Winterizing Solera

Originally Posted by 2012WhiteSolera

The purpose of the bypass valving is to seperate the water flows from entering the tank itself during the winterization steps. If you go the non antifreeze route, I would think you would want to set the valves in bypass position, to push air from all the pex lines. Making sure you seperately drain the HW, tank by removal of the anode plug.

I'm not sure I follow the logic here. Wouldn't blowing out the lines with compressed air clear both the WH input and output lines by blowing the residual water into the WH tank? In the bypass position, whatever lines on the downstream side of the bypass valve to the WH tank would not be cleared, except as they might gravity drain into the WH tank. Am I missing something?

TJ

[2012WhiteSolera]

Well yes. But, it would be my preference to blow the water from the pex lines out each outlet, hot and cold, including the toilet bowl orafices. By letting the bypass feed open to the HW tank, you might not be putting ample pressure to each outlet (sinks, shower head, etc.) To move (clear) residual water. A little residual water in the bottom of a steel tank (anode plug removed) won't hurt, unlike trapped water in a pex hose. Keep in mind you don't want to exceed 20-30 psi. I usually open up a faucet before connecting to the city in connection. And remember to clear your blank tank flush connection as well. It has a check valve that can trap water and cause failure upon freeze ups. One last thing, the water pump is delicate to any trapped water, so make sure if your not using antifreeze, that is does not hold any water where the impeller resides. Its just a function of water drops collecting at the low points, and you can see that upon inspection of the pumps location relative to the pex line installation.