Winterization

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bmwcody

bmwcody

Member
Joined
Oct 11, 2017
Posts
7
Location
West Fargo, ND
Hello---This past Spring I bought a Keystone Hideout 38FKTS (first time RV owner) and recently winterized it myself. The TT has always been onsite and the only water used was via the city water connection. To winterize and with my wife's assistance, I used an oil-free compressor and connected it to the city water line with an air adapter and used around 35PSI to blow out all the lines, including the (2) low point drains. I then used a Camco hand pump to push around 2 1/2 gallons of -50F RV antifreeze through all of the lines, then again drained the low points. We also added a pint or 2 into the sink, shower drain and toilet. My questions is, did these actions also clear out the water pump of any water? I have never knowingly used the water pump since I only used the city water connection. Did my actions of blowing air then RV antifreeze essentially flow through the water pump? Thanks in advance.
 
    Without actually knowing your plumbing design, I’d have to suspect that it would be possible for water to “back” into the pump. You mentioned using a camco hand pump to move antifreeze through the system. Does your water pump have a two-way valve ( suction to fresh water tank and the other side to an open ended poly line) on the suction side of pump? If so, swap the two-way valve over to the poly line side, then...using the rv pump to draw from antifreeze bottle would assure that the pump is also “winterized”.
 
If you know where the water pump is, and can get to it, just unscrew both hoses - one from each side of the pump and let them drain.

I kept my hoses unhooked all last Winter and then just hooked them up in the Spring - no problems.
 
If you're going to fill the water lines with RV antifreeze, there's really no reason to drain the water first.  Just run the faucet until antifreeze runs out.  Your trailer may be equipped with a winterization kit at the water pump.  This allows you to stick a hose into your antifreeze jug and pump the antifreeze through the system using the water pump.  Don't forget the outside shower and toilet. 
 
I also blow compressed air to blow water out of system before I pump antifreeze through lines.
My past experience is that I use far less antifreeze to winterize because I am not feeling it is diluted by water.
Dont forget any appliances.
Just my experience.
 
To the OP: you didn't specifically say anything about the water heater. Did you drain and bypass it?
 
Yes, I did drain the water heater and used the bypass valve to ensure I didn't waste 6 gallons of RV antifreeze, so the water heater is as empty as possible.

 
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