Winterizing Tank Rinser

Old-Biscuit wrote:
Tank flush lines.....
Inlet line up to the anti-siphon vacuum breaker drains back out when you remove hose to connection

Outlet line from anti-siphon VACUUM breaker to tank nozzle drains into tank when water supply is shut off

No trapped water UNLESS tank nozzle is plugged up

Old Biscuit is probably correct, but I winterize my black tank flush anyway just to be sure. It's easy and actually kills two birds with one stone. Here's how I do it:

First, this technique requires that you have an outside shower close to your black tank flush inlet. If you do, make an adapter as shown in the following photo.



You can assemble this adapter very inexpensively from parts purchased at any big box home store. No tools required.


Then temporarily remove the shower head from your outside shower and attach the adapter. Connect the other end of the adapter to the black tank flush as shown in the following photo.




Make sure your hot water tank and your pump are both in "bypass" mode and you have antifreeze connected to your pump bypass input. Now turn on the shower hot faucet and run until pink shows in the clear tubing. Shut off the hot water and repeat with the cold faucet. You will have winterized the outside shower AND the black tank flush at the same time.

I just use air. I don’t trust the lines to self drain.

I also use the outside shower hose to pump antifreeze thru the black tank flush (rinser) lines. And I also removed my antisiphon/backflow preventer valve after it started leaking and simply connected the lines together. I use an external antisiphon valve now.

But the lines do not self drain. You can see in the picture below that the lines contain the pink stuff after winterizing. The other two lines are my shower faucet lines.

I just move the blow out plug from the city water connection to the in tank rinse connection. You just need to get any remaining water out of the line. No need for anti-freeze.

-Michael

Ralph Cramden wrote:
Remove the vacuum breaker while you're at it, which is typically buried in the rear of a cabinet behind a baffle, and make it a direct connection. Then it will be self draining as long as you do not create a trap in the line.

Not only does that eliminate the chance of the cheap vac breaker sticking and flooding your rig, but they are always mounted higher than the inlet port and create a trap in the line that will hold water.

That said if youre a germophobe or have a code fetish, you can use a seperate vac break on the hose or site connection when using the flush.

This is exactly what I did with my last travel trailer. I removed the vacuum breaker check valve and let the water self drain. This may sound gross, but I then just blew into the hose and any remaining water would spew out. The other side of the line, that goes to the outside inlet connection self drains as it was all down-hill. Simple, worked well, and never had a problem.

Shultzy wrote:
Do you think that blowing it out with air will be good enough?

That's what I do.

Jerry

Remove the vacuum breaker while you're at it, which is typically buried in the rear of a cabinet behind a baffle, and make it a direct connection. Then it will be self draining as long as you do not create a trap in the line.

Not only does that eliminate the chance of the cheap vac breaker sticking and flooding your rig, but they are always mounted higher than the inlet port and create a trap in the line that will hold water.

That said if youre a germophobe or have a code fetish, you can use a seperate vac break on the hose or site connection when using the flush.

Do you think that blowing it out with air will be good enough?

There is no telling if the lines will drain completely, so I pump antifreeze thru the flush system with this: Pump

Tank flush lines.....
Inlet line up to the anti-siphon vacuum breaker drains back out when you remove hose to connection

Outlet line from anti-siphon VACUUM breaker to tank nozzle drains into tank when water supply is shut off

No trapped water UNLESS tank nozzle is plugged up