Disposing of winter anti-freeze ??

super_camper wrote:
You can definitely re-use anti-freeze if you want.

When winterizing you use AF to void all water in the lines, as soon as it's done you can immediately drain the AF and keep it for next year. There is really no benefit whatsoever in leaving the AF in the lines for the winter.

+1. If I were in an area more north than Texas, I'd not take chances, run pink stuff through the lines (and every faucet... including the toilet, outside shower, etc.) Then, out comes blowing out the lines with compressed air. That way, any low points and valves would be extremely resistant to freezing.

We flush ours out with plenty of water until the tanks are pretty much full. Then we switch the water heater bypass valves, not before you flush the lines. Then when we go camping for the first time of the year, we dump the tanks at the dump station on the way in, or if you have full hookup, empty them into the sewer line once all set up. Non toxic and perfectly safe to do.

You can definitely re-use anti-freeze if you want.

When winterizing you use AF to void all water in the lines, as soon as it's done you can immediately drain the AF and keep it for next year. There is really no benefit whatsoever in leaving the AF in the lines for the winter.

I prefer the blown air method over any kind of AF option. Don't like it, don't want in in my water lines and I won't use it. Just my opinion and you know what an opinion is worth. I now full time so I never need to winterize but for the 3 years that I did not, I used the compressed air method and blew out each line one by one. The next day I did it again just to ensure I was "pretty dry". You just need to get enough out so that any expanding water will not burst a pipe and that's pretty easy. I then dumped AF down into the holding tanks and P-Traps where water could not be removed. De-wintering for me involved filling the holding tanks and getting on the road. Even when you using our n(class A) RV in the cold nothing was winterized as the furnace kept the interior and the plumbing plenty warm. Many trailers and 5th wheel setup do not have this option for Winter usage and this option should not be used.

I saved it one year and that's what I used to dump in the waste tanks for the dump valves the following winter. It was sort of a pain to collect it, I deemed it not worth the effort again (I only use about a gallon total in my 'B'). ST

I'll tell you this much, don't dump it in your lawn!
I pulled the plug on our WH one time and AF shot out onto the grass and killed it for months.

As an experiment, after my winterizing regimen, I emptied my lines at the low-point drain into an empty anti-freeze jug (about an inch and a half in the jug). I also put about the same amount in another empty AF jug from the kitchen sink, as a last step before turning the pump off (my AF pick-up hose was still in a fresh jug of AF, sucking up 100% new AF). I did the kitchen sink jug after I had what appeared to be all AF coming through the faucet. My objective was to see if either test jug froze.
So, it hits about zero degrees F over night. The kitchen jug had become slush, the low-point drain jug remained liquid. Not what I expected. This tells me there was water in the line, somewhere, after I felt I had done a thorough job of pumping AF through the system. The slush in the one jug had expanded, judging by my black Sharpie mark I put on the side of the test jugs. If there's water in the mix, it will expand. If you plan to re-use your AF, I'd put the jug in your freezer before putting it back in your RV, just to see what happens.
Maybe, my test procedures were faulty. I don't know. It seemed rather straight forward. However, at the least, it made me question my winterizing technique. I didn't blow the lines with air before introducing AF. I may do that in the future. It's our first Winter with an RV, first RV, too, so I'm learning.
As a side note, it got cold enough that a drain valve on our Koi pond filter froze and blew out. We've had a pond for ten years and never had that happen. It was a mess, but, luckily, I caught it before the fish were harmed. The one test jug remained liquid.

poncho62 wrote:

… they say you can drink it (I wouldn't)

It is a rather powerful, fast acting laxative.

They give you about 4 oz. to drink to clean you out prior to a colonoscopy.

wbwood wrote:
I don't know why anyone would want to even bother to do that. It's $3/gallon.

Over here it's €25 or about $35, so I bother. ;)

When you dump your tanks, dump it with everything else (wherever that may be). Can you reuse it? I don't know why anyone would want to even bother to do that. It's $3/gallon. Let it go into your gray and black tanks and just dump it with everything else when your tanks are full.