To winterize

[HappyCamper1]

Hi.. is that time of the year in WNY...what is the best way to winterize our Roadtrek? Since our Road trek will be outside all winter long do I have to cover the tires, the whole thing ? Most of the rv will be on a concrete pad...I also noticed my lower alternator guard is missing. Are they available? As for winterizing I have seen both rv antifreeze method and compressed air method for the water lines. Can’t wait for next year so we can plan trips with our Van again!! Thanks

[Want a B]

I store mine outside ( Indiana) with no covering. I used the compressed air method last year. Only problem I had was the plastic bowl cover on the water pumper strainer froze and broke. This winter after blowing out the water lines I’ll remove bowl cover.

[avanti]

Originally Posted by Want a B

I store mine outside ( Indiana) with no covering. I used the compressed air method last year. Only problem I had was the plastic bowl cover on the water pumper strainer froze and broke. This winter after blowing out the water lines I’ll remove bowl cover.

Agree 100%.
Only trouble is that every spring I forget to put that cover back, and wonder why my pump won't prime. And, don't lose the O-ring.

My only other suggestion is to take inside any plumbing fixtures that unscrew, such as shower wands, etc. Most of them have plastic parts inside and are hard to blow out completely. Oh, and the Keurig also.

[Doneworking]

Most rvers tell me I am nuts but I always do both: I blow out the lines and then use a few gallons of the pink stuff. Also, it is easy to forget the P traps if I just blow out the lines.

My reasoning is very simple: with what these coaches cost is it worth it to save fifteen or twenty bucks cost of antifreeze? I suspect a little water remaining that could bust a line or horror of horrors crack a tank and those bucks would have been infinitesimally small costs.

Just me and my paranoia.

[magicbus]

Just had 2 gallons of the pink stuff delivered from Walmart.com for under 6 bucks. One to winterize in November and another in case I need to winterize when we return home from Florida in late March. I run it through each fixture to displace the water then use the low point drains to drain it. Takes 10 minutes. As has been pointed out, cheap insurance.

[KanzKran]

Originally Posted by magicbus

Just had 2 gallons of the pink stuff delivered from Walmart.com for under 6 bucks. One to winterize in November and another in case I need to winterize when we return home from Florida in late March. I run it through each fixture to displace the water then use the low point drains to drain it. Takes 10 minutes. As has been pointed out, cheap insurance.

I do essentially the same thing, and have a short clear nylon hose on a standard 3/4" male hose end so the pump can suck the antifreeze in through the outside hose connection to flush the lines. There's no point in leaving it in the lines afterwards, so I open the low point drains and let it fly when I'm done. I can do this on the road when it starts getting cold enough on the way back up here (WNY) to worry about the lines and tank freezing.

I did have to add a pair of valves to bypass the Truma Combi, since the manual says to not run antifreeze through it. Probably because it gets hot when using heat, whether you select water heating or not. That was a major pain since there is no room inside that galley cabinet, reaching in through the drawer openings, and with lots of other plumbing in the way, but I only messed up and had to replace one PEX crimp.

We use antifreeze to flush the toilet after that.

[magicbus]

I got lucky and my Truma Combi came plumbed with a bypass.

[RossWilliams]

I don't see any advantage to blowing out the pipes. I just use anti-freeze and run it through everything. The disadvantage is having to flush it out in the spring. We don't use the water for drinking anyway so it isn't a problem if there is a little left in the tank after draining and flushing. If you are you using it for drinking water you should probably be disinfecting the pipes anyway.

[avanti]

Originally Posted by RossWilliams

I don't see any advantage to blowing out the pipes. I just use anti-freeze and run it through everything. The disadvantage is having to flush it out in the spring. We don't use the water for drinking anyway so it isn't a problem if there is a little left in the tank after draining and flushing. If you are you using it for drinking water you should probably be disinfecting the pipes anyway.

Even if you are NOT drinking it, you should be disinfecting the system at least once a season. You inhale a LOT of water vapor during a shower.

I agree that there is no reason to blow it out if you are going to use that stuff. We do drink our water, so we stick with blowing out the pipes between trips in the winter. Far simpler, especially if you do it frequently as we do.

[GeorgeRa]

Originally Posted by RossWilliams

I don't see any advantage to blowing out the pipes. I just use anti-freeze and run it through everything. The disadvantage is having to flush it out in the spring. We don't use the water for drinking anyway so it isn't a problem if there is a little left in the tank after draining and flushing. If you are you using it for drinking water you should probably be disinfecting the pipes anyway.

