Winterizing

[Redskins75]

I have a 1998 pace arrow vision. I am attempting to winterize it by myself for the 1st time.  I put 6 gallons of any freeze in the freshwater tank, I turned on the water pump and opened the kitchen faucet and know antifreeze came out.  I left the pump running for several minutes but there were no results , any suggestions

 

[Rene T]

Welcome to the forum.

You should have come to us before you started. You never should have put the antifreeze in the fresh water tank. You may now have an issue with getting the taste of antifreeze taste out of the tank.

Did you mean there NO antifreeze came out? 

Did the pump work before you started to winterize?

Are you also trying to fill your water heater tank? This could take anywhere from 6 to 10 gallons depending on what size heater you have. You should not try and fill the water heater. You should have valves to bypass it and not using all that antifreeze.  Also you'd have a antifreeze taste in your hot water.

When hooked up to shore power, are you able to fill your fresh water tank just by opening a valve?  If you do have that option, make sure that valve is shut. If it's open, you're just circulating antifreeze back to the tank.

 

[Redskins75]

First of all. Thank you for welcoming me.  I have moved the water heater to bypass, and the bypass for water fills, is in the proper position.  Everything that I have read, stated that the fresh water tank could be used, but I dont want to put more antifreeze in,  because I feel that 6 gallons should be adequate.?.?. I ran the water pump for 10 minutes with negative results. Should I run it longer?

 

[Redskins75]

Yes, no antifreeze is coming out and yes it worked properly two weeks ago

 

[Rene T]

6 gallons may be not enough. The outlet pipe for the tank may not be directly on the bottom and you may have had just enough in there to fill some of the lines but not enough to reach a faucet.

 

[Redskins75]

I will try an additional 2 gallons, unless advised otherwise.  Thanks for your time, greatly appreciated!

 

[Rene T]

I will try an additional 2 gallons, unless advised otherwise.  Thanks for your time, greatly appreciated!

Wait till others give their opinions before you add anymore.

 

[Redskins75]

Ok, thank-you again

 

[SpencerPJ]

Did you let the tank drain first, and ran the pump dry, then filled with antifreeze?  If yes, you might need to prime the pump.  Ya gotta get it started, and one way, is to close all the facets, turn pump on, open cold on kitchen, and give it a suck.  Just enough to draw antifreeze to the pump, you'll hear a shift in the sound, and antifreeze will be on the way.  (Oh the old days and siphoning gas for the dirtbike....  )

 

[Rene T]

There's a kit you can buy and gets installed on the suction side of the pump. It allows you to suck the antifreeze right out of the gallon jug. No need to put antifreeze in your fresh water tank. Typically what I've heard is that you'd only have to use less than 2 gallons of antifreeze to winterize. 

https://www.amazon.com/Camco-Permanent-Converter-Winterizing-Antifreeze/dp/B0006JJ588

Another thing you could do is pull the drain plug from your water heater tank just to verify that the bypass valves are indeed positioned correctly and that the tank is empty.

 

[HappyWanderer1]

6 gallons may be not enough. The outlet pipe for the tank may not be directly on the bottom and you may have had just enough in there to fill some of the lines but not enough to reach a faucet.

I was thinking the same thing. I know that there is still water in my tank after the pump stops drafting, as quite a bit will drain via the low point drain.

 

[John From Detroit]

Six gallond is just enough to fill the water heater.

As someone said. Should have started here. I do not recommend using PINK in the fresh water. Just drains and traps. Fill fresh lines with AIR  Procedure outlined in forum files.

But basically you bypass and drain water heater.  Open every valve and BLOW (My compressor is 6 gallons and I set the regulator to 50 PSI and blew till the output pressure dropped to about 25, then shut off air and let it re-fill) cleared the ice maker lines (I won't go into how here) and wate pump strainer and lines (Open strainer. let it drain onto a towel (only holds like a quarter to 1/2 cup) run pump to clear it's outlet line) then blow again, and again, and again, till I no longer get any water out.

There may be a few drops left but they won't cause damage if they freeze (not enough or inside PEX which survives freezing).  If the air ever freezes.  I won't be worried about The RV.