De-winterize & Sanitize order of operations....??

[SomersIsles]

I've been reading a ton here, checking youtube, and reading the owner's manual, and now I'm getting myself confused.... as I prepare my trailer for the summer, how should it go?

In the winter my husband blew out the lines using an air compressor and then he poured antifreeze into the various drains throughout the camper (maybe 2 jugs total?). A friend of mind suggested we actually fill the lines with antifreeze, but because we blew out all the air we assumed we didn't have to. So as far as i know, we only have antifreeze sitting in the pipes that lead to either the black or the gray tank.

I would assume to get the camper ready for the summer, I would simply hook up to the city water and turn on the faucets until things started to flow again? Then when we make our trip to the dump station everything (black & gray water + antifreeze) would drain out?

But what if I want to sanitize? I heard I can do that in my driveway... but I'm under the impression you have to fill the water tank with water then drain it out again...

Wouldn't that also involve running the bleach solution through the faucets? I would then assume I'd have to dump the gray/black to clear it all out? I certainly can't do that in the driveway.

What's the process?

Thanks!

[dmward]

You can do most of this from your driveway, except dumping the black tank (!)

Your gray tank should be all dumped from the previous season and will only really contain antifreeze and a lot of fresh water that contains a tiny bit of bleach. The black tank is still, well, the black tank. Best leave that one closed until the dump station.

Of course, if your neighbors are the kind that will look at you like you're crazy then maybe you wouldn't be comfortable doing that.

All harmless though.

[TWP723]

Yes, just hook up the city connection and you should be golden. Just drain the tanks at the station. In my opinion, there's no need to run anti-freeze through the lines if you blow them out with a compressor. There's not enough water, if any, to freeze and expand. Just hook up your water and enjoy yourself!!


P.S. Be sure to check the valves to make sure they're in order.

[SomersIsles]

Here's a follow up, possibly silly question...

In order to sanitize, from the videos I've seen, I know I need to fill my fresh water tank. When you hook up the trailer to the City Water connection... does that somehow circumvent the water tank? or will attaching my garden hose to the city water connection allow me to fill the tank?

My thought is, I would use that method to fill the tank... then disconnect the hose.... then turn on the water pump to get the water flowing through the faucets before I let the bleach sit.

Of course, as I say this, I'm now wondering how I'll get the bleach in... lol.

[TWP723]

There should be a fresh water tank fill bib on the trailer.

[rkresge]

Originally Posted by SomersIsles

I would assume to get the camper ready for the summer, I would simply hook up to the city water and turn on the faucets until things started to flow again? Then when we make our trip to the dump station everything (black & gray water + antifreeze) would drain out?

But what if I want to sanitize? I heard I can do that in my driveway... but I'm under the impression you have to fill the water tank with water then drain it out again...

Wouldn't that also involve running the bleach solution through the faucets? I would then assume I'd have to dump the gray/black to clear it all out? I certainly can't do that in the driveway.

Just did it yesterday, in my driveway!! It's no problem, and you're not going to dump your black tank, are you? RV antifreeze is non-toxic, and the bleach solution is going to be so diluted that you'll never know it's there. Yes, you'll run *some* water into the black tank, but not enough to worry about until you get to a campground sewer hookup or dump station.

Follow the general instructions in the manual. You'll fill your fresh water tank at least twice, but be aware that your grey water tank may have much less capacity than your fresh water tank (mine is 42 gal FW, 22.5 gal grey). Not a big deal to just leave your grey water tank valve open for the process. Oh, FYI you should be able to just stick your fresh water hose into the FW tank inlet to fill it - the inlet is not threaded. If you don't have one yet, a funnel isn't a bad idea for getting your bleach solution into the FW tank.

BTW, don't forget your outside shower if you have one.

Since our TT is brand new, I figured it would give me my first chance to check/test the pump, tank sensors, and the general plumbing system. Yay, everything works.

Good luck!

