? De-winterizing Question

If they did fill your water heater with the pink stuff you'd do well to flush the tank out completely, the 'gunk' that collects at the bottom of the tank will retain the smell of the anti freeze even after several flushes, even worse if you turned the heater on, ask me how I know.

My solution to draining the most out is to connect up to your rig, and tow it around with the drain tap open up and down hills and corners.. this will help slosh out the tank, and it will also get the most drops out.. then do it again after putting another five gallons in, and then again... then fill and run all the lines out.

But only do that if you put a glass under the tank drain and then tasting the water. If you taste pink.. you know what happened. If you don't, you are OK.

coolmom42 wrote:

NYCgrrl wrote:

DutchmenSport wrote:
Sounds to me like they put the "Pink Stuff" right in the fresh water tank and simply pumped it from there to winterize.

Perhaps you need to start all over. Fill and drain your fresh water tank a couple more times. Flush your lines with city water hook up until you know it's completely clear. Leave the water heater in bypass. When you know the lines are clear with city water, then fill the fresh tank and pump from there. If still clear, then fill your water heater. If you get foamy water anywhere in this process, stop and flush the problem child (fresh tank needs flushed more, or maybe the water heater needs flushed more. Doing only one at a time like this will help identify where the problem is. But there is still antifreeze residual somewhere. Good luck.

Would putting some vinegar into the fresh water tank help to flush it faster at this point?

No. Vinegar will not help.

I would fill and drain the FW tank repeatedly. Check the position of the water heater bypass. If it is still bypassed, or if you took it out, it probably does not have antifreeze in it. But if it was not bypassed, someone just ran antifreeze through it with the pump. In that case, fill and drain the water heater repeatedly. (Although I have a hard time believing a shop would do this, due to the amount of antifreeze required.

Then fill the fresh tank and WH as suggested above.

Do this until the foam is gone, and then sanitize.

Good to know vinegar will not breakdown the foam residue. Thanks!

OK! Another nubee here. Sanitize the tanks how?

NYCgrrl wrote:

DutchmenSport wrote:
Sounds to me like they put the "Pink Stuff" right in the fresh water tank and simply pumped it from there to winterize.

Perhaps you need to start all over. Fill and drain your fresh water tank a couple more times. Flush your lines with city water hook up until you know it's completely clear. Leave the water heater in bypass. When you know the lines are clear with city water, then fill the fresh tank and pump from there. If still clear, then fill your water heater. If you get foamy water anywhere in this process, stop and flush the problem child (fresh tank needs flushed more, or maybe the water heater needs flushed more. Doing only one at a time like this will help identify where the problem is. But there is still antifreeze residual somewhere. Good luck.

Would putting some vinegar into the fresh water tank help to flush it faster at this point?

No. Vinegar will not help.

I would fill and drain the FW tank repeatedly. Check the position of the water heater bypass. If it is still bypassed, or if you took it out, it probably does not have antifreeze in it. But if it was not bypassed, someone just ran antifreeze through it with the pump. In that case, fill and drain the water heater repeatedly. (Although I have a hard time believing a shop would do this, due to the amount of antifreeze required.

Then fill the fresh tank and WH as suggested above.

Do this until the foam is gone, and then sanitize.

DutchmenSport wrote:
Sounds to me like they put the "Pink Stuff" right in the fresh water tank and simply pumped it from there to winterize.

Perhaps you need to start all over. Fill and drain your fresh water tank a couple more times. Flush your lines with city water hook up until you know it's completely clear. Leave the water heater in bypass. When you know the lines are clear with city water, then fill the fresh tank and pump from there. If still clear, then fill your water heater. If you get foamy water anywhere in this process, stop and flush the problem child (fresh tank needs flushed more, or maybe the water heater needs flushed more. Doing only one at a time like this will help identify where the problem is. But there is still antifreeze residual somewhere. Good luck.

Would putting some vinegar into the fresh water tank help to flush it faster at this point?

Sounds to me like they put the "Pink Stuff" right in the fresh water tank and simply pumped it from there to winterize.

Perhaps you need to start all over. Fill and drain your fresh water tank a couple more times. Flush your lines with city water hook up until you know it's completely clear. Leave the water heater in bypass. When you know the lines are clear with city water, then fill the fresh tank and pump from there. If still clear, then fill your water heater. If you get foamy water anywhere in this process, stop and flush the problem child (fresh tank needs flushed more, or maybe the water heater needs flushed more. Doing only one at a time like this will help identify where the problem is. But there is still antifreeze residual somewhere. Good luck.

It depends. Was the antifreeze poured into the tank or run directly into the lines? If in the tank it will take a long time because you are only diluting it each flush.

If they used the correct stuff it is not toxic. Some coffee sweeteners use the RV antifreeze as the main ingredient.

Don't forget to sanitize the tank and lines before use.

We go one step further and not use the water tank for consumption or cooking. Bring along bottle water for that...

Got to have our same brand of bottled water to make our same good taste to grind and brew fresh coffee everyday.

I know there isn't anything wrong with the tank water - just never got into drinking any of it...

Roy Ken

I tend to blow the antifreeze out, with pressurize air, the same way I blow out the water in that fall. If I do that then it only takes a few gallons and I am good to go. I found when I didn't blow it out first the taste was there for 3 or even 4 tanks worth of water.