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TravisG's avatar
TravisG
Explorer
Nov 18, 2016

Noob winterization question

My Heartland Torque T29 has three drains. One towards the rear of the trailer and two in the middle with hot and cold lines connected. My question is after draining them all three do I leave them open over the winter or close them? Got them draining open overnight tonight and going to add antifreeze to the lines tomorrow.
  • Personally, I would not leave them open. I have always used a blow out adapter (Camping world http://www.campingworld.com/shopping/item/blow-out-hose/69232) that attaches to your water intake and allows you to run air through your lines. Just be careful how much pressure you use. I would set my compressor to a max of about 50psi. Open each faucet individually. You will be amazed at how much water comes out. Don't forget to drain the hot water heater. I usually achieve this by removing the anode rod (if so equipped) and opening a hot faucet inside to assist the speed of draining. Replace the anode rod. Then you add your RV antifreeze. Hope this helps.
  • If you are going to fill the lines with antifreeze you will have to close those low point drains and leave them closed.
  • After winterizing, replace everything and turn all faucets off. If you are using "Pink Stuff" to winterize the lines, then you want to keep your water heater in by-pass mode until the lines are flushed of the pink-stuff in the Spring.

    By replacing all low point caps, flipping the on-board pump back to normal use and turning everything off, come Spring, you won't have anything lost, you know everything is ready to pressurize again, and you won't have any risk of any unwanted "things" crawling into any of the lines (outside the camper, or inside). Keeping the low points closes helps seal the lines a little better. Why leave the inside of your lines potentially exposed to (well ... anything).

    If you have a thermal insulated water jug of any kind, when you store it in your garage, or closet in the house, do you leave the lid off, or keep the lid on? More than likely you keep the lid on in storage, and just rinse it when you use it the next time. Why keep the lid on? To keep it from getting dirty, and to keep spiders and critters from nest in it, and to keep from loosing the lid ... right? Same is true for the water system in your camper! Shut everything off, replace everything.
  • When filling my lines with antifreeze, with the pump running I open one low point drain until I see pink stuff coming out and then close it, then do the same with the other. And I leave them closed until spring when I flush the lines with water. Same as I do with all the inside faucets and outside shower.

    The one in the back is probably the fresh water tank drain. I open mine until water stops running, then close it.
  • TravisG wrote:
    My Heartland Torque T29 has three drains. One towards the rear of the trailer and two in the middle with hot and cold lines connected. My question is after draining them all three do I leave them open over the winter or close them? Got them draining open overnight tonight and going to add antifreeze to the lines tomorrow.


    Thanks a bunch, you just reminded me I hadn't opened my low point drains and its supposed to get down in the mid to high 20's here tonight. Done now!
  • Thanks everybody. I was thinking about the two up front drains tonight before I added the antifreeze and thought "duh" and closed them. Thanks Dutchmen Sport for the analogy. Water heater is bypassed and anode rod is removed.