water heater winter use

[jbrosecity]

Quick question for winter use in a 4 seasons 5th wheel. We have been told we can keep the rig ready for year round use without winterization as long as we have the furnace set for a low freeze protection temperature. We also have some backup electric space heaters we can leave plugged in for extra insurance.

But my question is about the water heater. We always turn off the water when leaving the rig for any span of time. We do the same in our house, and there we leave the gas water heater on the "vacation" setting. This avoids freezing but doesn't boil off the water heater contents with the water turned off. Is this a concern with a Suburban water heater? There is no way to turn down the temperature, AFAIK. But if we leave it turned off and outside freezes down into the low 20's, for example, can it freeze or does the heated underbelly protect it? If we leave it turned on, do we risk it boiling off the contents and burning out the elements? TIA

[flybouy]

First no water heater should "boil off" the water. The water heater should be around 140 deg F and water boils at 212 deg. If you are leaving it long enough for it to evaporate you are talking a lon, long time.

As for the "4" season trailer that's more a sales pitch than a reality. Electric heaters will no heat the underbelly an therefore you risk the water lines freezing.Keeping a trailer warm in 20 deg weather will require a LOT of propane.

[JRTJH]

There are 91,502 BTU's in a gallon of propane. There are 7.2 gallons of propane in a 30 pound tank. That's 91502x7.2=658,814 BTU's in a 30 pound bottle. The furnace "input BTU rating" is 35,000 BTU. That means the furnace will run "just shy of 19 hours" on a typical fifth wheel propane tank. Assuming the furnace runs 6 hours a day, with NO other propane use, a tank should last around 3 or 4 days (in the worst conditions) and running 3 hours a day, a tank should last around 6 or 7 days.

So, in "around freezing temperatures" plan on a tank of propane weekly, in "10-20F temps, plan on a tank of propane every 3 or 4 days.

Remember, when you're out of propane, ALL of your "basement plumbing" is going to be subject to freeze damage.... Heating the cabin interior does not protect the tanks or the underfloor plumbing.

[dutchmensport]

If the temps are below freezing and you are leaving your camper alone for any length of time, then you are best to winterize. At any point, there could be a power failure for an extended length of time, and / or you can run out of propane much faster than you anticipated. Meanwhile, you have water in all your lines, and now ... no heat. In about a day in 20 degree weather, things will begin to frereze.

If you are depending upon space heaters, they will do no good keeping the underbelly heated where your water pipes are located, and do nothing for a turned off water heater. The only way to keep the pipes in the under belly warm is with the furnace, and if you have the (4 season), then about half of the propane you burn is going under your floor.

On my Montana High Country Fifth wheel, when temps gets to 20 degrees, I'm burning through a 30 pound propane tank every 48 hours. And what's so discouraging is, the floor is nice and warm and the inside of the coach still feels cold.

We use our camper all year round. And even though it's advertised for zero degrees, I winterize and revert to dry camping methods. We use electric ceramic space heaters, and the electric fireplace, and this minimizes the amount of propane burning in the furnace. But, when the furnace does not blow, no heat goes under the floor.

If you are right there with the camper, you can probably keep pipes from freezing and the water heater on. If you are going to be gone, winterize. It's a lot cheaper than gambling with thousands and thousands of dollars for plumbing repairs.

[Javi]

Probably the easiest way to do what you want safely and with less cost is to take 30-40 minutes before you leave and blow out all the water lines and the water pump and drain the water heater.. Use <40 psi when doing this..

I do this after each camping trip and you get pretty good at it after the first couple of time..

Make sure to drain all holding tanks.

Drain the fresh water tank, open all the faucets including washer..

Bypass and drain the water heater

Then open all low point drains and let them drain completely..

Run the water pump for 3 or 4 minutes to push all the water out of the lines while drain low points.

Don't forget the icemaker if so equipped.

Close all low point drains and all faucets..

Hook up the air compressor to your city water connection and start the compressor.. remember less than 40 PSI

Start with the farthest faucet and open each one at a time until no water comes out.. Generally I need to let the compressor catch up between faucets..

When done, disconnect the compressor and hook it to the black tank flush and blow the line out.. only takes a second.. remember no more than 40 PSI.

Pour anti-freeze into the tub, and all sinks..

I do this because we don't have many days where the temperature is below freezing although it does get into the teens and even "0" F on occasion..

And we camp all winter when the weather is nice..

[GHen]

We also leave our 5r about 3 hours from our home. It’s close the kids and parents so we have a Place to stay during the holidays. Normal winter temps are 20-40 F.

We do exactly as stated above. We leave about 20 gallons of water in the holding tanks, but every time we leave we drain the hot water, blow all the lines out. Leave all faucets and drains open. 30 min max, then when we arrive we turn everything back on. If it’s freezing, we don’t hook up to water, just use the holding tank water. That means using about 8 gallons to open the rig up.
If daytime temps are expected to be in the 20’s or lower while we are gone we will drain the holding tanks also.
The new pex pipes (red and blue) are less prone to breaking than the older styles. Our experience when staying at ski resorts shows we really don’t worry about freezing until daytime temps don’t get above 23 or so, and even then it needs to me multiple days in a row.

In really cold weather (below 15) we keep a 5 gallon can of water ready to flush the toilet if we freeze up. We have been below 0 many times. We freeze up all the time, get the heat on and it will unfreeze in moderate temps in an hour or so. Knock on wood, never had a broken pipe.

Just don’t let that hot water heater freeze solid, it will bust open easily. It’s got to be drained and it really doesn’t take that long.

[jbrosecity]

Thanks for the replies... I think what I will wind up doing is just winterizing the rig with my portable air compressor at 40PSI. I have done this on my Forester a number of times. Only tricky part with this 5er will be the ice maker in the Dometic RM1350. The water is lousy in this park and we do not consume it at all... we use bottled water for all applications, and use ice trays. We never use the icemaker, but I need to find out how to blow it out in case it got water in it somehow, and then disconnect the water to it, so I don't have to mess with it again.

We were tentatively thinking of coming down maybe a couple times during the winter just for a change of venue, but it isnt worth the propane consumption for all the time we are not here, and like some have warned, what about a power failure. I knew topside electric space heaters wouldn't help the underbelly, but I was hoping they would at least prevent frozen lines inside the coach. But then there's still the concern of a power failure... so I reckon we'll just winterize it and if we feel a strong need to come down in the winter, I can dewinterize with air pressure and then winterize again when we leave. I did this a couple years ago when we took an unexpected winter trip to California.

I watched a couple videos on winterizing a dometic fridge... hopefully I can figure it out.

[Ken / Claudia]

I think that's a good idea. I have several times winterized and for some reason made a unexpected trip, DE winterized, used and winterized again.