Forum Discussion

mkirsch's avatar
mkirsch
Nomad II
Oct 16, 2015

Backflow preventers?

This year I had a "brilliant" idea to pump antifreeze through my camper's plumbing by backfeeding through the shower hose.

My camper does not have a winterizing kit or hot water tank bypass. It's a long story, but suffice it to say installing them is not an option.

I bought a small pump sprayer and a fitting that connected the sprayer hose to the shower hose. Connected everything up, put 1 gallon of pink stuff in the sprayer, opened all the faucets in the camper, and started pumping.

Antifreeze would not flow into the pipes.

Do these cheap faucets have some sort of backflow preventers in them?
  • Outside shower just like inside shower has a 'vacuum breaker' which would stop any flow from shower handle back into plumbing lines.

    Just use the city water connection
  • You can use any faucet- just buy one of those aerator to hose adapters and a dual female hose fitting.
  • I installed my winterizing kit on the output side of the water pump as it was "impossible" to put it before the pump so I understand the statement about it being impossible. I tried to pump it into the city water fitting but needed more pressure than my boat bilge pump could do.
    bumpy
  • Handheld shower hoses typically do have a backflow preventer/vacuum breaker setup. I assume this is because they could be dropped into a tub full of water in normal use.

    I'm not sure why installing a winterizing setup would be impossible, but I'll take your word for it. Blowing out the lines with compressed air should still be possible (via the city water connection).
  • Most that backfeed antifreeze feed it through the city water connection
    Hand pumps and fittings at Camping World