Want to avoid possible messes when de-winterizing?

[TitanMike]

How may of you have de-winterized your RV only to find water leaking or spraying from a spot that froze and broke over the previous winter.

Often by the time you notice it after hooking up and turning on the water there's quite a mess you have to mop up.

Why not do like plumbers do when plumbing new houses. Make sure the system is closed up tight and add compressed air to the city water inlet. Make an adapter for pressure testing out of a Tee with a pressure gauge on it and a valve between tee and hose.

Pressurize the system to 50 PSI with your compressor, close valve at end of hose and observe pressure gauge.

If the gauge looses pressure immediately after you close the valve you have a leak. Turn air back on and start looking at obvious places like elbows, toilet, outside shower, etc. If you can't get close to the fittings use a piece of hose, holding one end to your ear and probing with the other in the nooks and cranny's that water line fittings are located. When you discover the leak you'll hear it loud and clear in your improvised "stethoscope".

Fix the broken piece and re-pressurize. Ideally the system should hold air pressure for hours if your adapter at the city water connection is tight.

Certainly less mess than cleaning up a few gallons of water in the back of a cabinet or running across the floor.

If you already use a regulator with pressure gauge, just add a shutoff valve at the inlet (note, the valve has to be between gauge and water hose) to trap the pressurized air in the system.

[ProCharger]

Only thing I would add is to blow out the lines first or there is a chance you will still get the mess. It is a great idea, I do similar. My compressor is air tight where I don't lose any air over a month so I just leave the compressor on the city connection and use the gauge on the regulator for a few hours. I pressure checked last fall before winterizing. Again.....great idea, thanks for posting.