Antifreeze in everything!

I haven't consumed water from the fresh water tank in a few years, I use bottled water for myself and dogs. I would just drink bottled water until the fresh tank has been through a few drain fill cycles. The pink water should be OK for showers dish washing and toilet flushes. you can probably drink it after it has had no signs of pink for a couple drain fill cycles

I still do not get that last comment of dumping antifreeze in the fresh tank.

Iffin ya have a fresh tank bypass and pump the stuff out of a jug how can it not go thru the pump? :h

The fresh tank gets drained also.

So please enlighten me on what you gain by mixing pink stuff into the fresh tank.

sele wrote:

georgelesley wrote:

rockhillmanor wrote:

robsouth wrote:

WoodGlue wrote:
Oh my!

This is why people should film their PDI or dealership walk through!

WoodGlue

I actually overhead a salesman once telling the prospective customers how easily they winterize by putting several gallons in the fresh water tank and just turn on the pump till pink came out the faucets.

That's how I do it.

Yep us too, and we live in Northern MN. He should have added drain fresh, black & grey water tanks, and HW heater.

us too then flush and sanitize in the spring but we use bottled waterfor cooking and drinking anyway

In our previous MH I always fill the freshwater tank with antifreeze when winterizing. This way I guarantee that I have antifreeze in the pump.

Here is an example from first hand experience and proof that this is the safest method to winterize. We picked up our brand new MH this past Feb in the dead of winter. I made sure the dealer winterized it (pink stuff in all the taps and traps) but really did not question how they did it. About a month ago when I dewinterized and filled up the water tank, turned on the pump, a river of water started to gush out from under the bed. Opened it up and noticed water spewing out from the pump housing (under warranty to no problem except inconvenience). Thought to myself, this is a brand new pump so how can this happen. Then it dawned on me that the system was probably factory tested with water but the dealer winterized by pumping antifreeze via the city water connection to save on material. So whatever water was left in the pump froze and cracked the pump housing over the winter. I cannot blame the dealer as there was no way to test the water system in the dead of winter without filling it up.

Well our 1st 5er I used the pink stuff in the lines. We winter camp, so we flushed several times a year.
With the new unit DW said she didn't like the after taste of the pink stuff, even after a full flush. Now I drain and blow, it doesn't take that long. I do it as needed, if we plan on going again soon, I look at the weather forecast, unless several days of cold over nights just let it go.

rockhillmanor wrote:

robsouth wrote:

WoodGlue wrote:
Oh my!

This is why people should film their PDI or dealership walk through!

WoodGlue

I actually overhead a salesman once telling the prospective customers how easily they winterize by putting several gallons in the fresh water tank and just turn on the pump till pink came out the faucets.

That's how I do it.

Me too...First year I thought I would just pump it out of the jug with the little kit I bought ot put on the pump. After all, that's what many people said they did here on the forum. What a pain in the butt it was. First of all, you couldn't see what you were doing based on the location of the pump. Secondly, you were fully stretched out to get the hose hooked up to the kit. Thirdly, by the time you clicked on the pump and opened a faucet, got pink and then tried to go to another faucet, the jug would be empty. Just a pain in the butt. So I did the dumbest thing. I opended up the manual to my Keystone TT and read the winterizing steps. They said to put it in the fresh water tank and then pump it through the lines. So, I poured in several gallons. And turned on the pump and then went around and turned on all the faucets and shower heads. Let them run until each one was running pink, and then turned them off individually as this happened. Had maybe a quart left in the fresh water tank which I left there all winter. Spring came...I put bucket under low point drain and emptied the little that was in there. Filled the tank up and ran all the faucets till they stopped running pink. Dumped the tank (doing this at a FHU campground. Filled freshwater again and repeated. Didn't bother sanitizing the system as we don't drink from the tank at all. Matter of fact, we normally do not have any water in the fresh water tank at all. We never camped anywhere but FHU, so we didn't feel it was necesssary.

With the new motor home, we will sanitize and use the fresh water tank. But to us, it was much easier to just run the pink stuff through the lines from the fresh water tank. No special tools needed. No added extra steps. My brother in law had a toyhauler and would blow the lines out only. He did that a few years and then one year he thought he got them all blown out and found out that spring, that he didn't. He had some repairs to take care of right before going camping.

After 6 or so complete drain and fills I think I finally have all the lines and HW tank clean and sanitized. Thank goodness I attempted de-winterizing in the driveway and not at the camp site during our first outing. :)

Every winter we break out the pink stuff.But they are just plastic flamingos.Nice to live in Florida.:B

I don't really care how other people winterize, my only concern was how 'my' MH made it thru the winters.
I just chime in just like everyone else how I do it and why. The OP can read them all and make their own decisions.

For me, I know when I open the faucet and pink comes out from the fresh tank, I can 'see' that every inch of that line is filled with antifreeze. Blowing out the lines you can not 'see' every inch of the lines to see if all the water is out. Not to mention the water pump issues and the lines related to it. So based on that, that is how and why "I" choose to winterize my MH's.

rockhillmanor wrote:
Like wa8yxm states there are 2 ways. blow lines or fill with antifreeze.

I fill my lines with antifreeze. I live where it gets below zero a LOT and for long periods of time which WILL freeze and break a line if you just blow out the lines and don't get every drop out of the lines. I don't like to take any chances.

I put the anti freeze directly in my fresh tank and pump it thru the whole system via the water pump. Been doing it for as long as I lived in Wisconsin. It's no different than pumping the anti freeze into the lines. The way I do it I 'know' I have antifreeze in the water pump.

De-winterizing fill tank with water open drain valve and drain the residue that might be on the bottom. Fill with fresh and drain again.

No problem. BTW it takes 10 times longer to get the smell and taste of chlorine out of the lines than it does antifreeze. :W

"I live where it gets below zero a LOT and for long periods of time which WILL freeze and break a line if you just blow out the lines and don't get every drop out of the lines."

It is interesting that it seems that for every person who makes this statement, there are often 5 or 10 people who say "I just blow the lines out, been doing it for years, never had a problem!"
As for me, I set the pressure at 60 PSI, blow out the lines, drain the water heater, disconnect the pump and run it dry, empty the pump strainer, drain all tanks, put pink stuff in the drain traps, and I'm done.
Just like every fall a guy comes by with a big high volume trailer mounted air compressor, and blows out my underground sprinklers. I have never had a problem there, either.
Blowing out the lines DOES work!

georgelesley wrote:

rockhillmanor wrote:

robsouth wrote:

WoodGlue wrote:
Oh my!

This is why people should film their PDI or dealership walk through!

WoodGlue

I actually overhead a salesman once telling the prospective customers how easily they winterize by putting several gallons in the fresh water tank and just turn on the pump till pink came out the faucets.

That's how I do it.

Yep us too, and we live in Northern MN. He should have added drain fresh, black & grey water tanks, and HW heater.

us too then flush and sanitize in the spring but we use bottled waterfor cooking and drinking anyway