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travel4family's avatar
travel4family
Explorer
May 20, 2013

De-winterizing question

Ok, I've probably given this too much thought, but getting to our by-pass for the water heater is a pain. I left the bunks torn apart all winter from when we winterized not thinking about the fact we'd drive to our first destination and now it's hard to pack. We haven't been able to camp yet (grrrr). So I'm thinking about partially getting the pink stuff out at home via the following method (to avoid doing the whole thing at the campground, or hauling a lot of grey weight on our first trip out).

Tell me if this will work:
If I were to put a bucket/tub under those hoses that hang down that we used to drain the water out at the end of the season (they are the low water point under the unit, straight under the sink) and then use the pump to pull all the pink stuff out of water tank and let it drain through the little hoses into the bucket, would that work-- or does opening those drains take away the pump working (ie. is it on vaccuum??). If so, I'm thinking I can get the pink stuff out -which is in the water tank-- and then run water/bleach through the water tank and drain it the same way. Then turn the bypass on, put the bed back together and essentially be done before we ever leave. When I get to the first campground, the water heater won't have seen any pink, the only pink left will be what's already in the holding tanks now and a little in the shower line if I'm thinking of this correctly.

Sorry if I'm crazy. Would just rather do this at home than lose our first hours camping messing around with de-winterizing (we did it at a campground last year, so we can. But we all just want to go have fun).

Other thoughts / ideas appreciated.

6 Replies

  • travel4family's avatar
    travel4family
    Explorer
    May 20, 2013
    This helps everyone. Using the low point drains to drain the pink stuff and what I flush (chlorox / water) was my goal and it sounds like it will work.

    SCClockDR I'll keep that in mind for next year. While winterizing / dewinterizing isn't technically difficult, you've hit it spot on with your solution- I hate getting to the bypass anymore than necessary!!

    Thank you!
  • SCClockDr's avatar
    SCClockDr
    Explorer
    May 20, 2013
    Hi travel4family

    You can avoid filling the gray tank by using the low ppoint drains and the FW tank drain. The advice to utilize the city connection is spot on.

    As mentioned you do need to sanitize and then re-flush the system.

    From the wording of your post it would seem the unit is in storage and inconvenient to mess with, correct?

    You may benefit by modifying you winterizing technique. I use an ancient small 2 gal Craftsman air compressor to blow out all the H2O from the system. Drain the FW tank, bypass & drain the HW tank, and recirculate the pink stuff through the pump using 2 3way valves I installed for that purpose. That keeps the pink stuff isolated to the pump and traps which I fill as the last step. Once all the H2O is purged from the system you could restore the HW heater valves to normal and leave the drain open till spring. What little might drip into the HW tank will have plenty of room to expand & pose no threat to freeze rupture.

    In the spring 2 gal jugs of fresh H2O pumped through the pump to the ground clears the pump. I then sanitize and flush as mentioned above and I am good to go. You could do this @ your first stop as you prefer.

    1 Gal of the pink stuff does our whole rig with plenty left over even after I make a generous fluid seal over the toilet valve.
  • Photog101's avatar
    Photog101
    Explorer
    May 20, 2013
    The way that I de-winterize is to hook up to city water at the house and flush all the lines, including dumping the low-point drains. I also fill the hot water tank from my city water connection, rather than let the water-pump work overtime. It also gets the air out of the lines. Then I fill and drain the fresh water tank, adding bleach to sanitize it from sitting for a couple of months. I then disconnect the city water and run the pump to get sanitized water through the lines, and the H2O heater. I let it sit for at least 24 hours and then dump everything. Then I refill the fresh water tank to half full (just my way of traveling) and refill along with the H2O heater. Then I am ready to go.

    I have the ability to dump my holding tanks at home, but if I didn't, my first stop is at the local RV dump and I get rid of all the water that I ran through my system. I then charge my holding tanks with a couple of gallons of water, some holding tank treatment and liquid Calgon (just to keep the tanks clean).

    I HTH
  • HiTech's avatar
    HiTech
    Explorer
    May 20, 2013
    Don't forget after dewinterizing you need to sterilize your system - typically a soak of the whole system with the high chlorine water ( I let mine soak for 24 hours) then flush it again. Far better to do it at home IMO.

    Jim
  • RetSgt7114's avatar
    RetSgt7114
    Explorer
    May 20, 2013
    HiTech wrote:
    Pump works fine with them open. I blast all the water out them at the house. My tank has a fresh water drain though that gets 99% of everything out of the tank. Probably more than the pump does. I run water in and drain out there to clean the tank. Then I use city water to flush the rest of the system.

    Jim


    Ditto
  • HiTech's avatar
    HiTech
    Explorer
    May 20, 2013
    Pump works fine with them open. I blast all the water out them at the house. My tank has a fresh water drain though that gets 99% of everything out of the tank. Probably more than the pump does. I run water in and drain out there to clean the tank. Then I use city water to flush the rest of the system.

    Jim

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