Foamy water after DEWINTERIZING

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an RV or an interest in RVing!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
See posts with no answers
jeverden

jeverden

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 11, 2007
Posts
238
Location
Kelowna, British Columbia - Canada
Again this year!  Just finished de-winterizing and the water in the kitchen sink is foamy.  Bathroom is fine.
Always wondered why it did this.  Takes a week or so to dissapear.

Is this from the aerated tap in the fitchen faucet?

I used typical pink - non toxic antifreeze.  I winterize the unit by pumping it through my water tank and water pump.


Advice appreciated

Jay
 
It's just the residual pink antifreeze coating the inside of the pipes.  Acts like a little bit of soap in the water, creating the foam when it passes through the faucet aerator.  Eventually you'll run enough water through the pipes to wash it all away.  Nothing to worry about, the pink antifreeze is non-toxic and as you found dissipates after you use the system for a while.
 
The pink stuff will say in the bypass hose when you dewinterize and leach into the water lines slowly as you run water (the passing waer sucks it out of the bypass line).  The quickest fix is to bypass the water heater and run water for a few minutes to get the pink stuff out of the bbuilt in bypass hose.

The best solution is to sanitize your water system after dewinterizing being sure to sanitize the bypass hose as well.
 
Yes I put (NON-TOXIC) antifreeze in the water tank as per the instructions in my RV Manual.

Otherwise, how do you get the water out of the pump? or the line from the pump to the main line?

Anyway - I never drink the water in my RV anyway - my standards are too high for that.

It is used for dishes, toilet only.  We use bottled water for drinking, tooth brushes, coffee, juice, etc...

What does everyone else do?

Jay
 
The only place I use the pink anti-freeze is a little in the traps.  We drain the system down at the low point drains, drain the water heater by removing the anode rod. Then to ensure ALL lines are clear of water I use the air compresser to blow any remaining water out of the lines. Been doing this for 5x years and never had any water line issues. YES we drink the water from out RV faucets. Our RV has a small particulate
charcoal filter. Sure once in a while you might run into a campground that has it's own water system and the water might have an off taste/odor, but it won't hurt you. Then again we live in the country and have our own well and used to straight from the ground water.
 
I had noticed the foamy water last year too. It took a few flushing's to get rid of it. I am happy to see this post as I thought I had some sort oh a problem and had somehow gotten a detergent in the FW tank. I use 2 water filters (Hydro Life RV Exterior Water Filter Kit outside & the Everpure Replacement Cartridge inside under the sink). I do carry some bottled water but we usually just take that when we go sightseeing with the toad. Cooking and drinking water comes From the Everpure Cartridge filter under the sink and supposedly what one filter doesn't get the other is supposed to. I have not really experienced a campground that really had skanky water but if I did I would leave the next day and in the in between time take water from my RV tank ( We normally carry 1/4-1/2 tank of water).
 
 
Question: How do you get antifreeze in your lines without placing the pink stuff in your water tank?
                Use a bypass kit. Also, takes less antifreeze.

I also take my filters out of my in-line filters when I add antifreeze. If the filters are filtering, won't your filters become plugged and have to be replaced? Just my thinking. I run water through the lines until the water runs clear and I then place the filters back into the in-line filters.
 
jeverden said:
Again this year!  Just finished de-winterizing and the water in the kitchen sink is foamy.  Bathroom is fine.
Always wondered why it did this.  Takes a week or so to dissapear.

Is this from the aerated tap in the fitchen faucet?

I used typical pink - non toxic antifreeze.  I winterize the unit by pumping it through my water tank and water pump.
Click to expand...

We always purge at the end of the year with compressor, this year with the new unit, the dealer had winterized it, ton of the anti-freeze in the system and orange tape on everything..., they must have 55gal drums of the stuff.  Anyway, as far as drinking, we have always used a britta in unit regardless of shore hook-up or tank, also have a cheap (like $17.00) whole house filter with quick couple fittings when it's plugged into campground water.  The paper filters are cheap, go through 3 or 4 of those every season.  And yes, we have found the aerator amplifies the foam until all the anti-freeze is purged.
 
jeverden said:
Yes I put (NON-TOXIC) antifreeze in the water tank as per the instructions in my RV Manual.
Click to expand...

One problem with putting antifreeze into the fresh water tank is that very few, if any, can be drained completely. When you add antifreeze, you end up with an unknown concentration of antifreeze/water which may or may not protect your plumbing during a harsh winter. I know that my tank contains 1/2" to 3/4" of water when "completely drained."

