What is the best way to get rid of all the RV anti-freeze from the system? Last year when I winterized, I drained the water heater and had the antifreeze bypass it. this spring I opened both low point drains and opened the faucets in the upstairs bathroom of the 5th wheel. I then hooked a hose up to my city water connection and ran all spickets (except washer dryer connections) until clear. We have now spent 3 days in it, and are having the pink stuff come out of faucets and toilets when we first turn them on, along with the odor.

Did you drain and rinse the fresh water tank? Assuming you might have put antifreeze in there.It wouldn't hurt to connect a hose to the washer connections and flush them out also. Did you also flush out any outdoor shower faucets?One thing I do that really helps get the antifreeze smell out is use bleach to sanitize the system after rinsing it out. I connect my hose to the trailer to fill the onboard tank. Before hooking the hose up to the spigot I pour a cup or so of bleach into the hose. The hook up the hose and fill the tank. Run each faucet until you smell the bleach. You also want to fill the water heater with that solution so run plenty through the hot water taps. Then let it sit for the night before draining everything again. Run fresh water through for another rinse and you should be good to go.

Brest way is to not use it!Flush with lots of fresh water.Use a box of Arm and hammer baking soda in fresh water tank. Pump solution through system. Then flush again with fresh water.

1. DON'T put antifreeze in the water tank. Use a winterizing kit to draw antifreeze into the system with the pump. Drain the water tank and leave it alone. 2. DON'T put antifreeze in a water heater tank... see ^3. If the unit has low point drains open them and catch the drainage. When putting the unit back in service you have to identify every T and branch line in the system incuding the low point drains. You have to flush every line and T with fresh water from the tank. Don't start with the city connection. If you miss a T that is upstream from your tap you will taste RV anti for the next 5000 gallons :)

If you got antifreeze in the fresh water tank, fill and flush several times. If you are lucky there is a bottom drain on the fresh water tank, you can leave that open while filling, which accelerate the process. As mentioned, use a hose to draw direct form the bottle of antifreeze and just leave the fresh water tank empty.Otherwise, the pipes, make sure to run water thru them all. Bypassing the washer, could allow antirfreeze on that branch to back feed over an extended period of time, so flush that branch out also.

The good news is that the pink stuff you used is non toxic and will eventually become so diluted it will not be noticeable!I no longer use antifreeze ,I just drain everything and blow the lines out with compressed air!A compact tire inflator works fine !I have used the same method to clear our Lawn sprinkler system and drain the water from our home plumbing when taking a winter vacation!

What's the best way to get RV anti-freeze out of system.

LouLawrence
Explorer
Jun 15, 2021
Nothing is foolproof if done improperly, air or antifreeze. This applies to blowing out your lines as well. Done properly it is foolproof as their is no water left to freeze.
dougrainer
Nomad
Jun 15, 2021
Lantley wrote:
Sjm9911 wrote:
LouLawrence wrote:
Don't use anti-freeze next time. Drain the fresh water tank, and black and grey tanks. Use an air compressor to blow the fresh water lines and then just throw a bit of anti-freeze in the P-traps to get rid of or dilute the water enough to prevent freezing. Next year you are good to go by just filling the tanks and heading down the road.

I had another guy sware by this , untill his water pump broke. It depends on the climate your in. And while blowing out will work 90 percent of the time, its the other 10 percent that gets ya.

Exactly Anti freeze is foolproof, other methods are not

IF you know what you are doing Blow out is 100% effective. I have over 42 years and thousands of RV's I have winterized by using air to blow out and have NEVER had a failure. The ONLY places I install Antifreeze is in the Clothes washer drain pump and the Dishwasher drain Pump which are not connected to the fresh system. Doug
Bobbo
Explorer II
Jun 16, 2021
Sjm9911 wrote:
LouLawrence wrote:
Don't use anti-freeze next time. Drain the fresh water tank, and black and grey tanks. Use an air compressor to blow the fresh water lines and then just throw a bit of anti-freeze in the P-traps to get rid of or dilute the water enough to prevent freezing. Next year you are good to go by just filling the tanks and heading down the road.

I had another guy sware by this , untill his water pump broke. It depends on the climate your in. And while blowing out will work 90 percent of the time, its the other 10 percent that gets ya.

Sounds like he forgot to drain the water pump. You will always have failures if you aren't thorough. The water pump must be drained separately from blowing out the lines. I know someone who always winterized by pumping RV antifreeze through his system. One year, he forgot to do the outside shower and it broke. That doesn't mean that RV antifreeze is a bad choice. It only means he wasn't thorough.

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What's the best way to get RV anti-freeze out of system.

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