Unwinterizing: water

[Rapidly]

Had my popup (2011 Jayco 1007) winterized at the dealer last fall and would like to try to save money by clearing out the antifreeze myself. The manual is very confusing and the water system it shows bears little relation to what's actually in my camper. Is it OK if I just turn on the hot and cold taps and let them run til no longer pink, and not have to mess with drains, low points, bypass valves etc.? Or would that miss something critical.

[stateboy]

I had a 2010 Jayco 1007. You did not mention if you use the bypass so as to not include antifreeze in the water heater. You also did not mention whether you were looking to run water from the fresh water tank on board or through the city water connection on the back side of the camper to flush the antifreeze. I would recommend opening up the low point drain on the camper as well as running water from the city connection and the freshwater tank to make sure you clear all of it.

[RogerR]

Do you have a water heater? If so, you have to route water through it to rinse it out.

Before you do anything else put a few gallons in the water tank, drain it through the low point drain outside.

Put some more water in and pump it through everything. Sink, toilet, shower, inside and out till all the red is gone.

If you have a water heater you will need to find the bypass valves and fill it with water and then let it run till rinsed out clean.

If you have outside water connector (where you hook a garden hose to the side to give pressure) connect it up and rinse everything again.

If you want then you can add some Clorox to the water tank, pump it through the system to sanitize it. Lots of info in past posts.

Check everywhere for leaks. Check the drain valve in the water heater.

[bankr63]

The 1007 is pretty easy to dewinterize, as everything you need is really close together. The valves and low point drains are all situated right with the pump, just to the right of the sink cabinet, under the front dinette bench. You will also need access to the water heater valves, those are located under the bench to the left of the sink cabinet, but you may have to pry up on the lid; ours was originally screwed shut, and didn't have a pull hole drilled.

RogerR's process is fine, but a couple of additional points.

• Check to make sure the winterize valve (to the open ended tube) is fully closed (mine was open a smidge one year and took a while to figure out I was sucking air into the system)
• Open the valve to the FW tank (the hose goes down into the floor) to ensure you can draw in fresh water from the tank. It is probably still closed after winterizing. Also make sure that the particulate filter just before the tank is clean and the cap is on tight.
• Check the plug on the water heater and the relief valve to be sure they are closed. If the plug is out, you might want to use a HWT wand to clean out the tank first.
• I put a bucket under the low point drains, and open the sink drain cap on the outside of the camper with a short length of hose into the same bucket.
• Pop the low drains and open the faucet and/or outside shower to gravity drain back the antifreeze. Close again.
• Hook up a hose to the city water supply, and turn on low pressure (or use a regulator).
• Open the low point drains, and the faucet and shower again until the rest of the pink pumps out. Let it run for a bit to be sure all is gone.
• Open the hot tank bypass to fill the tank with fresh water. Pull the relief valve cam up until water spurts from the valve (tank is full).
• Now you might want to sanitize your system with bleach as mentioned. This uses the water tank, and will also prime the pump for the year. Let it sit 4 hours, then dump and thoroughly rinse again. Lots of instructions on this here.
• Finally, remove the bypass hose and reinstall the water filter (behind the sink in the flip cabinet). I put a new one in every two years, but we don't use much water indoors, should usually be replaced annually. If using a fresh cartridge, run water through it first from the hose to flush out any carbon.

Sounds like a lot, but in reality it is about 30-45 minutes (not including wait times for sanitizing) once you know your way around. I just finished mine on Sunday afternoon, along with all of my other preseason trailer maintenance and stock up.

Now you are dewinterized, sanitized, and ready for another great camping season.

[norty1]

Learning how to winterize and de-winterize can save you a ton of $$$$ over the life of a rig.

[Rapidly]

Wow what a pain in the butt. But I really appreciate the info, thanks much!