Winterizing epic fail - Follow up

rockfordroo · 11-22-2013, 06:33 PM

Sigh, moderator woes- I tried to be helpful and move rockfordroo's post into this thread and its been an epic failure. I'll post the content of it below. Sorry about the mess.

AMarrs · 11-22-2013, 06:59 PM

Well, somehow or other, this post ended up as a reply to the post on leveling. I tried to cut & paste to this post, but somehow, only part of it copied. So I'll start over.

Tried everything everyone suggested & a few other things, but still couldn't get the pump to pull AF through the system. And couldn't find any apparent reason. So, since it's supposed to get COLD starting tomorrow, I bit the bullet & called the dealer to see if could bring it over & get them to check it & winterize it. They said I could bring it today.

So I hitched up & headed out this morning - it's about a 1.5 to 2 hour drive to the dealer. Got there without any incident & they started on it pretty quickly. I was watching to see if they did anything different.

They got everything ready, hooked a hose up to the AF inlet, stuck the hose down into the AF jug, turned the pump on....and it sucked all the AF out of the jug in a couple of minutes! I was dumbfounded! I asked what they did differently. They asked if I turned this valve this way & that valve that way. I did. They asked if I bypass the HW heater. I did.

And then I noticed that the filter housing was full of AF. I didn't take the filter housing off because there was no filter in it, and because I couldn't get it off. I think that's why there was no filter in it because the former owner couldn't get the housing off either. The new, unused filter was in one of the drawers. Whoever screwed it on didn't intend for it to come off accidentally...or ever! The instructions said to remove the filter, but since there was no filter in the housing, I didn't think I needed to do anything else to it.

One of the service guys finally managed to get the housing off. (He had trouble with it so I didn't feel so bad about not being able to budge it.) When he took it off it was full of water. He emptied it & put it back on.

I asked one of the service guys if the filter housing being full of water could have been they problem & he said yes.

So it cost me $75 (plus gas for the trip) and several hours on my day off, but the Roo is winterized & I didn't have to buy a new pump or any other new parts. And now I know how to remove the anode on the HW pump. (I hadn't been able to find it.)

AMarrs · 11-22-2013, 07:03 PM

RockfordRoo....I saw your response to my first post about this, which ended up the wrong place. I don't know how that would have affected the pump either. But I watched everything they did & that's the ONLY thing they did differently that I could see. (Well, other than removing the anode from the HW heater, but since the HW heater was bypassed that wouldn't have made any difference.)

**ependydad** · 11-22-2013, 10:34 PM

From rockfordroo:

Well, I don't get it. How could the filter housing being full of water keep the AF from being sucked in? The filter is downstream of the pump and the pump should pump whatever is going through it (water or AF) into the filter housing and on to your faucets.

I'm throwing the BS flag. Something else is going on.

rockfordroo · 11-23-2013, 03:40 PM

The only other thing I can think of is that, in order to pump the AF out of the bottle, it has to have someplace to go, i.e., you need some faucets open. Did you have any faucets open?

AMarrs · 11-23-2013, 10:40 PM

Oh, yeah, lots of faucets open. Tried each, tried all, several times.

However, after thinking about it a little, I have another theory. I said the only thing they did differently was to remove the filter housing & empty the water. That's not completely true. One of the service guys didn't like the AF inlet - he said they didn't work right sometimes. So he unscrewed the AF inlet line from the pump. He was going to attach a hose directly to the pump & stick that down in the AF jug. However, the fitting on the pump was smaller than the one in the AF inlet & they didn't have a hose that was the right size. So they ended up reattaching the AF inlet hose to the pump & using the AF inlet. Just wondering if perhaps there was some kind of "vapor lock" or air bubble or something that was keeping the pump from working properly...and removing & then reattaching the line from the inlet cleared that out.

I can't think of anything else. But at least the camper got winterized before the temps take the nose dive they're supposed to tonight.

fonzie · 11-24-2013, 08:29 AM

When using the water pump to pull AF from jug, I have to make sure the hose that goes into the jug point straight down for it to suck AF, if it is curled up into the jug it will not pull AF......

melbornj · 12-30-2013, 09:21 PM

As BS as it sounds I was having the same problem last year and everything worked like a champ one I emptied the filter housing

SYE · 12-30-2013, 10:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ependydad

From rockfordroo:

Well, I don't get it. How could the filter housing being full of water keep the AF from being sucked in? The filter is downstream of the pump and the pump should pump whatever is going through it (water or AF) into the filter housing and on to your faucets.

I'm throwing the BS flag. Something else is going on.

I agree with you on this one!!!

AMarrs · 12-30-2013, 10:22 PM

Thanks, melbornj....at least now I don't feel like I was totally losing my mind. LOL!

wrvond · 12-31-2013, 12:11 AM

FYI - There is a plate that you can install in the filter housing to bypass it so you don't fill it with AF.

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