Did not winterized

danager wrote:
You become a plumber, carpenter, contortionist and master of linguistics.

Best description ever!!!!!!!

A friend bought a brand spanking new 5er a couple of years ago. He winterized his first winter by opening the low point drains. He was lucky and only had to replace the shower fixtures. Lesson learned.

Well here is my story. I was out yesterday starting to get everything ready. I blow the lines and use the pink. Due to my work schedule I actually did not get to winterizing until after one freeze/thaw in Michigan but I thought I was good.

Yesterday I had water on the floor by the bathroom sink. Opened up the cabinet and the trap had exploded. Many pieces. Luckily no other damage. Lesson learned, make sure you get the pink in the drains BEFORE the first hard freeze.

I opened all low point drains, blew out the lines, added pink stuff but missed the line going to the ice maker. Solenoid froze and cracked going to ice maker and needed to be replaced.

I think he will be fine since he used the low point drains to let it all drain out. Its the expansion that will crack it the pipes but if its drained then anything left will have room to expand.

We are from Maryland. Our first winter with a tt, we winterized three times. We winter camp. The second year, we said, "Screw it." We drained everything, opened up the faucets and left it at that. Winter camped three times and re-emptied three times, no problem. The third year, we said, "Screw it!" and didn't winterize before we went to Florida for a couple of weeks in January. When we got back, we drained everything and dumped some anti-freeze in the toilet. Everything was fine. This year, we actually winterized in November and de-winterized in January to go fulltime. Still no problems... Maybe we are just very lucky.

good luck

One year, I failed to get the pink stuff to the toilet. Cracked the flush valve. Fastest 45.00 I ever spent! Valve took all of 30 to 45 seconds to remove and install! I dodged a bigger bullet that year and will not let it happen again. I got off easy compared to what I fear for your buddy. You might be camping with out him for a while till he gets his system repaired. I wish him luck and hope he gets a cheap lesson so he will make winterizing a priority next year.

rtaylor0830 wrote:
Hi my buddy did not winterized his 2012 camper this year, he did empty the water heater and opened the low point drains but that is it. We have had one of the coldest winters ever in Maryland what problems do you see him having when he tries it out. I told him if every thing is fine I will never winterized mine again lol.

Every camper is made differently so its not really possible to tell what might be damaged until it's checked out. Every place where water is trapped and confined is going to break something!

The results on this one will be interesting. We had friends in WI. He did not winterize and did not have anything broken. it was not last winter though.