How to winterize residential refrigerator??

Use air to blow out the lines. There's probably a drain valve at the edge of the slide, to speed up clearing the fridge lines. Set the ice maker to build cubes last, use the glass filler for the bulk of the clearing.

ENG2242 wrote:
I have a residential refrigerator with water connection. Suggestions on how to winterize it. I opened up the back panel and could not find any instructions or valves.
Thanks guy’s,
David

should be in your owner's manual but this is how I do it. I'm assuming you use the pink RV anti-freeze.

- empty fresh water tank
- let icemaker run until no ice is produced
- run RV anti-freeze through the coach like you normally would.
- continue to run the ice maker until you see pink slush
- turn off the ice maker. on ours I raise the bail wire.
- power off the fridge.
- I leave the fridge/freezer doors cracked open to reduce mold.

I have a Samsung residential refrigerator in my 5er. I winterized it 2 days ago. The last item I winterized was the ice maker in the refrigerator. So, here's how my resources and a bit of compromise on my part did it.

First, I winterized everything with the RV antifreeze Pink Stuff and waited to do the ice maker last.

On my Montana High Country 375FL, the refrigerator is in one of the slides. There is a small water line that runs under the slide (outside) from the inside underbelly of the camper. At that junction there is a connection.

With Antifreeze still under pressure from the water pump and the tube in the gallon jug, I loosened that junction and let the clear water spew until it turned pink. Then I tightened the connection back up.

Inside the camper, where that small line comes through the floor, there is an on-off valve with a connection for an even smaller line that actually runs to the refrigerator.

I turned that valve off and then unhooked the smaller line that ran to the refrigerator. With a cup, I put the cup under the open end and turned the valve back on slowly, and after a cup of clear water, the pink stuff appeared. I let just a bit more flow and then closed off the valve and reconnected the line going to the refrigerator.

Now I knew the clear water had only about 5 feet of tubing before it was filled with antifreeze pink stuff.

Following directions from YouTube and my manual I found on line, on the bottom side of the ice maker is a small reset, or recycle button. When pushing this button, the tray dumps, turns back upright, and then fills with water. I pushed the button about 10 times, repeating over and over, catching the dumped water in the ice tray. After about the 10th time, good pink antifreeze started filling the small ice try.

It was then I turned that on-off valve (inside the camper) to the off position so no more antifreeze would feed into the ice maker.

I then pushed the button one more time to dump the final bit of antifreeze into that ice bucket and because the valve was off, no more antifreeze could flow into the ice maker.

We are still using the refrigerator, but the water pump is off, the fresh water tank is empty, the system is winterized with pink stuff, and ice maker is now winterized and the water line going to it is off.

When I un-winterize, I'll do the same thing again. I'll unwinterize everything and do that line to the ice maker last. I'll bleed the antifreeze at those two connection points again, and then just keep feeding clear water through the ice maker by pressing that button over and over again until it's flushed good.

It took longer to do the ice maker than running the antifreeze through everything else combined on my 5er. It's something you simply cannot rush.

Find the manual trigger button on your ice maker and just keep pushing it, until the pink stuff starts flowing.

We have a Samsung RF18. Run pink until it enters the ice tray. The RF18 has a button to cycle the ice maker.

I would never allow my ice maker to fill with anti-freeze.
Use air pressure to blow the lines clean. If you can't jumper the water solenoid, keep air pressure on the water inlet till the ice maker goes through a "harvest cycle" which is the only time the water valve is open for a few seconds. You could also take the output line of the water valve loose and gravity will siphon the water out. While you're at it, take the inlet line loose and blow the water out of it. Leave both lines disconnected for the winter - maybe put a piece of cloth over them held in place with a rubberband so nothing crawls in there. Once the line is blown out, there should be a shut off valve in it somewhere you can turn off and THEN fill the rest of the system with your pink stuff if desired.

I stopped using the pink stuff years ago and started blowing all the lines out after bypassing my empty water heater with my 2hp air compressor. I blow each faucet until nothing comes out and then move to the next. Every faucet, every shower head, the toilet and the toilet sprayer. That way, there is nothing to flush out when I resume using the RV. I like this system much better than any method I've every tried and I started RVing in the early 70s.

Thank you for your responses!! One caveat, I live in the RV.!

ENG2242 wrote:
Thank you for your responses!! One caveat, I live in the RV.!

Then find the shut off in the water line that feeds the refrigerator and shut it off. Disconnect the line at the valve and drain it. Take both sides off the ice maker solenoid valve and let them drain - blowing the out would be best. That way, the back of the refrigerator can get a cold as the outdoors and no harm will come from it.

(The more information you give us to start with, the better the answers will be.)

ENG2242 wrote:
Thank you for your responses!! One caveat, I live in the RV.!

then winterize it the fridge the EZ way...point it south or southwest and keep going till night time temps are above freezing.

I would do one of three things.

1 Remove water line (Winterize it as you do rest of RV) and cycle the Ice Maker manually Allowing it to drain back due to gravity. YOu can also disconnect and remove the solenoid and either power it for less than 1 minute and blow it out or take it indoors to the warm spot. (Don't forget where you hid it for the winter)

2: Hook up air and cycle and let it blow out into ice tray

3: Eventually the line from solenoid to ice tray splits and makes a mel of a hess spraying water all over the outside compartment... When that happened to me I pulled the beast and .. Well.. Did not bother replacing it when we re-did the cooling unit.. I use a "Counter top" model now days.

On edit. And glad I am of that counter top unit (it makes up to 26 Pounds of Ice a day) as when the cooling unit failed it was 2.5 wees of no fridge. But I do have a good old poly foam "Colman Cooler" (Ice chest) Genuine coleman brand at that.. And that ICe maker kept it in ice till the fridge was ready to refill.. So the only food I had to throw out..... Should have been tossed long time ago.

If you live in it, and still want to use the "pink stuff", as stated above, then simply turn off the shut-off valve that runs to the refrigerator and disconnect the line running running to the refrigerator and let gravity drain it. Then bleed the water that runs to the shut off valve until it turns pink.

When unwinterizing, run clear water to the shut off valve until there is no more foam or after taste. Once clear, reconnect the line to the shut off valve and and run normally again.