Electric Heater vs Winterizing

We winterize by blowing the lines followed by pink antifreeze. We camp all winter so once we winterize, we just haul fresh water jugs as needed. When we're home, we keep a space heater inside with all of the cabinets doors open but since the tanks are all empty (with a bit of pink in black & gray tanks) that's all we need. Knock on wood, that's all we've needed.

John

That's a lot of cost and worry to avoid having to run a few extra gallons of water through your system in the spring. Running electric heat all winter will cost a fortune, and then what if the power goes out?

To answer your question: No, people where there is winter don't do it.

I winterize by draining as best I can, then blowing out the lines as best I can, then pumping a gallon of antifreeze into the pump and lower lines from the fresh tank.

We had the coldest winter in decades last year, and my TC made it through with no damage.

Unfortunately, I don't have a winterizing system, and I am not going to install one because messing with the plumbing on this TC has been a NIGHTMARE almost every time.

If you are trying to store your camper for the winter, then winterize. If you want to use it on occasion in the winter, then I can understand trying to get by with a space heater. Just be sure to check it frequently. It will not be good if the circuit breaker pops or the heater burns out.

It sounds like the OP is trying to avoid cleaning out the antifreeze at the beginning of the season. That should not be a big deal. Also you should bleach out your system frequently. I bleach a couple times a year if the RV is in continuous use. I bleach if the RV has sat unused for more than a month or so.

I have never winterized my camper, but have gone through and put pipe wrap around the water lines that are on the outside walls and have added extra insulation inside. I also have insulation on the outside around where the tanks are. I run an electric heater on a thermostat and have the furnace turned on in case of a power failure.
We get below freezing for maybe 10 days. It has gone to -14 Celcius and I have not had any issues, but it did take some time to find all the sections of water line that were susceptible to freezing.

Used to live in Colorado. An electric heater is fine. Just make sure you leave all of the cabinet doors open so heat can get to the water lines. No need to run your camper furnace. Both the gAs and electric heat a small zone and the heat disperses from there. The electric heater we used was an oscillating type so the heat was distributed very well. Just keep it away from flammables. We placed it on the table.

hedgehopper wrote:
Have you tried keeping tanks warm with a small electric heater instead of winterizing. How has that worked for you?

Yes, but not just the tanks.
I've used an oil filled radiator type heater to heat the whole camper.
Some of the digital controlled electric heaters will reset to "off" when there is a power interruption.
Weather wise, it rarely gets into sub-freezing temperatures for more than two weeks.

I want the camper ready as a standby shelter.
We sometimes get power outages of a few days.

Geewizard wrote:

sh410 wrote:
Installing a winterizing kit that by passes the fresh water tank will allow you to pump RV antifreeze thru the water lines. No antifreeze in the fresh water tank.

Ditto.

Ditto x2.

My AF811 has one from the factory.

I winterize. It's cheaper than running an electric heater all winter. If I wanted to run a heater, I'd have to put in some auxiliary fans to blow heat in the basement, which uses more electricity.

The tanks are empty anyway, so it's kind of useless in my case to need to heat them - but that's because I take the camper off the truck and don't use it in the winter.

It takes maybe 15-20 minutes from the time I start gathering up the air hose, air fitting and antifreeze, and then put everything away after I'm done.

It only takes about a half gallon of RV antifreeze to do my AF811.

I first blow out the lines with low pressure compressed air, then use the suction tube in the plumbing to draw antifreeze directly out of the jug.

sh410 wrote:
Installing a winterizing kit that by passes the fresh water tank will allow you to pump RV antifreeze thru the water lines. No antifreeze in the fresh water tank.

Ditto.

I know CO is very different than the PNW...but if you are not using your TC just evacualte the water lines empty the tanks, leave the taps open, unscrew the water feed on the back to the potty, drain water heater leave plug out...have a small heater inside to keep everything above freeezing say 40F...shouldn't that do it? Why all the fuss of winterizing if everything is clear?

I have temp monitors as well, just to be safe.

I have a 1000watt therostat controlled wall heater I leave on all winter, with water in my tank but waste tanks are empty and don't have issues when it is below freezing, but we don't get the prolonged day after day cold like CO.