Winterize

[Camping family]

While I have read and watched video on winterizing. Don’t have an air compressor to blow out lines. My question is why can’t I drain my water heater then turn on bay pass. Put rv antifreeze in the fresh water tank turn on the water pump and pump antifreeze through all the water lines. Then pour some into the tanks drown the drains and toilet. Through the shower and outside shower. I’m thinking would winterize all the lines and tanks.

[flybouy]

You can absolutely winterize without a compressor as you described. Some folks in warmer climates use compressed air only. Others do both.

[travelin texans]

Originally Posted by Camping family

While I have read and watched video on winterizing. Don’t have an air compressor to blow out lines. My question is why can’t I drain my water heater then turn on bay pass. Put rv antifreeze in the fresh water tank turn on the water pump and pump antifreeze through all the water lines. Then pour some into the tanks drown the drains and toilet. Through the shower and outside shower. I’m thinking would winterize all the lines and tanks.

The difference being is you WILL have ?? gallons of water left in your fresh water tank at any given time after draining, opening the drain will not completely drain it, which will dilute the antifreeze possibly to the point of doing no good & pipes still freeze. Secondly as opposed to using a couple gallons directly from the pump you'll need who knows how many gallons poured into the tank BEFORE the pump would pick up suction, not to mention how long it would take to rinse the anti freeze out of the tank before you didn't taste it once you dewinterize.
If it were me I'd take the time now to hook up the pump to be able to winterize correctly & next year it will take you about 15 minutes to winterize, 10 minutes of that will be remembering how you did it & done.

[BrooksFam]

I've only drained tanks in 30 years of RV'ing, but I live in Oregon and there aren't many days with severely cold weather. In the event of several continuously sub freezing days, I'd keep the oil heater on and open all the cabinet doors and make sure all faucets were open also.
Worked well for me.

[Canonman]

You can certainly use the RV antifreeze only option. I would not recommend putting the antifreeze in the FW tank though. Depending on your pump type, you can use a "winterizing kit" to draw antifreeze directly from the bottle using your FW pump.
You will want to drain and put your HW heater in bypass mode so you're not filling the WH with antifreeze. Here's a video on how this works:https://www.amazon.com/Camco-36543-C.../dp/B0006JJ588