winterizing with compressed air
I have a 2004 Fleetwood Bounder which I have always winterized with anti-freeze in the lines. Last fall I was talked into having it done with compressed air and yesterday, when I hooked up the water ...
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larry cad wrote:JaxDad wrote:larry cad wrote:JaxDad wrote:
It might just be easier to learn how to do it properly.
Even more interesting is the mode of failure. The water control valve has a threaded hole in the bottom, and there was a nylon 1/2" pipe plug in it. In the top side of the pipe plug, was a depression molded in during manufacturing. If you look at a nylon pipe plug, you will see it. Since the depression was facing up, it remained filled with a tiny bit of water during the winterizing. During the winter, it froze and cracked. When I put water into the system, it ran out the crack.
So, as suggested above, I learned how to do it properly. Properly would be to remove the wall around my shower every winter, remove the plug, empty out the tiny bit of water remaining after I use compressed air, replace the plug, and my RV is winterized.
Or, I can just use the gallon of pink stuff I always had used in the past. Even though I now know how to do it "properly"!!
:S
You’re trying to tell us a drop of water in the depression on top of a 1/2” pipe plug froze and burst a pipe?
Seriously?
Water expands by 9% when it freezes. A drop of water did not expand enough to burst anything but your story.
You either used way too small a compressor (probably one with little or no tank on it) or just plain did not blow the system out properly.
I winterize both of my units using air only numerous times a year and have for 20++ years.
Think what you want. I stand by my story.
BTW, my word was "tiny" amount. You chose to change that to "drop".
I took the wall apart, found the problem (a cracked pipe plug) ..........
:B
‘Story’ indeed, now that you’ve made it clear that the issue was a PLUG, not the pipe or a fitting things become even clearer.
BTW, ‘drop’ is indeed the word. If the plug was a 1/2” then the dimple is less than 1/3rd that, so maybe 3/16” across. Anything more than that was not a ‘tiny’ bit, it was a pipe that wasn’t blown out properly. If that was the case the pipe or fitting would have burst first.
Water turning to ice did NOT and could not have split that plug, to do so it would have had to have something for the ice to expand AGAINST in order to make pressure. You can’t push against an open length of pipe.
