Re: [A/S] Winterizing, blowing out the lines

[Fred Klingener <jfklingener@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> Virtually all the blurbs I've read about draining the
> water system refer to 
> "blowing out the lines." I guess you need a
> compressor (or a politician) 
> to do that, right?

My first winter, I used my air compressor to (supposedly)
blow out the lines.  The procedure left enough water in
lines serving both the sink and the shower to break them.  

Since then, I've pumped them full of antifreeze before
freezeup, and I've had no problems.  Blowing the lines
clear is obviously possible, but it's hard to verify that
the job's done.

The process sounds simple enough: drain the tanks, bypass
the hotwater tank, unhook the pump suction line, attach one
end of a tube to the pump suction, immerse the other in a
jug of antifreeze (at the risk of insulting all of you, for
completeness I have to say here that you use propylene
glycol 'RV' antifreeze), and turn the pump on.  Run all the
faucets (one at a time) and flush the toilet until
everything runs pink - probably a few gallons.  This
procedure pretty much insures that the traps are all
protected and that there's a substantial amount of
antifreeze in the waste tank(s).

The practical reality depends on the design of your rig. 
On my 16' CCD, the water pump is mounted in the roadside
forward compartment far too close to the freshwater tank to
either remove the suction line or attach anything else to
it, so the whole mess has to be unscrewed from the floor
and the temporary plumbing attached, then reassembled. 
This is an unbelievable PITA.  Not quite as bad as changing
the bed sheets, but right up there.

A large enough RV store will be happy to sell you a Tee
valve, the outlet of which will permanently attach to the
pump suction and will allow you to select as source either
the freshwater tank or a jug of antifreeze.  

In my rig, fitting the Tee valve and support plumbing was a
PITA far beyond fitting the simple ad hoc setup, but it
only had to be done once.  The last couple of years, my
life has been so perfect that I've had to winterize and
summerize several time a year as I traversed back and forth
across the freeze-thaw line, and the presence of the Tee
valve has been life-changing.

There are some niceties to worry about like whether of not
you want to put the Tee valve upstream or downstream of the
water filter, but I didn't really have a choice.  Space
restrictions and fitting gender issues made me leave the
filter attached to the pump suction port.

Hope this helps,
Fred Klingener