Water tank & city water questions

Drain and flush the fresh water holding tank.

jdc1 wrote:
Drain and flush the fresh water holding tank.

Several times....
Then fill and use the pump to flush water thru it and out the cold/hot water lines...thru faucets/showers/low point drains

Water heater should have been 'BYPASSED' (cold inlet closed, Bypass open, hot out secured) so anti-freeze did go into water heater.
Remove drain from WH Tank and make sure it gets flushed out----after hot/cold lines-system is fully flushed.


*WH Bypassed.....water will flow from cold to hot w/o going thru WH Tank which allows you to flush plumbing system w/o putting anything into WH

After flushing with pump....hookup hose to City Water inlet and flush again so portion of plumbing line from city water inlet to cold water line gets flushed
*Pump off----shouldn't run anyway if City Water pressure is higher then pump pressure switch

Then sanitize the fresh water system. Bleach is your friend.

I've never had to winterize my trailer, but the steps to dewinterize should be fairly straightforward and the same as flushing after sanitizing.

Before adding any water look in the owners manual and also crawl around in and out of the trailer to find.

• Fresh water fill port.
• City water fill port.
• Low point drain(s).
• Fresh water tank drain.
• Water heater drain.
• Water heater bypass valves.
  

Turn water pump off.

Leave water heater bypassed.

Open the fresh water tank drain and let it drain out. If clear water comes out you're good. If pink comes out you have antifreeze in the tank and need to fill and drain repeatedly until it runs clear.

Put water in the fresh tank but leave the pump turned off at the switch.

Open both the hot and cold knobs on a faucet in the trailer.

Open the low point drains.

Open the water heater drain.

With the drains open turn on the water pump and let it run for about 30 seconds then turn the pump off at the switch. You can do the rest of the flush using city water instead of waiting on the pump.

Now close all drains except the water heater drain and turn off the faucet.

Attach city water hose to trailer and turn it on. You should have at least a cheap water pressure reducer from Walmart before attaching the hose.

If you have an outside shower open both valves on that shower. If no outside shower then open a sink faucet.

Wait for the outside shower to stop spurting air and run clear then close the valve. There should be no water pouring out of the water heater drain.

Now open each faucet in the trailer and wait until they run clear. Do not forget the shower or to flush the toilet.

Turn off all faucets and find the water heater bypass valves and turn them to take the heater out of bypass. Water should start coming out of the drain plug.

Wait until water runs clear and then shut off the hose.

Replace the drain plug in the water heater and again turn on the hot water faucet on the outside shower. This is to bleed the air out of the water heater while the tank is filling.

Turn on city water and wait until the water heater fills and the outside shower stops spurting air. Then turn off the shower.

Check in and out of cabinets and try to visually follow the water lines throughout the trailer. You are looking for any water seepage or leaks.

Your system should be ready to use.

Then finally remove the screens on all your faucets and clean them or you will be back here wondering why water pressure is so low. Usually a fair amont of construction debris flushes out in that initial water fill process.

Welcome aboard. :)

Twomed wrote:
Then finally remove the screens on all your faucets and clean them or you will be back here wondering why water pressure is so low.

It's probably better to remove the aerator screens before flushing the system. There will be less flow restriction with them removed, especially important on a new unit.

We pressurized our water system then watched a movie in the RV,water pump never cycled,good.....I did sneak a peek around traps.

Then proceeded to flush system, maybe 10 minutes and had to re-winterize.

I use a campco filter when hooked to city but still drink only bottled water.

Once a year dump a cup of bleach in fresh water tank and flush to eliminate any bacteria.

“Once a year dump a cup of bleach in fresh water tank and flush to eliminate any bacteria.”

Might work. Depends on how many gallons in the fresh tank, hot water heater and lines...and how bad the water is. Too many “mights” for me.

Do sanitize. A cup of bleach will be plenty for up to 60 gallons or so. If you can smell it coming out of the faucet then there's enough. After that, drain and refill. If there's any bleach left, pour in a few ounces (or more, it doesn't matter) of hydrogen peroxide (perfectly safe) and it will kill the bleach on contact.

The standard ratio of bleach to sanitize the water system is 2oz (1/4 cup) of regular non scented bleach for every 10 gallons of tank capacity.