Winterizing ... bad antifreeze leak
I've been RV'ing for a number of years, live in Wisconsin, so winterizing things is something I've done easily in the past.
We bought a new 2017 Surveyor, bunkhouse version, and this year was the first winterizing on it. Once I found the pump and got to the water heater, getting RV antifreeze in the system was easy.
Here are some facts:
The water heater has two valves at inlet and outlet, and I believe that switching both to the position where the handles align with the bypass hose, isolates the water heater.
My water heater does not have a drain valve, so to drain it, you must remove the anode, which I did.
The events were ... bypassed heater, started pump with hose in AF bottle, and it pulled AF. Ran around inside the trailer, opening faucets and toilet flush, and got nice pink fluid. So far, so good. Went through two gallons, but then noticed a gurgling noise in the water heater. At that point AF came out on the floor underneath the water heater and began to cover part of the flooring under one of the bunks. Frantic removal of bedding and other stored stuff, shutdown pump, wiped up the AF.
Remember the heater is supposed to be bypassed and isolated.
I ran an experiment where I ran the pump again and looked outside ... AF was leaking a little outside from the anode hole and clearly AF had come out earlier. Water heater makes gurgling sounds, no matter what positions I put the bypass valves in. While I do not understand how that is possible, since the heater is bypassed, I also do not see how AF is getting on the floor under the water heater. There were no hose or valve leaks I could find.
As crazy as it seems, the only thing I could come up with was that the AF comes out the anode threaded hole and somehow leaks back into the trailer, on the floor. I just do not see how that is possible, since it is caulked, and the natural drain from that anode hole is outside. Plus ... the heater is supposedly bypassed. It was a significant amount of AF that leaked onto the floor ... a couple of pints.
I am utterly baffled. It is winterized, and so it is OK for the winter, but now I am sweating startup in the spring. Any ideas?
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