Compressed air vs antifreeze when winterizing

[pjhansman]

Originally Posted by slow

Other than cost of the antifreeze, is there a reason not to allow the antifreeze into the hot water and fresh water tanks?

I drain both the FW and HW tanks completely so antifreeze isn't required.

I find that it takes forever to get it out of the FW tank (perhaps it's all my imagination but it seems I have to flush it several times to get the taste out).

[JRTJH]

Originally Posted by slow

Other than cost of the antifreeze, is there a reason not to allow the antifreeze into the hot water and fresh water tanks?

Antifreeze is corrosive to the anode rod, and since the anode is attached to the "drain plug" putting antifreeze in the HWH can be damaging. I'd recommend not using antifreeze in the HWH, just drain it, rinse the residue from the bottom and leave it open to the air for a few days to all winter. I leave my anode rod laying in the HWH under the burner tube and air mixing valve.

As for the fresh water tank, if it's drained there's no reason to put antifreeze in it. It will just make for more flushing/draining next spring.

[slow]

Thanks for the insights. I have lots to learn.


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[J&A]

Watch this Keystone video on YouTube: "

How to winterize RV's Water Systems

" for details on how to do both methods.

I follow the compressed air procedure from Keystone (except I release the water pressure from the water hear tank before I remove the drain plug!).

Cheers!

[shov]

Thanks for the video!
I think this has solidified this winter I will use both methods this year!


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[MarkS]

Originally Posted by slow

Other than cost of the antifreeze, is there a reason not to allow the antifreeze into the hot water and fresh water tanks?

I think there is some concern that the antifreeze might corrode the hot water tank. Best to just drain it.

I don't know of a reason to keep it out of the fresh water tank. Just flush it out in the spring.

I am a blow it out and then fill it with antifreeze, type of guy. Anyone know of a good way to protect the fresh water line to the pump? I usually run the pump dry to hopefully suck all the water out. Then I use the pump to pump antifreeze to the rest of the system. That fills the pump and water lines, but leaves the supply line hopefully empty. Is there a better way?

[therink]

If you blow your water system out with air from the outside city water connection and then fill from the pump with antifreeze, your city supply line to the pump should be ok.
To make sure, I depress the city water connection fitting check valve with a small screwdriver as I am filling the lines with antifreeze until pink comes out.

[MarkS]

Originally Posted by therink

If you blow your water system out with air from the outside city water connection and then fill from the pump with antifreeze, your city supply line to the pump should be ok.

To make sure, I depress the city water connection fitting check valve with a small screwdriver as I am filling the lines with antifreeze until pink comes out.

Oops, I was not very clear. Blowing out does empty the city water line. I am concerned about the fresh water line from the fresh water tank.

[08quadram]

I used to just use anti freeze when the pump was easy to get at. My passport's pump is under the cabinet next to the bed. Pain to get at thanks to the mattress. I used air only last year and was fine. It didn't get above zero all winter it seemed like. I just let the water pump for a short time. Just used anti freeze in the traps and some down both tanks, toilets. Seems like i blue out the black water flush.

[JRTJH]

Mark,

If you have a FloJet pump with the push lock water connectors, when you remove the tank input line to install the draw tube to put into the antifreeze jug, the water line should drain by itself. Sort of like taking your finger off of a drinking straw and it empties. If there's a kink or loop in the water supply line, it may not drain fully, but I've not seen one that holds water.

It's fine to put RV antifreeze in your fresh water tank, many people do it. I choose not to only because of the expense of antifreeze and the hassle flushing the taste out of the tank next spring. Some people just pour antifreeze into their FW tank and pump it through the lines. I suppose that's an option, but I wouldn't want to flush that much next year.

[rosede]

I finally had a chance to update this thread.

I winterized last weekend. I know that its early, and there is a lot of prime camping left this fall (I love camping in the fall), but I just don't have any free time left this fall to get out. I'm booked solid from here until the end of the year, so I decided to take advantage of a nice weekend and get the camper put to bed for the winter.

I reviewed all of the suggestions, and watched several YouTube videos and decided to do a combination of compressed air and antifreeze. But before I could actually do any work, I had to prep and add in a winterization bypass valve.

Keystone put the water pump in the bedroom area and enclosed it in a little box making it very difficult to get to and extremely difficult to connect a tube to that will draw antifreeze from the jug. The bypass kit came with a very hard plastic connector that connects the brass valve to the water pump. This made the entire connection very rigid and even more difficult to connect to. But I was able to resolve this issue.

After looking a all of the area home improvement and hardware stores, I finally ended up at Lowe's. I found a reinforced poly tube and female ends that fit perfect on the pump and bypass valve connections. I made a 6" connection with this tube. This then gave me the flexibility that I needed to be able to get in and connect the fill tube. Worked great.

The second part was finding a way to blowout the lines with compressed air. I know that they make a brass blowout plug with a quick connect that I could purchase, but I only found that online, and I didn't have time to order it and get it in for my weekend work. So, I was poking around in my garage and realized that I had most of what I need to make my own blowout connector. I had 6" of the reinforced poly tube left and I had an extra quick connect for my air-compressor, all I needed was a 1/2" male water hose connection. A quick stop by the local hardware store, and I was able to resolve that.

