tank does not completely drain any way. Drain the tank put the plug back in blow out the lines remove the plug and re drain the tank. I live in sub zero winter weather country and have never had issues from freezing and use less than a 1/2 gallon of antifreeze you'll need to get antifreeze into the pump easily done from the suction side then some in each drain, again I blow them out too then a touch of antifreeze. I hate the antifreeze stuff you can smell it and taste it in your water system no matter how many times you flush it, yeah I'm cheap too.

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12 hours ago, Bob C said:

RV antifreeze costs under $3/gallon.  When I bought my RV, the previous owner said that her husband blew out the lines every year  However, the water heater was split because it had water in it.  I will spend the money on 3 gallons of antifreeze and run it through the system because a new water heater is more expensive.  

They have to be semi full to split them so he probably didn't drain it.  There is as much as a quart of water left in the bottom any way because the drain is not on the bottom of the tank. 

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Call me crazy, but I use 10 gallons of RV antifreeze to winterize our Dolphin. After draining everything and blowing out the lines, I dump the pink stuff into the fresh water tank and pump it throughout the entire system (no water-heater bypass, so I fill the 6 gallon water heater). I also run a bunch into the waste tanks, dump it in the drains to fill the P traps, etc. Then I still have some left over in the fresh water tank in case we take a day trip or something during the winter and I need an emergency flush while out and about. I can flush using the pink stuff. I usually can find antifreeze for about $4 a gallon. When I drain the antifreeze out in the spring, I drain it into a bucket and then put as much of it as I can back into the antifreeze bottles to reuse next season. With spillage, etc, I usually wind up with 7 or 8 gallons to reuse the following season. When I winterize the next season, I'm adding 2 or three fresh gallons to the mix. I've been doing it this way for 5 seasons now with no issues. We get sub zero temps here and I rest easy knowing I spent a few bucks on overkill for the winterizing process. Better safe than sorry is how I look at it.

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I installed a water heater bypass and a pump converter. I winterize with less than 1.5 gallons. The extra .5 gallon goes into the holding tanks to protect the waste drain valves.

No problems so far on 3 different rigs at -30.

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I was referring to those that don’t have a way to use air pressure to clean out the lines. I also have the factory water heater bypass and fresh water tank bypass on Grannie. Needs about 1.5 gallons to winterize. I highly recommend installing the bypasses. The money you save buying less antifreeze will pay for the bypasses quickly! 

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Thanks for the replies.  Wife and I now realize we should have pressurized and used the water system this summer before we remodeled our Odyssey to make sure no leaks. We hesitate to try it out now in December with RV antifreeze; if there is a leak we will have a red mess all over. Very little water if any left in pipes after the air, so gonna wait till spring and pressurized the system with water then.

Also there is no heater bypass installed. I have the bypass kit, but there is no room to install the valves without the pipes sticking out the cabinet door. Will add a picture shortly.

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There is another way. I used to do my Nova Star with a pvc home made fitting that attached to the drain valves underneath it allowed me to connect a wet/dry vac to the valve open all the taps and suck it out worked just as good as air pressure.

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1 hour ago, markwilliam1 said:

I also have the factory water heater bypass and fresh water tank bypass on Grannie.

Can't say I've ever given it much thought, but I've always thought that the water heater by-pass was something added by owners and not factory installed. Perhaps Granville was different.

I'm not sure what a 'fresh water tank by-pass' is.

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Hey Derek yes the bypasses were factory installed! My Granville was very well made probably why they went out of business Lol. What I mean by the fresh water tank bypass is a brass valve that turns and stops the pump from withdrawing water from the fresh water tank and you connect the supplied hose and draw RV antifreeze from the jug to winterize the rig. Not sure what this system is called. 

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ive winterized and run pink through everything and still had issues before. Its always the sink in the bathroom, on the hot side of the faucet; for whatever reason it will not drain and still freezes even with pink. I am thinking the solution is to get a different type of faucet for in there. so far have lost 2 of them to cracking.

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when you say winterized do you mean you blew it out first with an air compresser. my personal preference is to blow it out first then run it full of the red stuff. I would never say no problem then . but I haven't had any yet . and yes I open the drain valves first . I installed a water heater bypass I run a little                  antifreeze in the bottom then switich too bypass.

Edited by 5Toyota
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21 hours ago, Totem said:

ive winterized and run pink through everything and still had issues before. Its always the sink in the bathroom, on the hot side of the faucet; for whatever reason it will not drain and still freezes even with pink. I am thinking the solution is to get a different type of faucet for in there. so far have lost 2 of them to cracking.

They are standard 4" fixtures the big box will have them with rear metal instead of plastic but still it should not have water in them also any water in the pink mix drastically reduces the freeze protection. Once I'm done winterizing I always leave the taps open on all the faucets and the drain valves gravity is your friend.

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