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hbrady's avatar
hbrady
Explorer
Oct 19, 2015

Missed the bypass

Hello All,

After reading my manual and about a dozen threads here I winterized my camper this past weekend. In short I drained the FW tank, ran the pump until nothing but air was coming out, drained water heater, drained the plumping using low point drains and then pumped 50 PSI through lines for 30 minutes having just one exit point (faucet) open at a time. I could not find the bypass for HW heater but when I was done nothing but air was coming out any of the exit points (including low point drains). I then drained black / grey tanks and poured two gallons of pink stuff down drains and into black tank. It got down to 24 last night so I may be too late but what is the impact of not putting WH in bypass mode?

13 Replies

  • Should not be a problem, only reason to bypass the water heater is to avoid filling it with anti-freeze.
  • There will be a small amount of water in bypass line between the bypass valve and connection to hot outlet line.

    But even with freezing temps that water will have room to expand as it freezes.