Low point drain and draining fresh water tank

[Old_Stevenick]

Hi all. I'm de-winterizing my Bullet Hybrid and draining the water tank after filling it. I opened the low point drains as well as the tank drain and the cold water drain is draining lots of water way more than the plumbing would hold.

Does it also drain the fresh water tank?

[Old_Stevenick]

It stopped so never mind!

[chuckster57]

Low point drains will only drain whats in your fresh water system AFTER the water pump. Fresh tank drain only drains the fresh tank.

[Old_Stevenick]

Yeah I should have waited a little longer before posting. It stopped after about 10 minutes. Seemed like a long time, but the fresh water tank is still draining.

I do have another question though.

Here are my steps. I don't list "turn off pump" between turning it on and turning it off again. When should this happen? At what point is the hot water tank drained and/or sanitized? Should I turn the pump off before I turn the bypass valve back to normal?

Confirm still in hot water tank bypass mode valve vertical

Fill tank

Turn on pump open all faucets, Run water, flush toilet until clear.

Bypass mode off.

Drain tank

Turn on pump open all faucets, Run water, flush toilet. 3 mins

Close all faucets turn off pump.

Let sit 30 mins

Turn on pump open all faucets, Run water, flush toilet. 3 mins

Close all faucets turn off pump.

Drain

Fill

Turn on pump open all faucets, Run water, flush toilet. 3 mins

Fill ½ way put in sanitizer and fill

[dutchmensport]

To unwinterize (if you've used the RV antifreeze pink-stuff), is to simply run lots of water through all your water system until you get no more foam from the faucets, shower, or toilet. It's just that simple.

If you put RV antifreeze in your fresh water tank, yes, ... you'll have a time rinsing it. It will be a matter of filling and drain, drain, drain,... fill again and drain, drain, drain.

On my fifth wheel, I have a water heater by-pass valve in my convenience center. That means, the by pass happens about 20 or 25 feet away from the actual water heater. I have this paranoia that that line also needs the RV antifreeze to rid all the water out of it. The problem is, if I run RV antifreeze, it will go to the fresh water tank.

I have learned to leave the water heater in by-pass and then the last thing I do is un-by-pass the water heater and let enough antifreeze flow into the water heater so I know the line is completely purged of water. I then let the water heater drain any RV antifreeze that flowed into it. I do that by removing the drain plug (the anode rod) and simply letting it drain. Once it all drains out, I flush the water heater from the outside, through the anode rod hole with a tank flusher and then let it drain empty. This removes the RV antifreeze.

When I un-winterize, I'll unwinterize everything by flushing water through the system with the garden hose attached. Then at the end, pull the anode rod again and flush that by pass line again with fresh water to clear out any residual RV antifreeze. When the water coming out of the water heater anode rod hole is no longer foamy, I know it's clean. I can then put the anode rod back in and fill the water heater.

It sounds worse that it really is. The whole process takes just a few minutes. And I've done it this way so many times now, I've lost count. Sometimes we winterize and un-winterize 3 or 4 times over the winter, depending on how we use the camper traveling between Northern and Southern states.

Hope this makes some sense and help you out..... Basically, just flush the water heater by removing the drain plug / anode rod and run water till it's completely cleared up. Same with the fresh water tank.

[Old_Stevenick]

Thanks, what you do is putting water straight into the water lines, but not into the fresh water tank. As the fresh water tank doesn't have the pink stuff in it, that's fine.

After I clear the pink stuff out I put some sanitizing stuff into the fresh water tank and fill it up. So it's this stuff I'm trying to clean out. It foams too. I did have to fill, drain, fill, drain a few times and the cold water finally came out without any foam, but the hot water didn't.

[Old_Stevenick]

I just noticed that my step-by-step was missing the crucial "add sanitizer" step, I added it in red below.

Originally Posted by Old_Stevenick

Confirm still in hot water tank bypass mode valve vertical

Fill tank

Turn on pump open all faucets, Run water, flush toilet until clear.

Bypass mode off.

Drain tank

Fill ½ way put in sanitizer and fill

Turn on pump open all faucets, Run water, flush toilet. 3 mins

Close all faucets turn off pump.

Let sit 30 mins

Turn on pump open all faucets, Run water, flush toilet. 3 mins

Close all faucets turn off pump.

Drain

Fill

Turn on pump open all faucets, Run water, flush toilet. 3 mins

Fill ½ way put in sanitizer and fill

[NH_Bulldog]

When I winterize, I set the water heater bypass and pull the water heater drain plug. I never run antifreeze into the water heater, just like I never put antifreeze in the fresh water tank.

De-winterizing is very straightforward; open low point drains, open tank dump valves, connect city water, flush system until no more foam at low point drains, close low point drains, continue to flush until no more foam at all faucets inside and outside. Let sit 24 hours and repeat flushing process. Add diluted bleach/water mixture to fresh tank, fill tank, run each faucet hot and cold until you smell bleach. Let sit 24 hours (you need a minimum 12 hours of contact time to sanitize properly) , drain fresh tank, flush system with fresh water through city water connection. Insert water heater plug, turn off bypass, fill water heater, purge air. Done

[Old_Stevenick]

Pretty much what I do, except I use some sanitizer stuff instead of bleach.

But there is residual bleach/sanitizer in the fresh water tank at the end of that process, right?

It keeps coming out foamy for me, requiring multiple fill/drain cycles.

Cold eventually runs clear of the foam, but the hot water doesn't, so I guess I should open the hot water tank drain (no anode in my camper, just a white drain plug) and flush it out that way?

[NH_Bulldog]

This is the reason I never sanitize or add antifreeze to my water heater. It will take forever to flush it clear, then just when you think you are done, the first time you run your water heater it will be like starting over. I just bypass the water heater, and unscrew the white nylon plug to drain it.

[Old_Stevenick]

So it looks like in my step by step that I should leave the hot water heater bypassed until I'm completely done with the process.

No need to sanitize the tank?