Run antifreeze from the fresh water tank?

TNGW1500SE wrote:
If you don't put rv antifreeze in the fresh water tank, how do you winterize the fresh water pump?

You hook the suction line from the pump to a short section of hose to the rv antifreeze bottle. Turn of pump and open faucet one at a time until you get pink antifreeze. Don't forget to bypass Water Heater and remember to do toilet and outside shower if you have one. You need to drain Water heater as well. Takes about 15 min or less to winterize a rv.
I agree on NOT putting RV antifreeze in water tank. If water is there it will dilute antifreeze and will take a very long time to get the taste out of the water next spring.

It's a bad idea to put antifreeze in your fresh water tank..Yuck..Disconnect the line from the water pump that runs to your water tank and add a short hose that will reach to the bottom of a gallon of RV antifreeze and pump it through.

Even better is to just blow your lines out as recommended by many RV dealers.That's the way I do it and have never had a problem living in sub zero territory.Then add antifreeze to the traps/toilet etc and your all set.I always leave my faucets open,not closed while winterized.

Good luck...

Kansas Couple, using your freshwater tank will require a lot more antifreeze. Plus any water still in the tank (you can't get them completely empty) will dilute the antifreeze you put in.

If your phone has pic capability use it to take a pic of the hose coupler, lay a yardstick or tape measure across the end that screws on. Make a trip to the hardware store and match it with enough hose that you can place it down into the antifreeze jug.

My water pump is under the kitchen sink and I keep this hose tucked between the drain pipe and wall so it's always handy. I can do my entire system with 1 gallon of antifreeze. Never had a problem with a frozen line or bad pump and it's been COLD, once or twice in the last 30 plus years.

Check behind the water heater for a bypass system as trying to fill the water heater will use to much antifreeze also.

Yes it is possible to flush all that stuff from the fresh water tank, but just in case you haven't noticed, water is a finite resource. Please use it responsibly. Also its way easier to attach a short piece of 3/8" hose (I got three feet @ $.26 a ft) and pump it through. Takes less than a gallon on my 28' fiver. It doesn't get much easier than that.

Remember if you use air, you need to make sure your air compressor is "oil less", a lot of the smaller campbell hausefeild and harbor freight units use oil, you don't want that in your water system

look close in the area of your pump the hose and line with a by pass valve from your tank might already be installed.

TNGW1500SE wrote:
If you don't put rv antifreeze in the fresh water tank, how do you winterize the fresh water pump?

Release all of the standing fresh water in your fresh water tank, then operate the fresh water pump until the line no longer has water in it. Then proceed on winterizing the remaining lines, low points, water heater, etc.

If you don't put rv antifreeze in the fresh water tank, how do you winterize the fresh water pump?

Kansas couple wrote:
Am ready to winterize my rig (will be my first time doing this). I saw some YouTube videos. Question: since I don't have a piece of line and the matching clamp is it OK to just put the pink antifreeze in my fresh water tank and run it through the system from there?

Way cheaper to buy the winterizing kit. It will only take a gallon to do your lines, and maybe another gallon or 2 to fill your traps and put a bit in the toilet. You will need to use many many gallons if you decide to put enough in your FW tank to get it to pump through the system. And flushing it out in spring will take lots of water.

Here's the way I always do it.

I blow the lines first just to get most of the water out, but probably not necessary. Without a compressor, I would open all the valves, drain from the low point, and then close the low point again. ... I have a portable waste/grey tank, and a place to dump it, so I drain whatever might be in the black and grey water tanks so I don't get any water stuck in the drain valves. Then I drain and bypass the hot water tank, pour 3 gallons of AF in the fresh water tank, run the pump until pink stuff comes through all the taps. Run enough to fill the traps. While I am doing this, I'll crack the hot water bypass and let a cup or so of AF into the tank. Drain the remaining AF from the fresh water tank and save for next year. Usually a gallon or so left in there. Then open all the valves again and take the caps off the low points, and leave them open. store the low point caps in the trailer to find them again in the spring.

In the spring, fill the fresh tank and flush through the lines. Drain, fill the tank again and repeat. Easy as can be!

As for the expense of using more AF by putting it in the fresh tank, I can always get it for anywhere from $3.50 to $5.00, so the max of $15.00 isn't all that big of an expense compared to the ease.

Here in Ontario we have long, cold winters, so I like to make sure there is nothing in the lines and tanks but antifreeze. we never drink from the holding tank, and would never consider it, with or without antifreeze, when bottled water is so easy and cheap.