.....and I don't see any advantages to use poison to prevent pipe freezing.

"Potential Acute Health Effects:
Hazardous in case of ingestion. Slightly hazardous in case of skin contact (irritant, permeator), of eye contact (irritant), of inhalation."

https://hmdb.ca/system/metabolites/m...pdf?1358895490

[Davydd]

I drank from a garden hose and swam in a municipal pool that invariably the life guards had to clear the pool to scoop the poo. I’m still here. RV anti-freeze isn’t poison. Flushing the tanks to get rid of it in the spring probably does more cleaning than blowing out the system with suspect air passing through a machine in the fall. The tanks are essentially a closed system and with city water fill with a filter that doesn’t introduce anything but water.

[Bertiboo]

Originally Posted by GeorgeRa

.....and I don't see any advantages to use poison to prevent pipe freezing.

"Potential Acute Health Effects:
Hazardous in case of ingestion. Slightly hazardous in case of skin contact (irritant, permeator), of eye contact (irritant), of inhalation."

https://hmdb.ca/system/metabolites/m...pdf?1358895490

No matter what, DO NOT USE propylene glycol (automotive) antifreeze for plumbing. RV plumbing antifreeze is not poison, though I’m not sure it’s healthy it won’t kill you. But one unfortunate side effect of RV antifreeze is that rodents love it, so it can result in chewed up pipes. (And they don’t suffer from it either)

[Stinky]

My way is to go under the van and disconnect the fresh water drain. I attach a hose to the pump side and put that into a bottle of pink and pump that through the system. It's the equivalent of filling the fresh water tank with pink. So the pink gets pumped everywhere and the tank gets drained. 2 things to remember, 1/ drain the hot water and use the by pass valves. They very often don't work 100% so you have to stay alert. 2/ use the more expensive, non-explosive kind of pink = it doesn't harm the plastic bits of the system. The complicated part of the ordeal is making sure you have pink at every input and output.

[rtbill]

Municipal water is potable in the short term but far from sterile. Stuff can grow in water left sitting in tanks and lines. Legionella is a particular hazard, albeit primarily in warm weather. This is why open-loop home hydronic heating systems have timers to flush water through the heating loops every day.

[Lori NH]

I am a new Roadtrek owner, 04C190P, but have been doing a lot of research and just had mine winterized at an RV place so I could watch. First I went to Meryl and Me's blog and read a very detailed winterizing step by step explanation which I found very helpful. You can go to that blog and read it. The RV place took a lot of shortcuts different from his blog but did the job and I learned a lot watching and asking questions.

One thing I remember very clearly is he said he spoke to technicians at Roadtrek and they told him NEVER to use compressed air in a Roadtrek because the pipes are too delicate and damage can be done to valves etc.

Just my two cents.

[Stinky]

I don't leave fresh water in the van over winter. After I drain the fresh and hot tanks it takes maybe a gallon of pink to push the remaining fresh through till pink is coming out everywhere. In the spring i fill the fresh and pump it though to push out the pink. I really don't have an issue with water breeding in my system. It would be bad here because I'm on a well and I know it's contaminated.

[avanti]

Don't confuse winterization with sanitization. The "pink stuff" does little or nothing to keep your system healthy. No matter how you winterize, you MUST sanitize with bleach at least once a year, preferably before first use in the spring.

[avanti]

Originally Posted by Lori NH

One thing I remember very clearly is he said he spoke to technicians at Roadtrek and they told him NEVER to use compressed air in a Roadtrek because the pipes are too delicate and damage can be done to valves etc.

That's funny. If it is "too delicate" for compressed air, it is too delicate for pressurized water. Yeah, I want one of those...

[Just to be clear: That last sentence is sarcasm. There is nothing wrong with RT plumbing, as far as I know.]

[rtbill]

Originally Posted by avanti

That's funny. If it is "too delicate" for compressed air, it is too delicate for pressurized water. Yeah, I want one of those...

[Just to be clear: That last sentence is sarcasm. There is nothing wrong with RT plumbing, as far as I know.]

The danger is inadvertently pressurizing and cracking the fresh tank. Hopefully the overflow cap would blow out but it might not.

[Stinky]

I know lots of people blow their system out but it wouldn't give me a warm feeling that I had gotten into every part of it. Also I like having the pink in the p-traps.