Do-it-yourself winterizing?

[Donna]

I bought the RV 101 DVD for this since we know it's easy enough to do it yourself and will save me a trip to the dealer. Does anyone have any tips that you know of that can help make it quick and easy? It's going to kill me to winterize again, but it has to be done. thanks!

 

[bigdisneydaddy]

I just did mine this weekend. The siphon kit for the pump is a HUGE help, if you dont have one you need one.

My trailer has 2 low point drains and a water heater bypass that make it a lot easier also. I use an air nozzle and gently pressurize the hose fitting for city water (wrap a rag around the blow gun to seal it and dont go crazy with the air) I then have someone open all the faucets, (nearest first then to the farthest one). This step isnt crucial and can be skipped, I have an air compressor and like to use it.....
I then pull the caps of the low point drains and let them run out. After that I use the pump siphon tube to draw antifreeze (pink stuff) into the system and open the faucets same as before until they run pink. it takes me a little over 1 gallon to fill the lines and then I just dump the rest into the drains to clear out the traps. Then I go drink beer and wait for spring

 

[2goofycampers]

We do pretty much what Scott said and don't forget to drain your hot water heater.

 

[LarryJ]

I bought the RV 101 DVD for this since we know it's easy enough to do it yourself and will save me a trip to the dealer. Does anyone have any tips that you know of that can help make it quick and easy? It's going to kill me to winterize again, but it has to be done. thanks!

I agree with Scott that an antifreeze suction on the pump and a WH bypass are two things that make it much easier. Also, there are two basic types of low point drains, one have a little lift type valve inside the trailer and the other simply has the lines exiting the bottom of the trailer and have caps on them. I had the caps and the lines exited like 2' in from the side of the trailer and just in front of the front axle requiring me to lay on the ground and mess with those using two crescent wrenches. Also you have to drain the WH by removing the plug and while you should flush it out every year on my last trailer I never did and when I replaced the WH after about 15 years it was still working, no leaks, but just did it as a preventive measure. You won't have either of these unless you have the low point drains with the valves on the inside and definitely not the WH. I now need no tools or have to remove anything to winterize and by doing these two mods saves me about 10 to 20 minutes.

I converted my capped low point drains to valves mounted on the outside of the frame so no more caps, etc.

WH drain line and valve ...

Low point drain valves ...

If interested you can get details on how I did these by finding the above pic in the link in my signature and then clicking on each subsequent pic where I give a description and how I did it with links and cost of parts etc.

Also, since I blow out my lines first I bought the blow out plug that attaches to your fresh water inlet and made a fitting to go on the hose to my onboard air compressor so I can winterize it by myself. I limit my pressure for blowing out the lines to 30 to 40 psi and always have at least one faucet open to prevent possibly damaging the water lines.

Now here are the actual steps I use.

1. Open the drain for the FW tank and let it drain.

2. Open the low point drains and remove the plug from the WH and then open all faucets including the shower and outside shower if you have one and once the water stops coming out of the low point drains open the valve to the toilet for like a minute. Once no more water is coming out put plug back in WH and close or recap the low point drains.

3. Bypass the WH

4. Close all the faucets except the one furthest from the city water inlet.

5. Hook up and turn on the next furthest faucet and then close the one that was originally open getting as much water out as you can. Continue around the trailer making sure you do the shower head, toilet and outside shower if you have one leaving one faucet open until you do #6 if you are using the air blow out plug adapter. I'm not sure which is best, but unlike Scott I start with the furthest, but in all honesty it probably makes little difference in the end. Some folks even skip the blowing out, but it's easy for me to do so I do that also.

6. Remove air from city water inlet.

7. Open the low point drains so any water that has settled can drain that the air didn't expel out of the faucets. After like 5 min. re cap or close the low point drain valves.

8. Close the valve to the FW tank at the water pump inlet and open the valve for the antifreeze suction and put the line on that valve into a gal of antifreeze.

9. Turn on water pump and go around to each faucet/valve incuding the toilet and wait till you see the pink white foamy stuff coming out and close that valve and do the same to all the other valves. I like to go back a second time and do all them again running at least a cup out of each set of faucets so you have enough antifreeze in the traps in each sink, the tub/shower and the toilet.

10. Close the antifreeze suction valve line and I leave the one to the FW tank closed until I have drained the antifreeze out so no antifreeze can drain back into the FW tank. The antifreeze won't hurt you, but I see no reason to let any get mixed up with the the FW anyway.

There is no need to put anything in the FW tank or the WH and in fact antifreeze in the WH if it has an electrode like the Suburban ones do can shorten the life of the electrode.

To dewinterize I just open all the faucets, drain from the low point drains, close them then blow out the lines, close the low point drains and then flush the lines with normal water via the city water inlet then open the FW valve from the water pump to the FW tank and un bypass the WH.

Hopefully I got all this right and didn't leave anything out, but can't be 100% positive, but there are many links on the web that give winterizing procedures used by others. I would make up a procedure for your particular trailer based on what all references say and make sense to you.

I can winterize in under 30 min and use just about a gal of antifreeze, but I'm slow.

Larry

 

[bigdisneydaddy]

We do pretty much what Scott said and don't forget to drain your hot water heater.

