Winterizing

[toddp]

OK tell me if this is right. I drained my hot water heater and left plug out, poured 2gal RV Antifreeze into my fresh water tank and turned pump on ran each faucet til the pink antifreeze came out of each. I left some in toilet bowl also. Is this all I need to do?
Thanks for any replies.

 

[COMer]

How about the traps, and the outside shower, if so equipped?  You mentioend that you left some in toilet bowl.  Did you run water to the toilet to do those lines?  Also, do you have low-point drains that could be opened and drained.  You are lucky that you could use that method and only need two gallons.  You can stick the inlet hose off the pump directly into the jug and use less.  But two gallons isn't bad at all.

 

[Phil Hyde]

Did you bypass the hot water heater?  If you got any antifreeze in there you'll need to completely flush it before using it.

I'm not certain that pouring the antifreeze in the fresh water tank is the right method, unless said tank was completely bone dry.  I believe the antifreeze is not meant to be diluted.  As COMer mentioned, the conventional approach is to use a secondary hose (purchased at an RV shop) attached to the inlet side of the pump and then immersed in the antifreeze bottle.

 

[COMer]

The first time I winterized, back, when Hector was a pup, I tried the fresh water tank method.  I didn't get anything out of the faucets until I had put in the 6th gallon.  Now I do it with less than one gallon and have plenty left over for the traps.  That plus the dilution factor as Phil stated. 

 

[Mopar1973Man]

I tend to do the dry method... Just hook up regulated air pressure to the city line and blow all the water from the system. Kind of hard to freeze something that is empty and dry...

Like a neighbor just found out he did the anti-freeze method and either didn't drain the water or didn't do it right ended up with a blown water line already this winter and its not even cold yet (25-35*F).  :
Then I blow out all the drain p-traps with a shop vac and can leave them dry or add a 2-3ozs of anti-freeze to them. Don't forget the outside shower...

 

[toddp]

Thanks All for the info

 

[Stonefeather]

Hey all,

My first central Texas winter but we can and have gotten below freezing for 72 consecutive hours. Plan on doing the air pressurized method. I have a small Makita compressor. Do I just set the pressure regulator to 50 or below to avoid blowing the lines? Then just open one water valve at a time to expell water?

If I am wrong here please someone walk me through it.
Also, If I decide to do the secondary hose and antifreeze, what size of hose do I need from the RV shop, and where do I locate the pump inlet?

Thanks,
Cody

 

[jje1960]

Hey all,

My first central Texas winter but we can and have gotten below freezing for 72 consecutive hours. Plan on doing the air pressurized method. I have a small Makita compressor. Do I just set the pressure regulator to 50 or below to avoid blowing the lines? Then just open one water valve at a time to expell water?

If I am wrong here please someone walk me through it.
Also, If I decide to do the secondary hose and antifreeze, what size of hose do I need from the RV shop, and where do I locate the pump inlet?

Thanks,
Cody

Plenty of step-by-step air blow sites on the internet.  I don't like putting the anti-freeze in the fresh tank, just takes too long to get the stuff out.  Drain the hot-cold low water points, fresh water tank, empty the hot water heater.  Hook-up your compressor with fitting to the city fresh connection, open every water point (everything that will produce water) and let it blow.  Yes, 40Ibs is what all the instructions state, however I personally don't worry about that.  With everything open and using the compressor unit we have, the volume discharge is not going to allow pressure build-up anywhere near 40psi.  I have an 8gal small standard garage unit.  I let it run for a good 20mins or so, waiting until no more moisture dripping out of any of the discharge points. When the moisture is out, poured antifreeze in all the traps and toilet, flush once and pour again, let the anti-freeze go through the seals.  Obviously the grey and black tanks were emptied prior to winterizing.  That's the drill.  As I said, many guides on the internet, "one faucet at a time".... many different methods.  I've done both methods over the years, anti-freeze and air, both work fine.  From what I have observed, most RV service winterizing routines use the anti-freeze, it's easier for them to just pump the pink stuff through the system and they know everything is protected, smart move.  However if you have a compressor, you don't need to purchase all those gals of anti-freeze, if you purge all the moisture from the unit.  Just the way we do it.

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

The standard recommended blow out technique is to open only one faucet at a time, so that air is blowing only through one line at a time and the rest are pressurized. That give maximum air flow in the open line, and that's what you want to move any residual water out. This is especially important if the compressor is small, i.e. has a low air volume (cfm). A compressor can have a high pressure rating but still be very low in air volume (cfm).

 

[Mopar1973Man]

Gary is right...

I typically start from the lowest point and work my way up to the highest point blowing out the lines. This way I get 90% of the water out in the first 2 valves I open. Then the rest goes by rather quickly. But its best like Gary said to let it build up pressure and and blow 1 valve at a time and allow it to build back up. The whole idea is to have the lines dry and empty of all moisture/water.

(Thumbs up for Gary!)

 

[jje1960]

Just the way we do it

 

[ditchdigger62]

Using the blow-out method, will a tire inflator air compressor work?  I've got a small tire inflator that runs on 12V.  Would that be suitable or do I need to buy a better air compressor?  If possible, I'd prefer not to spend $100 on something I'll just use for one thing only.  Thanks.

 

[pricejh]

Using the blow-out method, will a tire inflator air compressor work?  I've got a small tire inflator that runs on 12V.  Would that be suitable or do I need to buy a better air compressor?  If possible, I'd prefer not to spend $100 on something I'll just use for one thing only.  Thanks.

I should immagine that a little tire inflator would not have sufficent volume to dry the lines.  The can build up plenty of pressure, but don't have the volume capacity.  They take forever to inflate a flat tire.  Can't immagine how long it would take to dry out a wet water line. 
 

 

[Mopar1973Man]

I should immagine that a little tire inflator would not have sufficent volume to dry the lines.  The can build up plenty of pressure, but don't have the volume capacity.  They take forever to inflate a flat tire.  Can't immagine how long it would take to dry out a wet water line. 

That was my thought too... Even my 25 gallon up-right compressor is just barely enough to blow the lines out but I got to wait for the tank to fill back up each time...  :

 

[jje1960]

That was my thought too... Even my 25 gallon up-right compressor is just barely enough to blow the lines out but I got to wait for the tank to fill back up each time...  :

25 gallon unit is just barely enough????  Never had any trouble with smaller unit doing the purge job.  Again, letting the unit run 20 mins or so has always purged the moisture out of our TT's and the much larger 5Ver system we have now, would not want to scare off others from using this method.  Agree, the 12v tire inflation units would be hopelessly slight on the volume to accomplish this task though.

 

[Mopar1973Man]

My little 25 gallon has a slow compressor (small cfm) so when I blow out the cold side I got to let it build back up again waiting about 10 minutes. Then I can blow out the hot side. I keep the air going long enough that I don't feel any mist or water coming from the faucet/drain... So the first few second really does a great job but the pressure fails fast and just takes awhile for my little 1 cylinder compressor to build up again.  :