I was a bit nervous with the blowout, because I didn't want to ruin anything, but I followed everything that I read and heard on the video's and all seemed to be good.

To the best of my knowledge, I got everything that might freeze and break. As a matter of fact, I'm going to buy a few more gallons of antifreeze and pure into the holding tanks, just to make sure there is plenty in there. Antifreeze is cheap and worth a few extra gallons just to ensure that the tanks won't freeze.

Thank you to everyone who commented, and made suggestions.

Darl

[chuckster57]

I wouldn't waste any money on antifreeze for the tanks. When water freezes it expands and as long as they are empty, there will be plenty of room for expansion. The waste tanks are vented so any "pressure" created will escape, fresh tank isn't, but Again if it's empty I don't see an issue or need for antifreeze in it. Think of them as giant ice trays.

[Festus2]

I've never dumped any RV antifreeze into the holding tanks for the reason chuckster57 mentioned in his post and never have had a problem. Even though the antifreeze is cheap, I'd save the money.

[JRTJH]

One consideration, if you started with "empty" holding tanks when you began the winterization is that as you purged the lines with antifreeze from the water pump, the water that was in the lines ran "down the drain" (so to speak). Depending on how well you used compressed air, that could be up to a couple of gallons of water. If it remains in the holding tank, it would hardly cover the bottom, so there's no danger should it freeze, it will expand as Chuckster57 stated and is more or less just a big ice cube tray. You do have outlets from each holding tank that are either 1.5" or 3" in diameter. Depending on the amount of water you purged, you could have easily filled a discharge pipe with water. With sub-zero temperatures, that water could freeze and split the discharge pipe and/or damage the valve.

So, if you do plan to leave your holding tank valves closed, be sure to open them after you've completed the entire winterization process and will be adding nothing else to the tanks, drain anything that might be in them and close them again. Once you do that, you should be OK without any added antifreeze in the tanks. Few people protect their tanks with antifreeze. I simply leave mine open and put a 5 gallon bucket under the end to catch any condensation that might accumulate. So far in 5 years of using the bucket, the most I've ever collected is maybe a cup of moisture, so I'm not sure it's even necessary to do that, but "peace of mind" keeps me leaving the drain valves open "just in case".....

[Desert185]

Just did mine yesterday. Thought it was a good time to remove the plastic anti-siphon valve under the bathroom sink and replace it with a brass one. Went to an RV supply/repair store and the gal says "What's that?", while standing in a room dimensioned for half the dusty parts actually hanging on the walls and stacked on shelves from floor to ceiling. Really?

Before anyone mentions trying Lowes...I already did that, and the RV catalogs don't show the part...in plastic or brass. Help...

As a side note, I found the centrally located, horizontally mounted spare tire hanging loose a bit during the crawling around. I remember the dealer installing the spare with a cordless drill motor. Snugged it up with the Keystone supplied "slavic" speed wrench. Something to check from time to time...

[JRTJH]

Originally Posted by Desert185

Just did mine yesterday. Thought it was a good time to remove the plastic anti-siphon valve under the bathroom sink and replace it with a brass one. Went to an RV supply/repair store and the gal says "What's that?", while standing in a room dimensioned for half the dusty parts actually hanging on the walls and stacked on shelves from floor to ceiling. Really?

Before anyone mentions trying Lowes...I already did that, and the RV catalogs don't show the part...in plastic or brass. Help...

As a side note, I found the centrally located, horizontally mounted spare tire hanging loose a bit during the crawling around. I remember the dealer installing the spare with a cordless drill motor. Snugged it up with the Keystone supplied "slavic" speed wrench. Something to check from time to time...

Here are a couple of previous threads that give links to what others have used. Make sure to scan all of the posts because some of them are on page 2 or 3 of the thread. Here's the links:

http://www.keystonerv.org/forums/showthread.php?t=2832
http://www.keystonerv.org/forums/sho...t=siphon+valve (Post #4)


There are several anti-siphon valves located at Lowe's in the irrigation section and a couple in the plumbing section. Any of them (check to be sure they are "water and gas" valves) and a couple of 1/2" pipe fittings to adapt the valve to the existing hose connections in your trailer.

You won't find a valve that already has the fittings installed, it's a "pick the valve" then go to the "fittings section" and pick the fittings to make it work.

Good Luck

[Desert185]

OK...so it seems that I need two Pex 1/2" elbows and a brass check valve to replace the existing valve I have. Previous posts I have read gave the impression that I could replace the existing valve with an exact valve made from brass. Doesn't have to be the same, just a check valve will do.

[JRTJH]

Yup, any check valve will do. If you can find one that is also "gas or vapor" resistant, so much the better, but honestly, any check valve with a couple of fittings will do. I haven't done mine yet, I keep putting it off, but I've got the valve in the garage with all the stuff from the trailer that I don't want to freeze. It's just a matter of taking it to Lowe's and piecing together something that will fit the existing plumbing lines.

It's not hard to do, I just keep procrastinating. I'll get the parts this winter and will install them next spring when we pull the trailer out of the pole barn.