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winterizing must dos


Jackie

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This is my first winter with my 1983 toy MH. I live in the high dessert & nights get well below freezing often. Two different shops told me two different things. One said I must have a bypass setup installed for hot water heater protection (or put 7 gals of anti freeze in it). The second one said that was not necessary, they would just drain the hot water heater & put the anti freeze in the usual areas. Any suggestions at all would be very much appreciated. My plan is also to cover my RV with a tarp & not a full RV cover. We get very little rain, just occasional snow. :rolleyes:Thank you!!!!!!!

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Howdy Jackie.

I would just drain the whole system, then disconnect the input tube to your electric waterpump. Stick the input tube into a gallon of RV antifreeze and turn on the pump. Then just go around to all the faucets and turn them on one at a time until the antifreeze comes out. May have to use a gallon or three, but at about 3 bucks a gallon, the price ain't bad.

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Here in Wyoming winterizing is IMPORTANT. I've installed a bypass kit on the water heater and a winterize kit on the pump. It takes less than two gallon to do the entire system.

At a bare minimum use a shop vac to blow the traps in the sinks amd shower dry. Then add antifreeze. They make an adapter to screw into the city water fitting and use an air compresser (set to 40lbs or so) to blow out the lines. Dont forget the shower and toilet. Also just drain the heater.

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My plan is also to cover my RV with a tarp & not a full RV cover. We get very little rain, just occasional snow. :rolleyes:Thank you!!!!!!!

Winterizing has been covered well but you should know that tarps are NOT waterproof and will leak ESPECIALLY with snow that slowly melts.

If you are not covering your coach with a special cover that is waterproof you should place a sheet of heavy builders plastic over the top then cover that with your tarp and rope it down. The plastic is 100% waterproof (as long as there are no rips or holes in it). The tarp will keep the plastic from blowing away and deteriorating from exposure to sunlight. A tarp alone will be a recipe for disaster come spring when you find that several gallons of water from melting snow have seeped inside and rotted the roof and walls.

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Thank you everyone for the very helpful replys. It seems to me that awhile back tho things were simpler. I don't remember putting any RV anti freeze in our campers or trailers back in the 60's & even the 70's & I don't remember having any problems with things freezing. Wish I knew what it was that my husband used to do back then. MyToyota RV is a 1983 with no by-pass system. My question is, if anyone remembers, what did we do before by-pass & RV antifreeze to keep our RV's from freezing??? Anyone out there old enough to know??? Thanks heaps for any ideas!!!!!!

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Hello All,

Could someone provide more detail about the blowing the lines out with air.

I have the air adaptor, but do not know how to use it. Do I open all of the facets,

hook up the air compressor and let it pump air into the lines until no more water

blows out of the facets?

What I did last year was:

1) drain my fresh water tank

2) put 2 gallons of RV anti-freeze into the fresh water tank

3) turned on the pump

4) ran the cold water until I saw anti-freeze come from all facets

5) ran the hot water until I saw anti-freeze come from all facets

6) openned up the hot water heater drain and drained most of the antifreeze out.

my thought here was it might be better to have the hot water heater 80% empty than 100% full

Any suggestions on the above?

Also, I keep my two MaxAir vents open, I read somewhere it was important to allow the

condensation a chance to escape, even during the winter.

Thanks,

Dennis...

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Hello All,

Could someone provide more detail about the blowing the lines out with air.

I have the air adaptor, but do not know how to use it. Do I open all of the facets,

hook up the air compressor and let it pump air into the lines until no more water

blows out of the facets?

What I did last year was:

1) drain my fresh water tank

2) put 2 gallons of RV anti-freeze into the fresh water tank

3) turned on the pump

4) ran the cold water until I saw anti-freeze come from all facets

5) ran the hot water until I saw anti-freeze come from all facets

6) openned up the hot water heater drain and drained most of the antifreeze out.

my thought here was it might be better to have the hot water heater 80% empty than 100% full

quote]

Dennis,

I have followed the same procedures that you listed for years and have never had a problem. Since I'm located in Virginia this system works, I don't know how well it would do further north.

Prior to that, I open all of the drains including the drain near the pump and under the kitchen area, and blow air into the lines, but it is extremely important to keep the pressure low (25-30 psi). I don't bother to drain the water heater until springtime when I flush the entire system with fresh water and then fill the system with water and about 2/3 cup of bleach, letting the pump run while opening each faucet in turn to make sure the bleach circulates, let it sit awhile, flush and refill again with plain water.

