Why not drain pink antifreeze right away?

There's two type of the pink RV anti-freeze, one with ethanol (the "cheap stuff") and the other with propylene glycol (the "good stuff").

I would assume that the one with ethanol (alcohol) would evaporate over time whereas, from what I was able to just find, propylene glycol has a low evaporation rate. I could not find any comparative info on evaporation rates between the two RV types.

The cheap stuff can leave a bad taste and odor, damage some HWH anodes (if you happened to get some in the tank) and can sometimes damage seals.

The good stuff is used in a lot of consumer products that are consumed on a regular basis by humans and you don't even notice it.

When you go to buy RV antifreeze, you may have to look all over the container's labeling as often the contents are in very small print. The good stuff can be harder to find and I ended up paying $8 a jug. I just checked all over the place here and only found one place that had the good stuff which was an independent RV repair/parts shop. I even had one RV dealer say that antifreeze with glycol is only for engines and they don't make it for RV use! Idiots... Camco makes the glycol based stuff and it's not a rare and obscure product. I have a feeling that the cheaper stuff is higher profit for vendors which may be why it's so widely available.

When I just did a bit of googling, I found that one manufacturer has a blend including not only propylene glycol and ethanol, but also some methanol and ethylene glycol both of which are toxic. Supertech RV antifreeze. Not good! I've also read that sometimes RV antifreeze contains recycled material. If you are going to run the stuff through your water lines, maybe reading the manufacturer's MSDS info. first would be a good idea.

If you already have the ethanol version put in, maybe you could put a few drops of mineral oil in the toilet bowl and traps? DW refuses to allow anything besides plain water in our plumbing lines so I always blow out the lines with air. It's so easy (and cheaper) too.

Thanks for the idea about the dried residue. I'll leave the antifreeze in there till somewhere on the way to AZ this winter.

We use our water for drinking and cooking. I keep the system clean, it has a filter, so why not. I've seen the inside of a municipal water tower tank, and a water well. My RV system is cleaner than those! It took a while to convert the DW to drinking from it, but she must have figured since I hadn't died, it might be okay. Now we don't have to buy and haul packaged water. Win-win!
:)

I don't worry about it, I leave the pink in the lines and flush with fresh water before the first trip. We don't use tank water for drinking or cooking, it is only for showers and the toilet so a little residue won't hurt anybody.

eubank wrote:
When a film of liquid pink stuff is exposed to air, the pink stuff will dry out and leave a dry pink film behind. It's easy to wipe off, but may not be easily washed off without wiping. And that may happen inside your pipes if you do as proposed.
:)
Lynn

That's what I was thinking too.

Larry

The only reason I can think of is this; I have left a small amount of the pink in my toilet and it has dried up over the winter. That pink residue takes a fair amount of cleaning to remove. I suppose the same could happen inside your lines and result in bad taste and foaming over the summer months.
Just a thought.

I blow out my lines with air, but I also went to PEX lines after the white hard plastic lines develop multiple cracks. I have flexible rubber p-traps also.

Brian

wa8yxm wrote:
Why not just blow the water out using compressed air?

If you do it that way I can tell you what you will not miss at all.

People yammer "but what about the tiny amount of water that remains in the lines after you blow it out?" Well i used to blow like 5-10 times waiting a few minutes between blows so that was not a problem.

But what you will miss is flushing the remaining pink stuff out of the lines come spring, that was a job, Simply sanitizing did not do it, had to do multiple flushes and use soda water for one of them to get the job done.

Not to mention my fresh tank does not drain completely

I only used Pink one time

(You do use pink in the drains, traps and toilets even when blow drying the lines,, But flushing those out come spring is not so hard, or necssary till you use the fixture and then it "Self Flushes".)

The little amount of water like you found is no concern. Water only causes problems when it CANNOT expand when frozen. A water line or fitting that has a small amount of water that does NOT fill the space will not cause a problem when frozen and expanded. Doug

eubank wrote:
When a film of liquid pink stuff is exposed to air, the pink stuff will dry out and leave a dry pink film behind. It's easy to wipe off, but may not be easily washed off without wiping. And that may happen inside your pipes if you do as proposed.
:)
Lynn

Thanks for that insight. This makes total sense.

Why not just blow the water out using compressed air?

If you do it that way I can tell you what you will not miss at all.

People yammer "but what about the tiny amount of water that remains in the lines after you blow it out?" Well i used to blow like 5-10 times waiting a few minutes between blows so that was not a problem.

But what you will miss is flushing the remaining pink stuff out of the lines come spring, that was a job, Simply sanitizing did not do it, had to do multiple flushes and use soda water for one of them to get the job done.

Not to mention my fresh tank does not drain completely

I only used Pink one time

(You do use pink in the drains, traps and toilets even when blow drying the lines,, But flushing those out come spring is not so hard, or necssary till you use the fixture and then it "Self Flushes".)

When a film of liquid pink stuff is exposed to air, the pink stuff will dry out and leave a dry pink film behind. It's easy to wipe off, but may not be easily washed off without wiping. And that may happen inside your pipes if you do as proposed.
:)
Lynn