Time to winterize

[PsychoBob65]

Well its official, winter is here in Wyoming. Ugh! Most of the winterizing procedure is straight forward but I do have a couple of questions.

1. There is a little valve that you turn to switch the fresh water tank to the hose that pulls out the RV antifreeze. How to you get the water out of the hose between the fresh tank and the valve/pump?

2. The black water tank sprayers are not hooked to any supply source to push antifreeze threw them. Would low pressure compressed air work to blow them dry?

3. What about getting the water out of the outlet side of the water heater? The supply side is obvious, but when the water heater is drained and you've purged that line how do you get the water out of the upper outlet line? Are you depending on gravity back to the tank or what?

4. I thought about using low pressure air to push the water out of the lines first and then putting in the antifreeze just to make sure there is no low spots holding water. Is that a good idea.

Sorry for the questions but I want to make sure I do it right and that everything will survive the long cold winter.

[Ford truck guy]

I have always used low pressure air to blow the lines out before the pink stuff... There are some that ONLY do the air and no pink ,not me..
Buy the air to hose adapter , place it on the black tank cleaner inlet and shoot a couple small squirts of air into it,, that will be good...

I then drain the water heater , while the anode is out , and after I flushed the tank , I shoot some air into the system ,then I bypass the water heater.


Then I go to the farthest point , open the cold valve , go back out and shoot some air... Go in , close that valve , open the hot valve , repeat..

Once ALL valves are done , its time for pink! I cannot help with the dishwasher and res fridge , this will be my first time!!

[atom ant]

I do it EXACTLY like Ford Truck Guy.

On the dishwasher, once I purge the kitchen sink with pink, I just run the dishwasher on rinse only, no heat, and its done in 11 minutes. I don't have the residential fridge, so not sure how to do that.

On the fresh water valve, are you taking about the one behind the panel under the water filter? The old Redwoods had a winterize valve in the convenience center, but I think it is all checkvalves now.

[PsychoBob65]

Yes Atom Ant I am. I know you have to turn that small valve to use the winterizing hose. But what do you do with the water that could be trapped between the fresh water tank and the valve? Maybe I'm over thinking it but were the fresh tank is at the rear of the axles and the valve is at the front control center I'm worried about the water between. Maybe it just drains to the fresh tank and out the tank drain? I thought of taking down the panel and unhooking the line and shooting some air down it just to make sure.

[atom ant]

Thats a good question! I need to trace mine out now to see if that is a vulnerability. My tank is in the front, right directly under the water pump, so that would be a short hose, but if it has a low point it sure could hold water.

[Ford truck guy]

I believe that the water would purge back to the fresh tank as it not far... Once there in can freeze all it wants as there is no concerns of expansion... I have never in all my years worried about that short run between the fresh tank and the pump... Lucky ??? Maybe...

[mhs4771]

Ah yes, but we're now talking about the 39MB which has the Fresh water tank mounted behind the axles, so the is a bit of a run between the tank and the pump.
We don't worry about it as we don't winterize the RW, we take it somewhere warm for the winter.

[atom ant]

I remember my Montana had the tank in the rear, but I don't remember how I did it. I know it had a tank fill valve that would fill that tank off the city connect that you had to blow out, and the city connect had the check valve right in the female coupler that you had to push a button to depressurize and drain.

You could have a genuine concern there Physcobob65.

[Ford truck guy]

If you really are concerned , get a funnel and pour some pink into the fresh tank fill hole... Turn the pump on.. You should pick up enough antifreeze to stop the fresh water from freezing....

On edit- my last SOB had the fresh water tank over the axles , and the pump was up in the basement. I never had an issue there either....

[Jim & Mary]

Brad, not to get totally off topic, but..............Just how many different RV's have you had before the Redwood? Can you count that high? Seems like every week you're treating us to a different picture of an RV from your past.

[mhs4771]

Again fellows, the MB with the tank in the back doesn't have a gravity feed, only a hose connection for a power fill.
What could be done is use the winterize connection in the Pink KoolAid, connect the outside hose connection to the fresh water tank filler, open that faucet and pump some pink into the fresh water tank, then open the valve between the fresh water tank and the pump and turn the pump on again pumping pink stuff from the tank to the pump. Wow a lot of work, glad I don't have to do that anymore.

[Grizzby]

If I'm using compressed air only to winterize the water lines, I always put a little pink stuff in the drains to keep the p-traps from freezing.

[atom ant]

Originally Posted by Jim & Mary

Brad, not to get totally off topic, but..............Just how many different RV's have you had before the Redwood? Can you count that high? Seems like every week you're treating us to a different picture of an RV from your past.

Jim, I've only had 7.

[PsychoBob65]

I think I'm going to take down the panel and find the suction side from the fresh tank and undo it and blow air backwards towards the tank. That should do it without introduction of antifreeze in the fresh take know. Yes? No? Sounds like a pain to me but then I'll know for sure.
Thoughts??

[atom ant]

Thats probably what I would do, at least for curiosity.

[Jim & Mary]

Spontaneous raucous LOL