Most Common Method Used to Winterize?

06Fargo wrote:
Alberta winterizing method:

1. Hang a little snowblower to the front bumper of unit. A non-runner from the junk pile is good for this. Check with rv dot net Weight Police to confirm GAWR GVWR GCWR of snowblower...

2. Drive south until someone points at the snow blower and says, "What's that?"

3. Your rig is winterized.

Only thing more fun to get rid of than RV antifreeze from the fresh water tank is adding some to your water heater too...

I like this idea.

beemerphile1 wrote:

otrfun wrote:

...My 2nd reason for adding antifreeze directly to the FW tank is my rig requires the removal of a basement wall to access the water pump inlet. For me, using an extra 2 gallons of antifreeze, at $2.50 a gallon, is a fair trade-off to not have to spend 30 minutes to R&R the basement wall....

HAH! Think you saved something? Wait till you see the time, water, and effort required to get the residual antifreeze out of the freshwater tank in the spring.

Rather doubt that. Even dried RV antifreeze rinses off very easily. Even if I did a less than stellar job of rinsing/sanitizing the FW tank in the spring, the few ounces of remaining RV antifreeze diluted with 100 gallons of water will be more than enough to dilute it safely for our use (shower and dishwashing only). If residual antifreeze was going to be an issue, the powers to be would have never allowed RV antifreeze to be used in potable water systems in the first place---there's always going to be some residual.

We never drink our tap water . . . so it goes without saying we won't be drinking water from our FW tank. So, not an issue in any case.

otrfun wrote:

...My 2nd reason for adding antifreeze directly to the FW tank is my rig requires the removal of a basement wall to access the water pump inlet. For me, using an extra 2 gallons of antifreeze, at $2.50 a gallon, is a fair trade-off to not have to spend 30 minutes to R&R the basement wall....

HAH! Think you saved something? Wait till you see the time, water, and effort required to get the residual antifreeze out of the freshwater tank in the spring.

The_real_wild1 wrote:
Drain the tanks, and open all taps. Run pump and drain hot water tank. Basically get every drop out of the lines, tanks, toilets, shower etc. Remove intake hose from water pump and hook up winterizing hose between pump and antifreeze jugs. Turn pump on and go to each tap. Open up until pink flows. Do everything including outside shower. Don't forget hot water tank bypass.

X2 This is my method and I only need 1 gallon of A/F. Been doing it for 20+ years without a problem.

Oh there is a better way to Winterize..... the SOUTH method.. I'm in S.E. Ga this winter,, Now that's how you winterize.. I like to go to michigan.gov/mdot and click on the top left menu option (Roads and Travel) then scroll to cameras and look about Detroit, where I used to hang out before I went full time, and look at the freeways.. lots of fun sitting here looking at green grass out my window and SNOW COVERED ROADS. on the computer.. NOTE: many different cities have traffic cam's you can look at.. Just google "Traffic Cameras"

otrfun wrote:
Just curious how many folks drain their freshwater (FW) tank, then refill the FW tank with RV antifreeze to winterize their system? I tried this method for the first time a week or so ago. It took about 4 gallons of antifreeze to get the antifreeze level in the FW tank high enough so I didn't pull air into the water pump.

I did that ONCE, never again.. And you will find out why (Perhaps I can help you ) come spring

Liek you the tank outlet is about 4 gallons above the bottom of the tank,, In my case so is the fresh tank drain So come spring getting all that pink **** out of the tank was a job and a half... This is why I switched to teh DRY method by the way (Described later)

How I wound up getting it out.....

I pulled one of the 1/2 inch plugs that was in the side of the tank, Pulled out the unsused outlet strainer (the tank has dual outlets)
inserted a small (1/2 inch OD) siphon hose and siphoned it all out.. Major pain in the anatomy... Rinsed and siphoned a few more times and finally got enough that I could no longer taste it. Then sanitized by filling the tank with 1/4 cup Bleach to 15 gallons of water, Then drained and re-filled with water and baking soda (abou 1/2 cup to one cup disolved in warm water) then drained and refilled with Fresh then Drained and refilled once more with City water.

NOTE each fill you flush the lines as well.


Dry method:

Open all valves including low point, Screw blow out adapter into city water inlet, Drain fresh tank to drain level.

using an air compressor and regulator (50 PSI) blow Gabriel Blow.. I use a six gallon 150 PSI tank job.. When you run out of air, pause,, While pausing force cycle the Ice Maker (gravity will draw the water out of the lines) bypass and drain the water heater,, Drain the water pump inlet strainer and while it's open run the pump one minute then shut off.

Now blow again, like 5 more times, till you no longer get water out of the lines.

Now dump waste tanks (Use a blue boy tote if you must) and add PINK to all drains, toilets and about a pint or so to each waste tank.

Come spring.. Skip the siphoning part and go straight to the Bleach water.

otrfun wrote:
I started this thread because I was surprised just how easy it was to winterize my 5r by just putting antifreeze in the FW tank. I've never heard it done this way---it must not be "cool" or right. There must be some kind of terrible downside.

The downside, whether "terrible" or not, is you're using far more anti freeze than necessary ... fresh water holding tanks are long, wide, and shallow so whatever you put in there spreads out to become a pretty thin layer of antifreeze from which to draw. The title of your thread asked what is the "most common method used to winterize?" ... the answer is drawing it directly from a jug. But hey, if it's floats your boat to pour more than is necessary into your FW tank and draw from it I'm sure none of us really care ... but you did ask. :R

The manual for my Class B Xplorer 230XL says to drain everything, close the hot water tank bypass, put pink stuff in the fw tank and run it through the system, and put a bit down each drain and in the toilet. I need 3 gallons to do this and have never had a problem for 17 years. Doesn't cost much or take very long.

I started this thread because I was surprised just how easy it was to winterize my 5r by just putting antifreeze in the FW tank. I've never heard it done this way---it must not be "cool" or right. There must be some kind of terrible downside. I fully expected to get some critical comments--lol!

All I had to do was drain the FW tank, bypass & drain the HW heater, pour in the antifreeze via the outside FW tank port, flush each faucet/toilet (which does the traps) and open the low-water ports. Maybe took all of of 15-20 minutes and $10 worth of antifreeze.

No air compressor (although I do have a 220v/5hp unit). No hoses in a bottle. No dismantling of anything (except one small panel to access the HW heater bypass). And the biggest plus? I've got antifreeze flowing throughout the entire water system---without exception or debate.

Since I always sanitize my FW tank in the spring, I should be able to kill two birds with one stone by sanitizing and rinsing out the antifreeze at the same time. Since we never drink water from the FW tank, only shower and wash dishes with it, we're not overly concerned about any small residuals.

Hey, if it feels good and you're not hurting anyone, I say go for it--lol!

The simple drain the one fresh water tank and other low drain points. Then blow out using my small tankless 12VDC air compressor using an adapter at the city water point. If I open the cold and hot water sink spigots it also drains most of my hot water heater as well. Then add some pink stuff to the two p-traps I have.

Then the next morning I can just add fresh water to the fresh water tank and be on my way...

Doesn't take much time doing it this way for me. We camp alot late in the winter season and this works great for us.

If I had a larger water system I probably would do it differently but for my small setup the low key blow-out method works best for me...

Roy Ken