Here in Michigan we call it a "water heater" because if you had hot water you wouldnt have to heat it.

 

[LONE-STAR]

Here in Michigan we call it a "water heater" because if you had hot water you wouldnt have to heat it.

Same here in Texas. Now our winterizing process goes like this and thats about all we do, nothing. If yall have a questions about our process let me know.

 

[Donna]

Thanks everyone for the great tips and details!

 

[ftwildernessguy]

You should drain your water heater after every camping trip. It can get grow a particularly nasty bacterial bloom that makes your water smell like sulphur and is particularly hard to get rid of once it establishes itself. Draining only takes a few minutes after every trip.

Winterizing only takes me a few minutes - I just bypass the water heater, put the siphon tube into the bottle of antifreeze under the sink, open the valve and turn on the pump. Then just walk around and open faucets until they run pink. Like Scott, I pour the rest down every drain.

Dewinterizing is more fun - I flush the lines with Vodka to get rid of the antifreeze taste. With what's left over - that's why God invented screwdrivers!

 

[RvUsa]

Jim, can you get the vodka at wal mart in the 1 gallon size? I have never heard of that before, I figure I need about 4 gallons, 2 for the camper, and 2 for the screwdrivers LOL.

 

[2goofycampers]

Here in Michigan we call it a "water heater" because if you had hot water you wouldnt have to heat it.

LOL Scott, in the summer here we have hot water out of the tap, so the hot water heater is just for storage.

 

[LONE-STAR]

You should drain your water heater after every camping trip. It can get grow a particularly nasty bacterial bloom that makes your water smell like sulphur and is particularly hard to get rid of once it establishes itself. Draining only takes a few minutes after every trip.

Winterizing only takes me a few minutes - I just bypass the water heater, put the siphon tube into the bottle of antifreeze under the sink, open the valve and turn on the pump. Then just walk around and open faucets until they run pink. Like Scott, I pour the rest down every drain.

Dewinterizing is more fun - I flush the lines with Vodka to get rid of the antifreeze taste. With what's left over - that's why God invented screwdrivers!

To get sulphur smell out of water heaters. Drain 1 gallon of water out of the water heater then fill with 1 gallon of regular bleach, run all hot water faucets until you smell bleach then turn the faucets off. Let it set for 3 to 24 hrs. Then run the water until the bleach smell is gone (this could take over 20 min) and the sulphur smell will be gone to. I have to do this to peoples houses all the time.

 

[jason_rving]

We winterize ours with a air compressor (big kind you use for air tools) and this attachment which blows the water out of the system. It is really easy to do if you have an air compressor or use one at a service station.

 

[ftwildernessguy]

Jim, can you get the vodka at wal mart in the 1 gallon size? I have never heard of that before, I figure I need about 4 gallons, 2 for the camper, and 2 for the screwdrivers LOL.

I hear Wallie World is going to start carrying Vodka for this purpose. It will be in the RV section next to the RV antifreeze.

 

[DisneySoccerScouts]

I hear Wallie World is going to start carrying Vodka for this purpose. It will be in the RV section next to the RV antifreeze.

Is it only vodka - I like the taste of rum better

 

[ftwildernessguy]

Is it only vodka - I like the taste of rum better

In all seriousness, no. The reason for Vodka is that it will leave no residual after taste in the water lines. If you use rum, the water will taste like rum until it is rinsed out. But I guess you could just get a shot out of the kitchen faucet in a glass of coke if you wanted.

 

[rapriebe]

To get sulphur smell out of water heaters. Drain 1 gallon of water out of the water heater then fill with 1 gallon of regular bleach . . .

Michael, know this probably sounds like a dumb question but how do you get the gallon of bleach into the hot water heater in the house? We don't have any way to pour it into it - no top opening. We just purchased a new house that was vacant for awhile and we have the sulphur smell in the hot water. TIA

Becky

 

[ftwildernessguy]

Good question about getting the bleach in the heater. Also, a gallon of bleach in a 50 gal home water heater is a lot different than a gallon in a 6 gallon rv heater. If I were going to use it in an rv, I'd cut back on the bleach considering the corrosive nature of sodium hypochlorite.

 

[Donna]

well it turns out we already have the WH bypass installed and its under the stove, so thats good. then we also have a winterize setting on our water panel and that will make it easier to pump the antifreeze up in to the lines. the only problem we seem to be having is finding the low point drains. we've checked inside, underneath and outside and and there's nothing like that anywhere. any ideas?
is it safe to proceed since we emptied the fresh water and water heater tanks?

 

[LarryJ]

well it turns out we already have the WH bypass installed and its under the stove, so thats good. then we also have a winterize setting on our water panel and that will make it easier to pump the antifreeze up in to the lines. the only problem we seem to be having is finding the low point drains. we've checked inside, underneath and outside and and there's nothing like that anywhere. any ideas?
is it safe to proceed since we emptied the fresh water and water heater tanks?

Look again underneath, they might be close to the axles, but you should see two 1/2" pipes or two pipes near each other exiting the floor of your trailer. Also look in cabinets where you can see water lines and check for any that go down thru the floor. If you have an enclosed under belly the line thru the floor might be to go from one side of the trailer to the other. That's the way mine was and also where the low point drains were. Mine were just capped off.

Larry