winterizing

[canuck1]

Is it most common to leave the water system filled with antifreeze over the winter or drained? Manual says to drain, but in my boats and previous truck campers have always left the antifreeze in system over the winter. Have I been doing it wrong.

 

[sundancer330]

As long as you run antifreeze through the system there is no right or wrong as to drain or leave full, safe either way. On my boat I blow out all the water lines with air but the engine blocks I pump full of antifreeze to keep internal passages from rusting.

 

[DMRGMC]

I always blow the water out first and then use antifreeze leaving it in place until spring. The North Point directions are a little different and there are a few more thing to consider than my Eagle had. It says to turn certain valves to 45* for a few seconds so I followed that as close as possible. In my case it payed to read the manual.

 

[Grumpydad]

Lots of people leave it in. Some let it drain via gravity, some blow it out.

There's no advantage to leaving it in, aside from skipping the step of getting it out.

 

[Stateboy]

Here is a recent and ongoing thread on the topic...

https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink?ur...share_tid=61776&share_fid=104018&share_type=t

 

[Rice1951]

The recommended methods of winterizing the water system are to either use compressed air to blow the water out or to pump pink marine antifreeze throughout the system or a combination of the two. The one advantage of using the antifreeze is you can physically see it (assuming you aren’t color blind) coming out of the faucet. This provides a comfort level that the compressed air method does not. If you pump pink in on one end and see pink coming out on the other end you can be 100% sure that the entire water line is pink and will be freezeproof to the temperature rating of the antifreeze. If you blow compressed air in on one end and see water come out the other end and feel air moving out the faucet you can be pretty sure you got it all. But maybe not quite 100% because you can’t differentiate the color of air. You need to be careful not to use too high a psi so you don’t damage the water lines or connections and make sure the air you feel coming out isn’t an air bubble. In the Spring you just reverse the method by pumping water in until it runs clear at each water discharge point. If you have an ice maker or a washing machine it is a little trickier and you are better off following the manufacturers instructions. Both methods work. Just use the system that you are comfortable with.

 

[beachvic]

This will be the first time I try blowing out the lines before I put in the antifreeze. In my old motorhome I had to replace two toilets foot valves because of winter freeze. I can't agree that if you see pink you can be 100% sure you got all the water out! Somehow in my particular foot valve some water remained and froze and cracked the valve. I am 110% sure that I got plenty of antifreeze thru the line into the toilet yet I had to replace the valve. New motorhome -two toilets to worry about so I am going to try blowing the lines first, then run antifreeze into the system then re-open the low point drains operate the toilets to let those lines drain and the sinks and shower as well as the clothes washer hook ups.

 

[Chet & Marie]

Blow lines, fill with antifreeze. Even at -25 here on the frozen tundra have never had a problem when doing them both.

 

[Rice1951]

This will be the first time I try blowing out the lines before I put in the antifreeze. In my old motorhome I had to replace two toilets foot valves because of winter freeze. I can't agree that if you see pink you can be 100% sure you got all the water out! Somehow in my particular foot valve some water remained and froze and cracked the valve. I am 110% sure that I got plenty of antifreeze thru the line into the toilet yet I had to replace the valve. New motorhome -two toilets to worry about so I am going to try blowing the lines first, then run antifreeze into the system then re-open the low point drains operate the toilets to let those lines drain and the sinks and shower as well as the clothes washer hook ups.

That’s unfortunate that you had an issue with winterizing a previous RV. Somehow it would appear that there was an issue with the toilet, foot valve, plumbing or some combination of the three since you did not have any problems with the water system throughout the rest of the MH. I guess my previous post reflected my experience of winterizing several TT’s and MH’s over the past 30+ years using the antifreeze method without any adverse results. I certainly didn’t mean to imply that using compressed air is not an acceptable method because as you can see there are lots of folks throughout the RVing community who do it with great success. I’m just an old fogie who has found something that works so I’ll stick with it just a little longer. Good luck to you in winterizing your new coach and I’m sure you will be smiling when you use it for the first time next Spring.

 

[jimp-JAY]

You could try removing the valves as part of your winter prep work and leave them out over the winter. I had a Class C and lost a toilet valve over the winter as well but I used the air method, thought I had it all out as well. I would try pumping AF in and leaving it in, that's my plan for our new TT this year and going forward. While not terribly expensive, it is a pita for it to happen.

 

[beachvic]

jimp - If I had kept my old motorhome I had planned to do just that! after winterizing I was going to disconnect the water line from the valve!!
Rice1951 - I get it - and I agree what ever works keep doing. It was really frustrating having 2 toilet valves bust over a 10 yr period of winterizing that motorhome. I just hope not to have anymore issues with these toilets - and now I got 2 to worry about!! lucky me.

 

[wabirch]

Frost this am makes me glad I did mine after work yesterday. Must not have tightened outside shower cold well last year, that had clear water in the line, hot was still pink.

 

[silverbuzz]

Winterize with just antifreeze

I will be winterizing my Jayco 23B for the first time and have seen that a combo of blowing out the lines and adding antifreeze to the lines seems to be the way most do it.
My previous experience has been to just empty the water heater, close the valve to it and pump antifreeze through all the lines until I see pink antifreeze. This was the procedure I used on my pop up. I did store it in a unheated garage and it seemed to work okay.
I was going to do the same thing to my 23B . I am in upstate NY, winter wise not too bad.
So my 23B will be stored outside this year. Should I follow the same procedure?
I’m thinking I will be okay.

 

[DocBrown-JAY]

I always do both. I've had two issues. Once was when I failed to open the valve that feeds the hot water tank to let some of the anti-freeze through. The next spring the valve was cracked. This experience told me that simply blowing out the lines may not be sufficient.

The second time was with the X20E. I wasn't used to having the outside shower so the first winter I missed it entirely. In spring I had to by a new facet assembly. Cheap and easy, but it could have been avoided.

Lessons learned, be thorough.