Blowing out water lines mistake ??
Blew out the water lines, opened all the faucets, etc. However, when I closed the inlet and outlet valves on the hot water heater I forgot to open the center valve. Is that going to be a problem, or d...
Forum Discussion
Using air will never remove all the water out… what’s left will settle and pool and freeze… leaving the valve open to mitigate problems would work if water only froze along the path of least resistance… it don’t it expands in all directions…
The low point drains are only the low point if time is devoted to leveling the unit first… front to back/side to side… then only maybe…
Most compressors people use for this have the pressure required for a short time, but not the volume of air needed to blow the lines out… it is the volume of air at pressure that moves the residual water along the lines to the faucets… that volume of air needs to be maintained for some time to declare the lines dry…
While pumping the pink through it doesn’t mix with the water much at all… it pushes the water through and clear runs out the tap until the pink arrives… the percentage of dilution is miniscule and not much of a problem…
The only best method is to blow the lines out, then flood with the pink stuff… if you don’t like the pink setting in there… blow it out then to… the traps are then filled with the pink stuff from the pipes, and residual left in the pipes is AF and you really have nothing to worry about… we are only talking about a few moments more time and a few dollars to be sure instead of lucky…
I have repaired or helped repair many broken lines winterized with air only and never one had to do one with AF…
Also every fall the air only proponents make recommendations for air only, and every spring we read the broken or leaking waterline post… I guess there is no correlation there though…
Maybe the air only proponents that say done properly could expand on what properly means to add value to their claims… they seldom do…
Edit:
Of the three guys I know that do literally hundreds of winterizations each for a fee, none will do them without using AF, unless a release of damage is signed first…
.
The low point drains are only the low point if time is devoted to leveling the unit first… front to back/side to side… then only maybe…
Most compressors people use for this have the pressure required for a short time, but not the volume of air needed to blow the lines out… it is the volume of air at pressure that moves the residual water along the lines to the faucets… that volume of air needs to be maintained for some time to declare the lines dry…
While pumping the pink through it doesn’t mix with the water much at all… it pushes the water through and clear runs out the tap until the pink arrives… the percentage of dilution is miniscule and not much of a problem…
The only best method is to blow the lines out, then flood with the pink stuff… if you don’t like the pink setting in there… blow it out then to… the traps are then filled with the pink stuff from the pipes, and residual left in the pipes is AF and you really have nothing to worry about… we are only talking about a few moments more time and a few dollars to be sure instead of lucky…
I have repaired or helped repair many broken lines winterized with air only and never one had to do one with AF…
Also every fall the air only proponents make recommendations for air only, and every spring we read the broken or leaking waterline post… I guess there is no correlation there though…
Maybe the air only proponents that say done properly could expand on what properly means to add value to their claims… they seldom do…
Edit:
Of the three guys I know that do literally hundreds of winterizations each for a fee, none will do them without using AF, unless a release of damage is signed first…
.
