? Winterizing Question

Here is a photo of my installation of the Winterizer Kit. The water tank is on the right with the water outlet pipe at the bottom. I replaced the short piece of PEX pipe between the tank and the pump with the valve and several right angle connectors.

Yours is probably not like this but maybe it will help.

Trackrig wrote:


If you have them, the trickier parts are getting the antifreeze through the ice maker

I always disconnected the line at the solenoid, put a hose shut off there, squirted some pink stuff out and shut it off. didn't bother with the inside of the freezer stuff. I sort of assumed that that got chilly during normal use.
bumpy

darsben wrote:
Now that the subject has been beat to death with some great and some not so great ideas I will give you the best idea to avoid freeze up of your lines.

GO SOUTH out of the cold weather
Problem solved

Yup, that is best idea. In WY we only get to about to 35 below so I blow out the lines. If I lived in colder climates I would probably use RV antifreeze. I just don't like to drink that stuff all summer although they say it is safe. JMHO

Now that the subject has been beat to death with some great and some not so great ideas I will give you the best idea to avoid freeze up of your lines.

GO SOUTH out of the cold weather
Problem solved

I don't understand the mechanic saying it would take 25 gallons??? With the MH level and the water tank empty, we do ours with three gallons, might be able to do it with less. All you need in the tank is enough for the water pump pick up line to pick it up and pump it through the water lines. 25 gal would be a half full tank.

To get it into the tank, I bought one of those little pumps for $11 that you put on a drill. Then two short pieces of plastic tubing and you can pump it from the gallon jugs into the water tank.

If you have them, the trickier parts are getting the antifreeze through the ice maker and all of the lines on the washer dryer. Running the pumped antifreeze through all of the water lines (don't forget the outside shower faucet) will get the antifreeze to the gray tank, then put some in the black tank and the water traps and you're done.

The first time we winterized it took us about 4 hours to figure it all out. After, less than an hour.

Bill

Everyone's case is different. In my case we camp alot off the power grid back in the woods somewhere and sometimes it gets down below freezing over night.

The BLOW OUT method works best for us as I have a tankless 12VDC compressor and hook up to the city water inlet using a CAMCO Adapter. I can blow out each of my fresh water faucets by opening the faucets until each ones blows air. Then I add a little of PINK ANTIFREEZE to the P-TRAPS...


The beauty of this is the next morning when it gets warm again I can just start using water again from the tanks. Of course if it is going to be a real hard freeze over night I will drain the fresh water tank first then blow out the lines. Then the next day I have to re-fill the fresh water tank.

Never had any problems doing this and have camped out in some pretty cold nights...

When camping off the power grid we dispose of gray and black in totes or dump containers and haul them off to a dump station or bath room somewhere on the sites each day.

I capture all of my gray water using this setup


Our BLACK water is captured in the cassette potty tank which we will carry off to dispose in a dump facility or bath room down their toilet like shown in this google images photo.


Roy Ken

Bobbo wrote:

WyoTraveler wrote:

Bobbo wrote:
Don't take off the underlining. Your RV mechanic knows what he is talking about. He means if you just pour the antifreeze into the fresh water tank,

it will take about 25 gallons.

:E With the valve he mentions, 2 gallons should do it. The valve the RV mechanic is talking about goes in line just before the water pump. It is highly advised.

Winterizer Kit

Install it once. When you want to winterize, turn the valve and put the hose in the bottle of antifreeze. It sucks the antifreeze right out of the bottle. When done, turn the valve back and you are ready for water in the tank next season.

I'm not saying don't buy the kit. I'm saying with a quick in my head calculation you would need about 2500 ft of 1/2 inch pipe to hold 25 gal of fluid. Are you saying calulations are wrong? I doubt any RV on the road today has 2500 ft of pipe installed in it.

No, I am saying the mechanic was saying it would take 25 gallons of antifreeze to fill up the fresh water tank.

What kind of mechanic ARE you talking to? :H

You do NOT have to fill the fresh tank up with antifreeze to make use of the water pump to pump antifreeze thru the lines of your RV.

The inlet is on the bottom of the fresh tank all you have to do is cover it with antifreeze so the pump can suck it. I have a big long fresh tank and I get away with 5/6 gallons at 2 bucks a gal. If you have a smaller fresh tank than mine it would take less.

It really does not get any simpler than this.

There are three ways to do winterizing.
1. just blow out the lines.
2. just put antifreeze in the lines.
3. blow out the lines and then put antifreeze in.
I do the 3rd because I do not want to have to fix a leak somewhere in the wall of the RV.
Blowing out the lines gets rid of most of any water. The problem with just doing that, leaves some water in the lines especially if you have a low spot. Just doing antifreeze, it will mix with the water in the line and possible give you a weaker mixture. I say possibly.
Suit yourself, all three work and at most about 1 hour of work and maybe 3 gallons of antifreeze.

WyoTraveler wrote:

Bobbo wrote:
Don't take off the underlining. Your RV mechanic knows what he is talking about. He means if you just pour the antifreeze into the fresh water tank, it will take about 25 gallons. With the valve he mentions, 2 gallons should do it. The valve the RV mechanic is talking about goes in line just before the water pump. It is highly advised.

Winterizer Kit

Install it once. When you want to winterize, turn the valve and put the hose in the bottle of antifreeze. It sucks the antifreeze right out of the bottle. When done, turn the valve back and you are ready for water in the tank next season.

I'm not saying don't buy the kit. I'm saying with a quick in my head calculation you would need about 2500 ft of 1/2 inch pipe to hold 25 gal of fluid. Are you saying calulations are wrong? I doubt any RV on the road today has 2500 ft of pipe installed in it.

No, I am saying the mechanic was saying it would take 25 gallons of antifreeze to fill up the fresh water tank.

When Winnebago made my RV, rather than buy the $15 kit, they put this water heater bypass valve in the line.



and ran 3 foot pex hose from the third outlet. Works great.

Bypass valve on Amazon

Of course, this costs more than the kit, but installation is a little easier. If you have the extra length of pex tubing.