Roger

[rkresge]

Originally Posted by SomersIsles

In order to sanitize, from the videos I've seen, I know I need to fill my fresh water tank. When you hook up the trailer to the City Water connection... does that somehow circumvent the water tank? or will attaching my garden hose to the city water connection allow me to fill the tank?

My thought is, I would use that method to fill the tank... then disconnect the hose.... then turn on the water pump to get the water flowing through the faucets before I let the bleach sit.

Of course, as I say this, I'm now wondering how I'll get the bleach in... lol.

Your fresh water tank does not fill from the city water inlet, but you WILL find that you can just stick the business end of your fresh water hose into the potable water inlet - it'll work fine.

As for getting the bleach solution in the FW tank, I just use a big funnel I got at an auto parts store.

Per the instructions, leave your hot water heater on bypass for this process. I wait to un-bypass until after I've finished the sanitizing process and have hooked up to the city water inlet.

At the end of the process I always drain the water system completely so it's empty when I travel next week.

Roger

[rkresge]

Originally Posted by dmward

Of course, if your neighbors are the kind that will look at you like you're crazy then maybe you wouldn't be comfortable doing that.

Luckily, most of my neighbors wouldn't have a clue what I'm doing with all that water. And I'm not using the sewer hose for the process, so they're not going to suddenly associate me with movies like RV or Christmas Vacation. LOL

Roger

[SomersIsles]

Thanks everyone for the input!

So it seems like I don't even really need to worry about the antifreeze until I'm in the midst of the sanitizing? I just fill the fresh water tank, add bleach, turn on the water pump and get all the lines flowing a bit..... let it sit.... then drain. And during that draining process any of the antifreeze will dump out as well (minus the black water tank of course which will be kept closed til we go camping). Then just repeat to rinse out the bleach.

That's definitely do-able!

Here's some water pump questions.... (because I've never used it)

1) You never use the water pump when you're on the city connection, right?
2) When I fill my fresh water (via NON-city connection)... do I turn on the pump... and wait a bit before running the faucet? Or does that not matter?
3) Does the water pump impact the way you drain the fresh water tank afterwards? Or do you just shut it off and pull the low point drain plug?

Sorry for so many questions! There's so much to learn!!

[dmward]

Originally Posted by SomersIsles

Thanks everyone for the input!



Here's some water pump questions.... (because I've never used it)



1) You never use the water pump when you're on the city connection, right?

2) When I fill my fresh water (via NON-city connection)... do I turn on the pump... and wait a bit before running the faucet? Or does that not matter?

3) Does the water pump impact the way you drain the fresh water tank afterwards? Or do you just shut it off and pull the low point drain plug?



Sorry for so many questions! There's so much to learn!!

You don't want to run the pump without water in the fresh tank. Turn it off when connected to city.

If you're draining the fresh tank then you should have pump off.

[rkresge]

Originally Posted by SomersIsles

Thanks everyone for the input!

So it seems like I don't even really need to worry about the antifreeze until I'm in the midst of the sanitizing? I just fill the fresh water tank, add bleach, turn on the water pump and get all the lines flowing a bit..... let it sit.... then drain. And during that draining process any of the antifreeze will dump out as well (minus the black water tank of course which will be kept closed til we go camping). Then just repeat to rinse out the bleach.

That's definitely do-able!

Here's some water pump questions.... (because I've never used it)

1) You never use the water pump when you're on the city connection, right?
2) When I fill my fresh water (via NON-city connection)... do I turn on the pump... and wait a bit before running the faucet? Or does that not matter?
3) Does the water pump impact the way you drain the fresh water tank afterwards? Or do you just shut it off and pull the low point drain plug?

Sorry for so many questions! There's so much to learn!!

Not to worry about the antifreeze, you'll just push it out of the system. Run PLENTY of water from each fixture (kitchen, vanity, shower/bath, toilet) until you empty the FW tank. Trust me, you'll know when the tank is about empty. Then you fill the FW tank and do it all again to rinse the bleach out of the system.