I had removed my 3 gallon water heater in my Sunrader and put in a 6 gallon electronic ignition model that was about 3 inches longer than the original which didn't give me room to install the by-pass.

Allen

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Hello All,

So, when flushing the water lines out with air, how does one keep the pressure in the 20 to 40psi

range? Do you just watch the air psi gauge and stop when the gauge gets near 40psi?

Thanks,

Dennis...

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My aircompressor has an ajustable regulator for the output. I just set it for what ever I want.

Using compressed air at a gas station is risky

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I don't see the need for a bypass ,drain the hot water heater put the plug back then blow it out and remove the plug again to drain whatever went in when it was purged and rember the pee traps and toliet hold the valves open while adding air.

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  • 2 weeks later...

If you blow the water lines out with an adapter plug , shouldn't they "presumably" be free of any water that may freeze and crack the lines ? So adding antifreeze to the lines is just to insure there is no residual water in the lines , correct ? I mean , I can see that it is a cheap insurance policy to prevent having to replace lines come Spring. Not that I am trying to take any shortcuts or save a couple of bucks......

Also , I am a little confused as to when the hot water heater should be drained.

(I haven't used it since I got my Toy this Summer as the RV shop said it needs replaced as it may cause fumes to leak into the coach).

Do you drain it before or after adding anti freeze and turning on the hot water to the fixtures until they run pink ?

If you drain it before won't that cause the hot water heater to fill with antitfreeze ?

And if you wait until after , won't the antifreeze still pass through the water heater , becoming diluted by the water in the water heater , when you turn on the hot fixtures to make sure they run pink ?

I don't believe I have a bypass , so should I be shutting off some valve on the water heater to prevent the antifreeze from entering the water heater and either diluting it , or cuasing me to have to use much more antifreeze. Or will shutting of the valve to the hot water heater prevent me from being able to properly run antifreeze through my hot water lines ?

Could someone please clarify this for me , as I think I really need to get this done this soon , as I live in CT. and we are due for some cold weather soon !

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I drained the holding tank and the hot water heater, put the plug back in both, added 6 gallons ($24) anti-freeze, turned my pump on and opened all faucets/toilet/shower until each one separately ran pink, turned pump off. That is it, no bypass, no air. All the traps had time to fill with anti-freeze. I live in Vermont. My only question is.....it only took a few second for the hot water faucet to turn pink and obviously that wasn't enough time to fill it. Can anyone explain that?

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Regarding......"My only question is.....it only took a few second for the hot water faucet to turn pink and obviously that wasn't enough time to fill it. Can anyone explain that?"

On my hot water heater, the in water line and the out water line is at the base of the hot water

heater. If you drained your hot water heater first, it would be empty, and as soon as you fired up

the water pump and turned the hot water facet on, the hot water tank would start sending water

(Anti-freeze in this case) as soon as the water level got above the out-water line (3 or 4 inches),

the pressure of the pump and the trapped air in the top of the water tank allowed the antifreeze

at the bottom of the hot water tank to flow to the faucets.

If you kept your water pump on for a minute or so, the entire hot water heater would of filled up.

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Is it advisable that I do that? Or is there just air in it and not to worry? I only put 6 gallons of anti-freeze in the holding tank and don't want to buy more if I don't have to. Thanks!

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Air wont freeze :P What you worry about is water trapped somewhere, in the pump, in the toilet valve or the shower valve. A little water in a line has room to expand so its mostly OK.

A 1/4 full water heater is normaly OK. Stuff in the bottom of a holding tank is OK

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After you are pumping antifreeze into the toliet, sinks and shower, I would open the bottom drain of

the hot water heater, an empty hot water heater cannot freeze up. Also, I would take the drained

anti-freeze from the hot water heater and pour it into your holding tanks.

Dennis...

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  • 2 years later...

Hello. 1st winter here as an owner. After reading all of this. I went down to the rv shop to buy supplies; they told me that I should just blow the lines out after draining and to just drain the hot water heater. Cautioned me to make sure that all water lines were open when doing it to avoid damaging them. I then remembered that I had talked to one other person who said this is all they used to do when owning an rv.

Sure seems the way to go. Anyone had a problem with this? Makes sense..no water, no freeze.

thanks,

gmac

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Personally I don't ever want to put the anti-freeze in my system unless it's a last resort, but I do live in Florida. I simply opened all the valves, drained everything, and dumped antifreeze only into the holding tanks. Guess a little air wouldn't hurt so that's next on my list. Good luck everyone!

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