Winterizing 2013 Keystone Sprinter 316BIK

[JRTJH]

Originally Posted by Stangfire

I got everything winterized yesterday using the antifreeze method. Once I had pink coming out all faucets I turned off the pump and called it done. Hooked the water line back to the pump. After I got home from the 2 hour drive from camp I thought to myself I should have opened all the faucets to relief the pressure. Perhaps the pressure will bleed off on its own?

Do you think this is an issue? Should the taps have been left open all winter? I had lots of antifreeze coming out all faucets.

You may be OK with the faucet stems closed, or you may not. That all depends on the type of antifreeze, how much water was still in the lines to dilute your antifreeze and if you ran enough through the lines to displace the water rather than to just dilute the mixture.

That said, I always leave all my faucets open after winterizing. Why? So there's no "closed space in the valve stems. Anything that's a "closed space" will increase the risk of expanding ice causing damage. With the valve stems open, there's a "space open for expansion without cracking the closed valve stem.

Does it really, REALLY matter? That depends on how much water remained in the lines when you ran antifreeze through the system and whether there's enough antifreeze in the mixture to protect the closed valve stems.

Hopefully you remembered the city water connection on the side of the trailer, the toilet valve, the outdoor shower, the black tank flush and all the P traps ?????

[RagingRobert]

Personally I blow out all the lines, that way there's no water to dilute the antifreeze. And yes make sure you have a good flow of pink coming out of everywhere water comes out. After the lines are full, pump is off, I open each faucet to relieve the pressure and close them again just so no antifreeze drips out over the winter...good to add some to the traps but you've already done that so not much is needed. The antifreeze will turn into a pink slushy and have that little bit of room to expand if needed. Don't forget to winterize the mice as well

[Stangfire]

Originally Posted by JRTJH

Hopefully you remembered the city water connection on the side of the trailer, the toilet valve, the outdoor shower, the black tank flush and all the P traps ?????

Thanks.

Yes, I did all that as well. I used a hand pump for the city water connection. It's at the back of my trailer beside the outdoor shower. At first I couldn't pump it at all. There was too much pressure I assume. So i opened the cold water tap on the shower and pumped the city water line and it came out the shower. I did that because inside the trailer I could see the city water line and cold shower were "T" together. Does that make sense?

[Stangfire]

Originally Posted by RagingRobert

Personally I blow out all the lines, that way there's no water to dilute the antifreeze. And yes make sure you have a good flow of pink coming out of everywhere water comes out. After the lines are full, pump is off, I open each faucet to relieve the pressure and close them again just so no antifreeze drips out over the winter...good to add some to the traps but you've already done that so not much is needed. The antifreeze will turn into a pink slushy and have that little bit of room to expand if needed. Don't forget to winterize the mice as well

Yeah lots of attention was put towards winterizing the plumbing and mice. Hopefully it all goes well!

My neighbor at camp says he winterizes his trailer using an air compressor and blowing through the HWT drain. That's all he does and never had an issue. I'm sure he pours some antifreeze in the P traps though.

[RagingRobert]

I guess that's ok but putting the antifreeze in helps keep things from drying out.