Adding a bypass antifreeze line between the tank and pump with it's own valve is not difficult on most rigs and certainly reduces the amount of antifreeze needed. It also greatly reduces the amount of flushing required during dewinterizing. It seems that even trace amounts of antifreeze in the water system will cause foaming.

Richard
 
My camper has a tee and valves on the inlet side of my water pump. One valve on the FW tank side and another to a 12" section of hose.  Just shut the FW tank valve and open the "extra hose" line valve, stick the hose in the jug of antifreeze and go turn on the faucets until the anitfreeze comes out.  Use about 1.5 gallons of antifreeze each time.  One year forgot the outside shower... oops.  We have the foamy water also when we de-winterize in the spring.  Good to know it's common.  Might run a grey tank or two of fresh through it to help clear it out.

De-winterizing this week in Central Illinois for our Disney World trip next week... can't wait!! 8)
 
If you take proper care sanitizing your water tank and lines you definitely should be able to drink your RV water.  In addition to what the manufacturer put in the underbay, we added a good quality undersink Everpure to eliminate any possible nasties that might be in local water systems (like giardia and cryptosporidium).  We do carry extra purified water for when we get to places that have lousy-tasting water where even the Everpure filter can't get out the bad taste (tends to be worse tasting in the southern US).  Can't ruin my morning coffee!  ;)  We even drank our RV water down in Mexico with no problems.  We just made sure we chlorinated the tank well each time we filled it and we tried to use only "reliable" sources.  It seems a shame to carry your own water and not use it - after all, these are rolling homes and you should be able to use everything provided.

ArdraF
 
I sanitize the tanks once per year, however I still prefer not to drink it. 

It is great to know that the foamy water is normal. 

I do think I may try one of those water filters that attach on the outside. 
Do they also act as a water pressure regulator?

Jay
 
We have the bypass hose for antifreeze also, just drained and flushed everything and kitchen faucet does foam like everyone else's. I did take the spray faucet off and pumped water just from the hose and found pretty much same thing so figured it was from the antifreeze. Foam disappeared in about a week (1/2 tank of fresh water maybe?) but during that time I drank the water with no problems. I also use it for coffee, cooking etc, I just sanitize with bleach at beginning of the season. DW uses a Britta but also uses one in the S & B, just doesn't like the taste of our water. I refuse to buy water, if I buy anything it is beer! Take care.
 
jeverden said:
Yes I put (NON-TOXIC) antifreeze in the water tank as per the instructions in my RV Manual.

Otherwise, how do you get the water out of the pump? or the line from the pump to the main line?

Anyway - I never drink the water in my RV anyway - my standards are too high for that.

Jay
Click to expand...

If you disconnect the input to your pump, add a hose, then you pull antifreeze from the boittle.  Drain the tank, there will still be a little water in there, add a cap full of bleach.  The tank will be fine.  This way you might use 1 or 2 gallons max.  Usually only 1 gallon.  Bypass your water heater tank, drain tank. 

Whe I wintereized, I would use an air pump to move water out, then put antifreeze in drains only.  With filters and tank cleaning I have no problem drinking the water. 
 
jeverden said:
I sanitize the tanks once per year, however I still prefer not to drink it. 

It is great to know that the foamy water is normal. 

I do think I may try one of those water filters that attach on the outside. 
Do they also act as a water pressure regulator?

Jay
Click to expand...
No, still need the regulator along with the filter.
 
You know Wal-Mart sells the stuff for under 3.00 per gallon right. I put 3 gallons in the tank and run everything until it turns pink and drain the water heater. At the end of winter I drain the tank and but in bleach and fill the 100 gallon tank with water and sanitize it and by the time I run most of the water out, all the pink stuff is gone. BUT we still don't drink the water, but then again we don't drink the water at home either. We use bottled water
 
At the end of the season I drain the water tank take the under sink filter off and use the compressor to blow out the lines. I also drain the ho****er tank too and add a new nylon plug at the beginning of the year.  I also buy new water filters at the start of the season...whether I need them or not. I just use the pink stuff in the P traps. I  let the pump suck up the pink stuff too. Last season I had used a lot more of the pink stuff and after the winter I sanitized and we were getting a lot of foam for a while.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Members online

Total: 1,014 (members: 33, guests: 981)

Forum statistics

Threads
132,152
Posts
1,391,130
Members
137,875
Latest member
jasondenman
Back
Top Bottom