Missed the bypass

[hbrady]

Hello All,

After reading my manual and about a dozen threads here I winterized my camper this past weekend. In short I drained the FW tank, ran the pump until nothing but air was coming out, drained water heater, drained the plumping using low point drains and then pumped 50 PSI through lines for 30 minutes having just one exit point (faucet) open at a time. I could not find the bypass for HW heater but when I was done nothing but air was coming out any of the exit points (including low point drains). I then drained black / grey tanks and poured two gallons of pink stuff down drains and into black tank. It got down to 24 last night so I may be too late but what is the impact of not putting WH in bypass mode?

[Harvey51]

"drained the plumping using low point drains"
This sounds like it should take care of the lines without any further action. Why not build RVs with low point drains that really work? Just a little more care in routing the lines should do it.

I'll be winterizing with pink stuff tomorrow.

[RVcircus]

+1...if you didn't use anti freeze in the water lines there's no reason to bypass the water heater. Bypassing just stops you from filling the water heater with 5-6 gal of pink stuff. Without anti freeze there's still a chance that some remaining water that wasn't blown out could freeze, so I blow out my lines and use anti freeze to be safe.

Dennis M M wrote:
Should not be a problem, only reason to bypass the water heater is to avoid filling it with anti-freeze.

[Bobbo]

50 psi is fine. The guy who uses 90 psi NEVER has all of the faucets closed at one time. While 1 faucet is open, he opens a second, then closes the first. With a faucet always open, the pressure in the water lines never rises near 90 psi.

My RV's manual says not to exceed 45 psi. When I bought a replacement water pump, it came set for 55 psi. I contacted Winnebago and they told me that was fine.

[hbrady]

Got the outdoor shower, toilet etc. too. The one surprise for me was how long it took for the air to clear ALL the water. Even at 50 psi with just one 'outlet' open at a time it seemed like it would never end 😉 I think my manual said never to exceed 20 psi but I read someone on here has used 90 psi on thousands of rigs without a problem. Hopefully I didn't break anything, guess I'll find out in April! Thanks all.

[rdmike]

Dennis M M wrote:
Should not be a problem, only reason to bypass the water heater is to avoid filling it with anti-freeze.

X2 - all good.

[dieharder]

sch911 wrote:
You don't say that you drained the WH? It's not likely that the air pressure took all the water out of the tank. I would pull the drain plug to be sure.

He did, in his first line.

[jules6]

If you have an outdoor shower you must drain that also

[Oaklevel]

Sounds good did you allow air to come through the toilet valve as well as the faucets??

[sch911]

You don't say that you drained the WH? It's not likely that the air pressure took all the water out of the tank. I would pull the drain plug to be sure.

[jbrad13]

Sounds like you did a terrific job winterizing your rig.

[Dennis_M_M]

Should not be a problem, only reason to bypass the water heater is to avoid filling it with anti-freeze.

[Old-Biscuit]

There will be a small amount of water in bypass line between the bypass valve and connection to hot outlet line.

But even with freezing temps that water will have room to expand as it freezes.

[newman_fulltime]

Nothing if no water in it