Winterizing Question

[JoshuaH]

This summer we bought a 17Ft. Hybrid camper that replaced a pop up. This is my first experience with a camper having a water heater, shower etc, the pop up just had 1 sink.

I've read about how to winterize using RV antifreeze, seems pretty easy. I was wondering, is there any reason why I can't use compressed air to blow out all the water in the lines? I have an air compressor, wouldn't be hard to make an adapter that will hook to the water connection.

Thanks!

[wa8yxm]

JoshuaH wrote:
I was wondering, is there any reason why I can't use compressed air to blow out all the water in the lines? I have an air compressor, wouldn't be hard to make an adapter that will hook to the water connection.

Thanks!

No need to make an adapter there are two different versions of it already on sale at your local RV place even Wal*mart will have one

One has a "Stem" capped with a small rubber cap. This Stem though nto threaded is the same size as a tire valve stem.. The other one has a "Quick Connect" fitting (I forget which style) that matches the chuck on most personal air compressor hoses (Type M I think but do not quote).

And no there is no reason not to do it that way. IN FACT I did it that way before I switched to the "S" method (Drive South).

HOW I did it.
Drain and bypass water heater. Drain fresh tank. Open all valves including low point. Screw adapter in and set regulator on Compressor (I used a 6 gallon pancake 150 PSI job) to 50 PSI.

Let 'er blow. When it ran out of air go inside and force cycle the ice maker (Optional remove solenid to warm place). then shut off water valve to ice maker (Force cycling the water in the line will drain into the main lines in the rv) Open the intake strainer on the Water pump (Place towel below it to catch water) and drain it.. Run pump for like a minute then turn off and re-assemble trainer (Run pump DRY of course to clear it and it's outlet line)

LOOP By now the air compressor has recovered so BLOW again.. When it runs low stop blowing and have some coffee. ENd loop
I ran 5-10 cycles of the loop.. Eventually I ran out of coffee :).

Now I'm not getting any gurgle sounds. no more water out. Close valves Flush toilets. I had a home dump station so I dumped (you can do this at last campground) and added pink to toilets and sink trap and Flush toilet once more (Let some pink into the black tank) and re-pink it.. Head in to house for winter.. Returning daily to RV for Radio Nets (it's my ham shack after all) but not using plumbing save to sit on (Lid closed). (Like Guitarist Joe Walsh, not to be confused with the other Joe Walsh, My "Radio Room" has plumbing.. That way when you got to go somewhere you don't have to miss your turn on the net you are checked into since where you have to go is where you already are).

[JoshuaH]

That makes it sound like you think you’re going to put water back in the system each time you use it during the winter. That is a VERY dangerous proposition. You will have a lot of lines in places you can’t heat enough to prevent freezing.

Well I didn't think that would be a problem as long as we kept the furnace running. I don't camp when its really cold, but possibly below freezing at night, 30s-40s during the day.

[IB853347201]

I always blow the lines out first with about 40 psi, and then pump thru RV antifreeze, just to be sure.
The cost of a few gallons of antifreeze is nothing compared to the cost of possible water damage or replacing burst water lines. Especially if the line is snaked thru a wall/cabinet.
Dont' forget to get the water out of the hotwater heater bypass...

[LarryJM]

JaxDad wrote:


That could only be an issue if you don’t blow the lines out properly. I did an experiment a few years back for sceptical friend to show him how well it works. I took a 100’ coil of clear fuel hose and hooked to to tap, then with it standing vertically hooked it to the compressor with the regulator set to 50 psi. There wasn’t a drop left in the line.

The issue arises when someone uses a very small compressor that can’t maintain the required pressure for very long, or just doesn’t perform the task correctly.

Depending on who you ask 50psi is more pressure by almost 2 times as what a lot of folks recommend for the max air pressure to blow out your lines and is from what I can tell at the very max of what anyone recommends. Of course the more pressure and larger capacity the better the job, but the question which is an unknown is for your particular trailer (especially with regards to its specific configuration like were the inlet for blowing out is in relation to say the water pump and low point drains) is just what is that pressure and air compressor capacity needed to do the job right and avoid the issue I mentioned. If you guess wrong it could be a fairly expensive mistake and you really are sort of guessing.

Larry

[JaxDad]

LarryJM wrote:
Biggest issue with just blowing out the lines is that if your system has a low run of pipe you could end up with water in it after blowing out the lines since residual water could drain and collect in that low section, freeze and cause an issue.

Larry

That could only be an issue if you don’t blow the lines out properly. I did an experiment a few years back for sceptical friend to show him how well it works. I took a 100’ coil of clear fuel hose and hooked to to tap, then with it standing vertically hooked it to the compressor with the regulator set to 50 psi. There wasn’t a drop left in the line.

The issue arises when someone uses a very small compressor that can’t maintain the required pressure for very long, or just doesn’t perform the task correctly.

JoshuaH wrote:
Thanks. We like to camp off grid in the winter, after pricing RV antifreeze I got to thinking I'm going to be spending a lot of money each time we go, would save some money to just blow out the lines.

That makes it sound like you think you’re going to put water back in the system each time you use it during the winter. That is a VERY dangerous proposition. You will have a lot of lines in places you can’t heat enough to prevent freezing.

[gbopp]

RV Blowout Plug

[LarryJM]

JoshuaH wrote:
Thanks. We like to camp off grid in the winter, after pricing RV antifreeze I got to thinking I'm going to be spending a lot of money each time we go, would save some money to just blow out the lines.

I figured there was no reason I couldn't do it this way but wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something.

Biggest issue with just blowing out the lines is that if your system has a low run of pipe you could end up with water in it after blowing out the lines since residual water could drain and collect in that low section, freeze and cause an issue. With that said many do just blow out their lines and the issues seem to be rare if you only do that as long as its a decent blowing out job.

My trailer only takes just over a gal of antifreeze so I just use that, but I don't use the trailer during the winter so I don't do multiple winterizations.

Larry

[JoshuaH]

Thanks. We like to camp off grid in the winter, after pricing RV antifreeze I got to thinking I'm going to be spending a lot of money each time we go, would save some money to just blow out the lines.

I figured there was no reason I couldn't do it this way but wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something.

[BobsYourUncle]

JoshuaH wrote:
I have an air compressor, wouldn't be hard to make an adapter that will hook to the water connection.

You can buy one of those adapters at any RV parts store. They are cheap enough to get. They thread into your city water connection and then you attach the female end of your air hose chuck to it.

[DrewE]

There's no reason at all why that is impractical, and many people (including me) winterize that way all the time. Setting the regulator on the compressor to around 40 psi is plenty and will avoid possibly overpressurizing the water lines.

Basically, you drain the fresh water tank and water heater, open the low point drains, and run the water pump until it's completely dry (or as dry as it can get). It's not harmful to operate them dry for a few minutes (or more). Then, close the low point drains and hook up the compressor and bypass the water heater and, one by one, open each tap and low point drain until only air comes out. I usually go around a couple times to be sure everything is dry. Then just put a cupful of antifreeze in each of the drain traps and in the bottom of the toilet bowl and drain out any bit of water that collected in the gray or black tanks from the process. (I'm assuming you started with them empty; if not, just dump them normally.)

One advantage of blowing out with air is you don't have to rinse out antifreeze in the spring.