2000 Dutch Star 3851 Winterizing Questions
This is my first season with this and after reading the factory manuals I decided to try winterizing myself. Previous owner memory is getting cloudy. I opened both hot and cold water drains at bott...
Forum Discussion
Well, your hot water heater alone is going to take 6 or 10 gallons so if you've only put 6 gallons of the pink stuff in, then there's still water in the tank. You didn't say if you have a Suburban or Atwood water heater, but neither of those have a plug you can remove with pliers. The Suburbans take a 1-1/16 socket and a decent length ratchet. Over the course of the year, the threads will collect enough corrosion to make it difficult to remove. Also, you want to stick the flush wand in the drain hole to clear all the accumulated stuff in the bottom of the tank.
The penalty for not draining and bypassing the water heater is the price of installing a new one, so it is worth your while to get the plug out and completely drain the tank.
To winterize the washer/dryer, pressurize the water system with pink stuff and run it through the beginning of a wash cycle long enough to see pink stuff in the drum, then advance the control to the start of the spin cycle to flush the anti-freeze out of the drum and into the trap. Remember to uncap the drain.
If you have a fridge with an ice maker or a standalone ULine icemaker, you have to run antifreeze through that as well.
The penalty for not draining and bypassing the water heater is the price of installing a new one, so it is worth your while to get the plug out and completely drain the tank.
To winterize the washer/dryer, pressurize the water system with pink stuff and run it through the beginning of a wash cycle long enough to see pink stuff in the drum, then advance the control to the start of the spin cycle to flush the anti-freeze out of the drum and into the trap. Remember to uncap the drain.
If you have a fridge with an ice maker or a standalone ULine icemaker, you have to run antifreeze through that as well.
