Bypass or Normal?

[theHueg]

I can’t tell from the owners manual which is Bypass and which is Normal for my water heater (TRUMA) on my 2018 Winnebago ERA 170X. Need some help and hope pictures make it clearer.

[mloganusda]

Both are drain valves. You should tell by water draining under the van when open. Turn on your water pump and see when water drains under the van. The top photo shows the valves closed. The second photo shows valves open for draining of water. The blue is cold and the red is hot systems.

[theHueg]

Thanks for the clarification. Living in the San Antonio, TX area, I just drained everything and blew out the lines. As the RV is stored inside of a building (not heated), is it necessary to also put antifreeze in all the lines? I did pour some into the pee traps and black and gray holding tanks.

[@Michael]

Originally Posted by theHueg

Thanks for the clarification. Living in the San Antonio, TX area, I just drained everything and blew out the lines. As the RV is stored inside of a building (not heated), is it necessary to also put antifreeze in all the lines? I did pour some into the pee traps and black and gray holding tanks.

Plenty of people get by without filling the likes with antifreeze in climates much colder than yours. So even though I do use pink stuff, in your situation I would not bother with it.

[magicbus]

The bypass valve on your Era can be identified as a T-valve with two blue pipes and one red. When winterizing the valve handle should point to the red line where it bypasses the Truma and hooks the cold to the hot pipes. For normal operation the handle should be set to point to both blue pipes which will feed cold water into the heater unit.

When I drain I open the two drain valves sitting on the floor, one for the Truma and one for the water system. I also open the two pressure releases but I’m not sure that’s necessary since the faucets are all open.