Winterizing Question

JoshuaH wrote:
Thanks. We like to camp off grid in the winter, after pricing RV antifreeze I got to thinking I'm going to be spending a lot of money each time we go, would save some money to just blow out the lines.

I figured there was no reason I couldn't do it this way but wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something.

Biggest issue with just blowing out the lines is that if your system has a low run of pipe you could end up with water in it after blowing out the lines since residual water could drain and collect in that low section, freeze and cause an issue. With that said many do just blow out their lines and the issues seem to be rare if you only do that as long as its a decent blowing out job.

My trailer only takes just over a gal of antifreeze so I just use that, but I don't use the trailer during the winter so I don't do multiple winterizations.

Larry

Thanks. We like to camp off grid in the winter, after pricing RV antifreeze I got to thinking I'm going to be spending a lot of money each time we go, would save some money to just blow out the lines.

I figured there was no reason I couldn't do it this way but wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something.

JoshuaH wrote:
I have an air compressor, wouldn't be hard to make an adapter that will hook to the water connection.

You can buy one of those adapters at any RV parts store. They are cheap enough to get. They thread into your city water connection and then you attach the female end of your air hose chuck to it.

There's no reason at all why that is impractical, and many people (including me) winterize that way all the time. Setting the regulator on the compressor to around 40 psi is plenty and will avoid possibly overpressurizing the water lines.

Basically, you drain the fresh water tank and water heater, open the low point drains, and run the water pump until it's completely dry (or as dry as it can get). It's not harmful to operate them dry for a few minutes (or more). Then, close the low point drains and hook up the compressor and bypass the water heater and, one by one, open each tap and low point drain until only air comes out. I usually go around a couple times to be sure everything is dry. Then just put a cupful of antifreeze in each of the drain traps and in the bottom of the toilet bowl and drain out any bit of water that collected in the gray or black tanks from the process. (I'm assuming you started with them empty; if not, just dump them normally.)

One advantage of blowing out with air is you don't have to rinse out antifreeze in the spring.