Would You Re-Winterize?

[Da Bud Man]

So we have had an extremely mild winter in central ky. With that being said, we de-winterized last weekend thinking the worst was past, and it is for the most part.

But this weekend they are forecasting mid to low 20's at night, and mid to upper 30's during the day for about a 3-4 day stretch. I have about 70gal of water in the fresh tank as well.

My question is would you re-winterize? I keep telling myself it's cheap insurance for 20 minutes of my time and less than $10 in antifreeze. I could also set the heat on 55 and let it do it's thing, but the camper is 20 minutes away on our seasonal site and I dont feel comfortable with the heat running and us not there.

Thoughts?

[Robbbyr]

I might be tempted to just empty the tanks and blow out all the lines with air if the cold snap is predicted to be short. Don't forget to shut off and drain (when cool) the hot water heater if a tank unit. If you have a tankless HWH you would have to blow it out too.

[sennister]

If it were me I would put the RV Antifreeze back in. As you said cheap insurance.

I am kind of debating on what to do along these same lines. We have our PDI coming up and I am a bit further north of you in MN. I am not comfortable with opening the camper this early but yet want to test the water heater and all the points of use. I guess I can add the winterization process to the PDI and have them walk me through it then I don't have to worry about it.

[oldmanAZ]

Would You Re-Winterize?

I re-winterized, in a similar situation earlier this year. As you said, it's cheap insurance for 20 minutes of work.

[Mdiwade]

We re-winterized in Montana, but then they were predicting -15 for tonight. It looks like the low now is 0. We still feel better having it done. Time and 2 gallons of antifreeze is cheap.

[Da Bud Man]

Originally Posted by Robbbyr

I might be tempted to just empty the tanks and blow out all the lines with air if the cold snap is predicted to be short. Don't forget to shut off and drain (when cool) the hot water heater if a tank unit. If you have a tankless HWH you would have to blow it out too.

Good idea, but if I'm going to go through the hassle of dragging the air compressor down there, I might as well just drag 3 gal of antifreeze.

[Da Bud Man]

Thanks for the quick replies! You've just confirmed my thoughts. I guess I will throw the anti freeze back to it.

What about the 70 gal of water in fresh tank? You think I could leave that without dumping it? Underbelly is totally enclosed.

[oldmanAZ]

Originally Posted by Da Bud Man

snip...
What about the 70 gal of water in fresh tank? You think I could leave that without dumping it? Underbelly is totally enclosed.

Freezing water expands, so it needs room if it does freeze; so you don't want a full tank 'just in case'. So drain 1/2 the tank? How would you know? Then, again, how much does 35gal of water cost?

I drained my 90gal FW and slept better.

[Mbranscum]

Takes 15 minutes. Yes I would do it.


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[bansai]

Winter was a non-event here in Denver as well. I think maybe 2 storms that made me drag out the snowblower.

I'm 'de-winterizing' this weekend here at the house and getting the camper ready for action. My 'spring' season approach is just to use air to blow out the lines, drain the water heater tank and dump a minimal amount of antifreeze into the drains. It takes about 10 minutes with my wife helping out... 15 minutes solo. We sometimes have to do this 4 or 5 times before the risk of hard freezes goes away.

I never leave water in my FW tank.. I'm not sure why someone would unless they are actively 'camping'.

[Marine1]

I would winterize, we have two storm coming thru Massachusetts one tomorrow and a big nor easter on Tue... My Eagle 324bhts is still waiting in the back yard to make it to the driveway. The weather is got to break soon.

[Cdash]

YES!

We were coming back from Flordia in January when that storm hit the southeast. With low temps in the low 20's, I planned on winterizing on the road after we slept for the night on the way back, figuring the "heated underbelly" would keep us ok.

My drain valves were froze shut (inoperable), and the drain line from the water tank was just about frozen solid, just a trickle.

Not sure if I have damage, figured I'd deal with that in the spring.

So yes, re-winterize it.

[spoon059]

Cheaper to re-winterize than to run the heater. I spent about $6 buying antifreeze to re-do our camper when we got back from Florida last week. Forecast initially said one night was going to be cold... turned into the whole weekend. Its warm now, supposed to drop below freezing tomorrow night through at least Tuesday. $6 in antifreeze is a bargain compared to burning propane or chasing a split water line.

Be safe, not stupid.

[Jagiven]

We too are in the Twin Cities! It has been a very mild winter here too, we are talking about pulling our htt out of winter storage in a couple weeks. I am sure our lows will be around 20 or a bit less at times. So, depending on the conditions, my plan is to de-winterize/sanitize the system, then blow out the waterlines after each trip. If a real cold snap comes, I can winterize as I have a couple gallons of RV antifreeze in the garage, just in-case one last arctic cold blast comes though.

[Da Bud Man]

Went ahead and filled her back with anti freeze and dumped the FW tank. Wal-Mart has antifreeze on sale for $2, so picked up 9 gal, lol....Can re-winterize 2 more times if needed!

Thanks all for confirming my initial thoughts, just hated to do it!

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[Kim Gass]

We are doing it tomorrow. We are in N VA and will be going home to Maine where the high on Sat will be 0.

Not a big deal.

We are having a winter in Maine for sure. More snow to come. We are quite glad we had left with the camper when the 75 inches in three days came.

[Larry G.]

Originally Posted by Da Bud Man

Went ahead and filled her back with anti freeze and dumped the FW tank. Wal-Mart has antifreeze on sale for $2, so picked up 9 gal, lol....Can re-winterize 2 more times if needed!

Thanks all for confirming my initial thoughts, just hated to do it!

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That a boy....common sense prevails again.

[glsimms]

Did a partial re-winterize. By that I mean we blew out the lines, emptied the FW tank, drained the HW tank, and poured anti-freeze down the sink P traps and toilet.