winterizing with compressed air

[Flybob]

You do not need to winterize the line from the FW tank to the pump. It will drain when the winterizing valve is switched and it is usually a reinforced hose that will not burst anyway.

[crash3]

Originally Posted by Flybob

You do not need to winterize the line from the FW tank to the pump. It will drain when the winterizing valve is switched and it is usually a reinforced hose that will not burst anyway.

I've seen a 2500 psi reinforced hydraulic line burst From frozen water. I was also worried last year when I winterized my roo about that hose. It didn't burst so I assume it drained

[raspivey]

If you've got a three way valve to a winterizing hose between the tank and the pump, when you switch it over it'll act as a vent while half open. It'll drop back into the tank if there's anything in it.

[OldCoot]

You can also just dump the P traps and forget all about anti freeze.

[Jonol]

My pipe from the tank to the pump is 8 feet long and it is the same as all the other one.
It also have like a loop down.

[SidecarFlip]

Your (RV) water pump is very similar to the chemical spray pump I have on my smaller ATV sprayer..; There is little to no liquid in the pump cavities when shut off...

I'd not worry about it.

[SidecarFlip]

In fact, if you ever want to upgrade to a bigger one (pump), I bet a farm supply store is a whole bunch cheaper than an RV dealer.

[Mahlstedtd]

Originally Posted by gwj123

I have read here where a lot of you talk about pumping "the pink stuff" through your lines, but not to put it in the FW tank. I guess I am being dense here, but how do you pump it through your lines without using the pump from the FW tank?

My FW has a hose to put in the pink jug and is attached to the pump.

[WFD]

There should be a bypass valve right by your pump with a short length of hose on it, once you turn that valve you bypass your FW tank. Your pump is still used to pump the antifreeze and with the bypass activated it will draw from the antifreeze jug instead of your FW tank.

[pmsherman]

I winterize my 2011 Georgetown with compressed air using a home made air chuck adapter. It's a plastic hose cap with the air chuck screwed into a hole I drilled in the cap. My tankless air compressor has a regulator built into the hose and I set it to 30 psi.

The only area that this technique doesn't clear the water from is the manifold area that feeds the water pump. After removing the water filter, I use the winterizing hose to fill that section of pipe with antifreeze. It's easy to tell when this area is flushed because the pink stuff goes into the (clear plastic) water filter canister. The rest of a gallon goes into the traps and the toilet.

Phil

[41ford]

I took my 5th wheel in yesterday to the dealer to be winterized and the front nose piece repaired when the Pullrite head hitch failed. I had 7 gallons of the pink anti-freeze left over from the motorhome and told them to use that.

They stated they will use 2 to 3 gallons to winterize. Until the warranty is up, I'm having all maintenance work that I normally would do myself done by the dealer. $49.99 for the winterizing.

BTW, the replacement hitch head works great, I think the original one was defective since I bought it, but all this is another story.

[VTX Al]

Here's my compressed air winterizing routine:
1. Bypass and drain the water heater by removing the anode rod.
2. Open the fresh water tank drain valve.
3. Open both hot and cold water low point drain valves and close when the flow stops.
4. Blow out the system, including faucets, shower, toilet and outside shower, as other posters have outlined (I usually repeat this process at least twice).
5. Run the 12V water pump for a few seconds to pump remaining water (if any) out of the pump innards.
6. Finally, re-open the low point drains and blow out one more time.
This all sounds like a lot, but if you have a helper it really only takes 10 or 15 minutes. I don't worry about the P-traps since any water freezing there will expand into the piping and not burst the trap. NOTE: This process assumes that you have completely drained the grey and black tanks at your last stop to a dump station. Hope I haven't forgotten something here.

...VTX-Al

[Cowracer]

There's a couple of misconceptions here:

Originally Posted by Ian Walker

Guys I know everybody prefers to blow the lines BUT an old
RVer taught me that the pink antifreeze is better BECAUSE
as you all know the TT's are all thrown together at the factory
& I'm sure anybody who has crawled underneath will agree with that.
The water lines are just hanging under the trailer and anything
just hanging will have a low point. When you blow the lines,
the air will pass over the low points and leave some water in the lines
so you introduce the possibility of frozen lines. Also there's a
possibility that some water line that you don't have access to
might freeze (Murphy's Law). So use air if you must but understand the possible consequences.

Water, in and of itself, freezing in a line will not hurt the line. What bursts the lines is water having no place to expand when it freezes. A few drops freezing in your lines will harm nothing. Good rule of thumb is that you can freeze water a distance of 10 pipe diameters if you have an air space at both ends, or 5 diameters if you have only an airspace at one end. A 2 inch slug of water in the low spot of a 1/2" line will not hurt a thing. Not that blowing the lines out will leave even that much. Done properly, the compressed air method will remove nearly ALL the water from the lines, leaving only the occasional droplet here and there.

Originally Posted by youroo

The OP states they do NOT want to use Pink AF,their Water pump will NOT be protected if they only use Air! Even though they state they have Never used the F/W tank or Pump,Water will still be Inside the Pump Chambers and it Will Freeze! Youroo!!

The pump in our campers are PD or positive displacement pump. That means for each revolution of the pump, you will get a fixed volume output of whatever goes in the inlet. These pumps are more than happy to pump air if you let them. If you drain the inlet side (by draining the FW tank) and run the pump, you will pump air, and thus expel all the water and have only air left in the pump.

I am going on 10 years of RV ownership with not ever putting pink stuff in my freshwater system. In fact, I have only bought 2 or 3 gallons of pink stuff in those 10 years just for the p traps and toilet bowl. I live in St. Louis and I assure you that it can get as cold here as anywhere in the lower 48, and I sleep well knowing that my RV water system will be fine in spring, and I wont have to worry about the unpleasant residue of the pink antifreeze.


I'm not saying this to imply that there is a right way and a wrong way. If your comfort level is highest with pink antifreeze, then by all means, don't let me sway you. I just dislike when people imply (especially to newbies) that the blow-down way is ineffective and will hurt the plumbing. Either way works equally well.

Tim

[rockfordroo]

Originally Posted by Cowracer

There's a couple of misconceptions here:



Water, in and of itself, freezing in a line will not hurt the line. What bursts the lines is water having no place to expand when it freezes. A few drops freezing in your lines will harm nothing. Good rule of thumb is that you can freeze water a distance of 10 pipe diameters if you have an air space at both ends, or 5 diameters if you have only an airspace at one end. A 2 inch slug of water in the low spot of a 1/2" line will not hurt a thing. Not that blowing the lines out will leave even that much. Done properly, the compressed air method will remove nearly ALL the water from the lines, leaving only the occasional droplet here and there.


The pump in our campers are PD or positive displacement pump. That means for each revolution of the pump, you will get a fixed volume output of whatever goes in the inlet. These pumps are more than happy to pump air if you let them. If you drain the inlet side (by draining the FW tank) and run the pump, you will pump air, and thus expel all the water and have only air left in the pump.

I am going on 10 years of RV ownership with not ever putting pink stuff in my freshwater system. In fact, I have only bought 2 or 3 gallons of pink stuff in those 10 years just for the p traps and toilet bowl. I live in St. Louis and I assure you that it can get as cold here as anywhere in the lower 48, and I sleep well knowing that my RV water system will be fine in spring, and I wont have to worry about the unpleasant residue of the pink antifreeze.


I'm not saying this to imply that there is a right way and a wrong way. If your comfort level is highest with pink antifreeze, then by all means, don't let me sway you. I just dislike when people imply (especially to newbies) that the blow-down way is ineffective and will hurt the plumbing. Either way works equally well.

Tim

AMEN!