Here's where I use the low point drains to empty the system.

THEN you hook up the hose to the city water inlet and run more water through.

Disconnect the water and drain the system again.

Re: Your pump questions.

1. Correct. The pump only pulls water from the FW tank, and does nothing when you're hooked up to city water pressure.
2. Don't think it matters. Even after the pump is turned on it probably won't do anything until you open a faucet.
3. Correct. Just turn the pump off and open the low point drains, in that order.

Hope this helps. It only seems intimidating. Once you get through it you'll wonder why you worried.


Roger

[Flapper]

One complexity, that kind of depends on how thorough you want to be....

The water heater has it's own mini-tank, usually about 6 gallons. For winterizing, there are "by-pass" valves to shut it off from the rest of the water system. And then it's drain plug is removed and it is drained.

Previous posters have advised leaving the heater bypassed until after you have sanitized/flushed. If you don't, the bleach water fills the heater, and then normal flushing via the faucets takes forever and lots of water to get it all out again.

But, the heater tank is a nice warm place for things to grow - especially the bacteria that can cause the dreaded "sulphur smell" (although other things besides bacteria can cause that, too!).

So you have a choice:
1) Since the heater tank was pretty empty anyway, leave it bypassed, until after sanitization. Will likely be fine.
2) Or if you want to be really sure, open the by-passes before sanitizing. But after an initial first round of flushing (to get the bleach water out of the supply pipes going to the heater), remove the heater plug and drain it. Put the plug back in, and continue flushing. That will take out most of the 6 gal of bleach water in the heater, speeding up the flushing of the whole system.

The bad side of #2? A bit more work, and on some trailers, the plastic heater plug can be hard to remove and put back.

I've found for me, that I then also have to drain the heater anytime the trailer sits for a few weeks between trips, or I have a high probability of getting the "sulphur smell" problem occurring.....but many others do not have that kind of an issue.

[charles_cincy]

Originally Posted by rkresge

Run PLENTY of water from each fixture (kitchen, vanity, shower/bath, toilet) until you empty the FW tank.

There's no point in running the water till you empty the FW tank.

Run the water till you can smell chlorine at the fixtures. Then stop and let everything sit. Having the lines & FW tank sit with a bleach solution in them is what does the actual sanitizing.

Now drain the FW tank, & water lines. Refill the FW tank with fresh water and run the water at the fixtures till you don't smell chlorine.

Drain tank & lines again and your good to go.

The amount of water in the grey and black tanks is minimal.

NOTE, the TT manual may say mix up 1/4 cup of bleach solution in a gallon of water for each 15 gal of FW tank to get a 50ppm solution for sanitizing.

BUT THAT MAY BE WAY TO MUCH with today's concentrated bleaches check the label of the bleach you're using and calculate how much you actually need for a 50ppm solution.

[ctbailey]

Cups of Bleach Required = (Target Concentration in ppm)*(RV Tank Size)*(16 cups per gallon)/((Bleach Concentration)*(1000000))

So... if you are using 8.1% bleach, and have an 80 Gallon FW tank, and shooting for 50 ppm:

((50ppm)*(80 Gal)*(16 Cup/gal))/((.081)*(1000000ppm)) = .79 cups

Now, sanitizing with sodium hypochlorite is also a function of time and temperature.

The hotter it is, the quicker it will work.

Sunlight breaks down sodium hypochlorite, so use a fresh bottle.

Sodium Hypochlorite is hygroscopic, which means it sucks water out of the air... so use a fresh bottle.

Pool Shock is NOT ALWAYS sodium Hypochlorite - it usually includes other types of oxidizers. DO NOT USE POOL SHOCK, even though the bottle says "12% available chlorine.) You're better off sticking to clean bleach - obviously without any fragrances.

This is dangerous stuff. If you are at all uneasy about reading, or basic chemistry, call a professional.