Winterizing the Fresh Water Tank

[Chrisc40]

Originally Posted by Trappfarmer

I don't know where the bypass is for the water heater on my Berkshire XL 40E.

Not familiar with your RV but it should be easy to find. Generally if you look for panels that have screws to remove the panel and close to where the outside access to the heater is located you're going to find it. There are 3 ball valves near each other that allows you to bypass the heater.

[pmsherman]

When I winterize my 2011 Georgetown, I mostly use compressed air to clear out the water lines. Since I don't use antifreeze, there's a couple of other things I do.
1. The shower hose is disconnected and its faucets are left open. A few drops of water left in the plastic faucet assembly can fracture it when they freeze. I'm glad this happened to me because, while replacing it, I discovered the water leak the dealer and I had been looking for and unable to locate for five years.


2. The feed line for the motion detect faucet I installed in the bathroom gets disconnected. This feed line has a non-standard fitting at the faucet end and cannot be replaced. A drop of water here will separate the internal compression fitting that holds the hose in place.



The low point drain for the fresh water tank is located around an inch above the bottom of the tank. It's actually higher than the water pump feed line. I use the leveling system to tilt the rig towards the drain side which leaves a lot less water in the tank.


The only part of the fresh water system that gets antifreeze is the water pump and its intake manifold. Antifreeze is fed in through the winterizing feed, part of the intake manifold. The filter housing is removed, the threads dried with a paper towel, then reseated with less than one turn of thread engaged.



I made an air adapter out of a plastic hose cap that lets me attach the compressor hose directly to the intake ports of the fresh water system. With this airtight connection, blowing out the water lines takes only a few minutes. I use an old Sears tankless compressor that has a pressure regulator built into the hose with the pressure set to 40psi.



Phil

[DennisSimon]

I discovered something about the filter in my fridge that deserves sharing. The filter removes the pink coloring from the antifreeze. First winter I wasted nearly a gallon flowing through the water dispenser on the household fridge. It took me a few minutes and a taste of the clear liquid to realize what was happening. The anifreezw, while potable tastes very bitter.

[Thearcher01]

Originally Posted by kentdavido

We emptied all the low drains, then the hot water tanks, then re-installed the anode rods, blew air at 40psi through all the faucets/toilet devices, refrigerator water/ice/filter, outside shower, blew air through the water pump, poured anti-freeze into the p-traps, gray/black tanks and into the toilet bowl, removed the anode rods and tonight took the plug off the fresh tank drain. There is no water remaining .....I think.

Since you store inside maybe nothing to worry but if you don't pump rv antifreeze through the lines and out the faucets, I have seen times when residual moisture in the lines settles into sags and burst pipes no matter how much air was blown through them.

[herkyfe]

My friend, if it is drained you will be fine. I live in Canada and never have had any issues nor have I ever put antifreeze into the fresh water tank. If it drained fully and you left the drain open for a few days, it should be considered as dried out. The few drops of water won't harm anything. The only thing that you need to 100% about, did you run the pump dry before blowing out your lines? Important or you'll freeze the pump and it will be damaged.

[MNtraveler]

Originally Posted by kentdavido

First time, water in the water pump, froze and cracked. Second time, anti-freeze in the back water heater. They replaced everything but we still had to mess around with it. I thought surely this is not that difficult and I have to admit we spent about an hour and a half walking through all these details yesterday. But, I feel it’s totally complete and good.

The reason the water pump froze is because they pumped in antifreeze through the city water inlet directly to the water lines and did not use the pump with its winterization mode. Rookie mistake, shouldn't happen at a dealership.

The reason they put anti-freeze into the water heater is because the person who did it really didn't know what they were doing!

[Jan Gerstner.]

"the dealership and two consecutive times they screwed it up"
Par for the course.
The fresh water tank is no big deal so long as you have a drain for it. We do, in our 2014 Class C Forester. I make sure the RV is level and open it, watching until the last drop drops. That's all you really need. Don't put antifreeze in the tank. You can, but you'll do considerable flushing to get it out and return to good-tasting water.

[Daryl123]

All previous information is good but you must also drain the hot water heater as well or it will be damaged. When cool and after draining pressure at the taps, remove the anode . You may have a drain, I don't. NOW you should be OK.��

[pojp58]

All the above.
I might have missed it but I didn't see anything that said to step on the toilet flush valve while putting air through the system.
If you don't do this the water in the flush valve will freeze and cause a leak next time you use it.

[Jan Gerstner.]

Daryl123 and pojp58 are correct. We do that and I recommend you do, too.

[colretired]

Several things to think about if you are not using the on board DC pump to push RV antifreeze through the system besides the water lines and p traps. Outside shower, control valve back of toilet if it has one, toilet lines, water pump, water filter, hot water heater, sink sprayer and the refrigerator if it has a water dispenser or ice maker. You have to be sure the air is pushed through all of these or the antifreeze which is my preference because I know when I see the antifreeze at all of these points I am good. If you have a conventional refrigerator in yours like I do with the water dispenser and ice maker you will need a by-pass filter so as to not ruin a $50 filter that is still good. The only way to clear the ice maker at its valve and the feed line to it is to have it go through a cycle and make pink ice. In the spring it takes a bit of time to clear the antifreeze out of the refrigerator system. Lot of this is mentioned by other folks.

[Lee Pedrick]

I did pour a gallon of anti freeze in my 46 gal fresh water tank, then went and opened the drain till pink. I feel better knowing its protected. It would take nothing to flush it out in the spring. I've heard of them cracking and freezing before and if your belly(I have a TT) is enclosed, that whole tank has to come out. 3 bucks VS 300 bucks. I didn't do it last year and worried about it all winter.

[Lee Pedrick]

One other thing in winterizing.....Once you have all the anti freeze in your system with the pump pressurized, go to your city water connection and stick a device in there and push down on that check valve until you see pink. Just for a second or two. There will be back pressure there so it will splash out some. Stand to the side!!LOL! They have been known to freeze as told in this forum.

[NHHorseman]

You have received excellent advice. If you drained the tank, it should be fine. Here is one thing that might serve as a hint, however. After pumping anti-freeze through your lines, you can either open the low point drains and drain some or leave it alone all winter. I assume you pumped in anti-freeze using the water pump so here is the hint. When you de-winterize, prepare a solution of water with chlorine and pump that through your system until anti-freeze no longer comes out of your faucets. Then use fresh water to clean out the chlorinated water. This will sanitize your water system in the spring.