Should I Re-Winterize

[mlttmck]

I dewinterized my Cougar Ex-Lite on a nice 80 degree day last weekend. Winter has now returned unexpectantly and last night we got 5 inches of snow with temps right around 32 degrees and a windchill of 22 degrees. Sounds like we're going to have at least one more day of these temps. Should I empty the water heater and winterize again? By the way the forecast is calling for 70's and 80's next week. Gotta love spring in Iowa.

[rbrumm]

mlttmck wrote:
I called my local RV place and they didn't think it would get cold enough to have to
winterize again. I drained the water heater and left it at that. Can't wait for warm weather. Thanks for the suggestions.

I was just going to say that. just drain it, it is not super cold to cause a hard freeze.

[mlttmck]

I called my local RV place and they didn't think it would get cold enough to have to
winterize again. I drained the water heater and left it at that. Can't wait for warm weather. Thanks for the suggestions.

[skipnchar]

What does your Polar Package include? SOME have electric heated holding tanks and can EASILY handle temperatures down into the teens as long as they're plugged in to 120 volt power. If your tank heaters depend on furnace heat then turn the furnace to it's lowest setting (just to be safe) and it should be just fine. Either bypass and empty the water heater or leave it turned on also.

Chances are that it would not receive any damage down into the upper 20s even if you do nothing but I'd always prefer to err on the side of caution.

Good luck / Skip

[CavemanCharlie]

I'm in the same boat up here as temps are going to get slightly below freezing. Fortunately, I have the TT in side of a shed out of the wind. And, I put electric space heater inside to keep it warmer at night. Then I heated the water heater up to temp then shut it off. I have done this before and I know I'll be OK.

[Golden_HVAC]

Hi,

I would have run the water heater to keep it above about 50F. This means getting it to about 75F and letting it cool off overnight. In the morning, it will be about the ambient temp again, it has a 2" diameter hole in the top and bottom, so air will draft through it, and cool the water temp to the outside air temp. You just want to make sure it did not freeze solid. The problem being frozen water expands as it freezes, and there is not any space for it to expand in the water heater tank.

So as you read this, I would suggest turning on the water heater to thaw it out.

Yes the underbelly should stay above 30F overnight. However running the furnace for about 10 minutes can make sure it is warmer. It can not hurt, other than to burn a $1 worth of propane every hour that the furnace is running.

I have camped in 19F weather, with little winds. High winds can push the cold air into the compartments, that will take away a lot more heat than the still winds. I wanted the inside to stay around 70, so I ran my catalytic heater, and sometimes ran the furnace too. I had no worries about my basement freezing, as I was keeping it warm with the furnace. The water heater was run each night for about a 1/2 hour, and in the morning when I first woke up. Even if it had some freezing water near the heat exchanger, it did not do any damage, but my guess is it stayed above 35 all the time.

Fred.

[naturist]

I wouldn't.

Windchill is totally irrelevant here, as the rig does not have a slightly moist skin at 85?F, like a person does. And since your rig has the polar package, unless it is projected to go below the mid-twenties for at least 8 to 12 hours (NOT like overnight low of 25, which might hit that for a couple hours), I wouldn't worry about it. If you do get worried, I'd just turn on the furnace overnight, set to the lowest temp the thermostat allows.

And hey, btw, keep that white stuff over your way, we dawanany over here.

[mlttmck]

It has an enclosed underbelly and the polar package.