Southern winterizing question.

(Jacques Clouseau)

And Furthermore!

We need that certain somebody to come out and declare this nonsense as "Not Possible!". KA-ZAM! Instant return to politically correct weather...


https://weather.com/news/weather/video/let-it-snow-in-louisiana

Most Class A motor homes. if occupied with the furnace oprating are good to around 20 degrees safely.. Tonight in NC that may be an issue. In the Mountains of SC, likewise, where I am. 20's anticipated so I should be cool. and I do mean cool, both meanings. Been in the 20's many times.. Been colder a couple times.

If you have no water in the system you are safe

For added protection a few 100 Watt Rough Service light bulbs can be scattered about.. Make sure they are caged, Wither a plastic or wire cage and not touching anything air free to circulate around them (They do get hot) I have a string of C-9 Lamps under my fresh tank, about 270 watts total (each lamp 9 watts 30 lamps) and a 100 Watt RS Cagged in the valve bay. Together they give me an additional 8-10 degrees.

Sound like you've got it all covered, but did blow out the water line that feed the commode. If you haven't you need to. There's a water valve in it and it doesn't take to mush cold weather to break it.

Dave H M wrote:
you didn't forget the city water hook up? :h

:S man did I ever have a big brain pfart there. My mind was pumping pink stuff and you were blowing air. My bad.

sgfrye wrote:

1. open low point hot and cold water line drains and water heater
2. blow out water lines 1 faucet at a time, including shower and toilet with 40 psi
3. add rv anti freeze to drain traps and some to black tank

After you've used your water heater for a while, you'll want to prepare it for storage too. Heater manual will explain, but usually it's opening the drain ON THE HEATER, not low points, letting the water out, and then running it with pump for a minute or two, to wash the lower part of this little tank.

Nothing important, but otherwise you could get smell of rotten eggs in spring - again, nothing important (no matter what DW says), and often can be remedied by running all the faucets for a minute.

On my heater this drain is a very inconvenient plug, hard to turn with bare fingers and near impossible to get there with a wrench.

This is not essential for "winterizing", but rather a part of regular maintenance. There is a more convenient valve on the heater, located higher, to let "most" of water out, so it won't freeze with the remains of the water.

Almot wrote:

sgfrye wrote:

1. open low point hot and cold water line drains and water heater
2. blow out water lines 1 faucet at a time, including shower and toilet with 40 psi
3. add rv anti freeze to drain traps and some to black tank

After you've used your water heater for a while, you'll want to prepare it for storage too. Heater manual will explain, but usually it's opening the drain ON THE HEATER, not low points, letting the water out, and then running it with pump for a minute or two, to wash the lower part of this little tank.

Nothing important, but otherwise you could get smell of rotten eggs in spring - again, nothing important (no matter what DW says), and often can be remedied by running all the faucets for a minute.

On my heater this drain is a very inconvenient plug, hard to turn with bare fingers and near impossible to get there with a wrench.

This is not essential for "winterizing", but rather a part of regular maintenance. There is a more convenient valve on the heater, located higher, to let "most" of water out, so it won't freeze with the remains of the water.

Where we live in nc we usually only get freezing temps for a few days off and on. We plan on camping thru the winter so I went ahead yesterday and did all the above. I wanted to inspect the anode rod in hot water heater anyway so I drain by removing the large drain bolt/anode rod. Yes it's a pain to get hand started on threads. Any advice or tip on reinserting? Easy to remove with socket wrench.

sgfrye wrote:
Yes it's a pain to get hand started on threads. Any advice or tip on reinserting? Easy to remove with socket wrench.

If you keep the socket on the anode, you can better tell if it is perpendicular to the threaded housing. Makes it easier to hold the inside rod from tilting down inside, which is what I think makes it hard to start the threads ;)

Depending on your socket depth, you can stuff a bit of paper towel down in it to shorten the depth so you can actually apply a bit of light pressure to the fitting, too ;)