Cold weather problem

[lamato]

HI, we've had our 2013 extended interstate 1 year. We just returned from a two month trip. Twice during our trip we experienced 14 degree and 19 degree temperatures at night. On both occasions we noticed a drip coming from the hose between the macerator and the auto drip. It also appeared that the black tank drained the first time this happened. The dripping occasions were two weeks apart. The time between the "leaks" everything seemed to work perfectly when the temperatures did not go below freezing...there was no dripping. We made a video of the dripping if anyone is interested in viewing, I will try to post,it.

[Protagonist]

Originally Posted by lamato

HI, we've had our 2013 extended interstate 1 year. We just returned from a two month trip. Twice during our trip we experienced 14 degree and 19 degree temperatures at night. On both occasions we noticed a drip coming from the hose between the macerator and the auto drip. It also appeared that the black tank drained the first time this happened. The dripping occasions were two weeks apart. The time between the "leaks" everything seemed to work perfectly when the temperatures did not go below freezing...there was no dripping. We made a video of the dripping if anyone is interested in viewing, I will try to post,it.

The "auto drip"? That's not terminology I'm familiar with.

Consider, even when you use the tank heaters to keep the fresh tank and holding tanks from freezing, the hoses between the holding tanks and the macerator pump aren't heated, the macerator pump isn't heated, and neither is the discharge hose. You need to make sure those are empty.

One key is, the discharge hose is coiled vertically on the reel, meaning there are low points in each loop that can trap water. When you dump your holding tanks, you need to pull out all 20 feet of the hose and lay it out flat on the ground, even if the dump station is only 3 feet away. That way, as you reel up the hose again, all of the residual water in the hose will run out the end of the hose.

[gmillerok1]

It may be only a need to tighten the c-clamp ring(s) around the dump hose and/or the 3" line. Mine started leaking where it connects to the tank last year and tightening the c-clamp fixed the leak. Perhaps when it is very cold the line contracts.

See my other post on the other thread, though, about the macerator. There is no way to get all the water out of the pump. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that when the 3" is only partially full when the tank is empty, the pump starts to surge but never gets all the fluid out as there is too much air in the line between the hose and the 3" line that runs to the tank(s), no matter how long you let it run. Then when you turn it off, whatever is left in the hose slowly drains to the low point into the pump where it can freeze, and thus damaging the pump.

I doubt the hose could freeze. It is at least in a closed compartment, next to the heated cab in a flexible hose. But the macerator sits on a platform wide open to the cold air and if it is very (and I mean VERY cold) for an extended period when the macerator isn't used, it is very possible if there is fluid inside the pump it could freeze, and there very little if anything you can do to prevent it.

Another clever engineering design by Airstream. And they won't cover freeze damage under warranty.

Gerald

[Wabbiteer]

Cold plastics shrink. The dump hose fittings I tightened in sunshine at 90° fell cleanly off after dumping and 3X rinsing my '73 tank the first time from using our 58°F temperature well water here in Minnesota. Could have been a "Bob Munro" Robin Williams RV movie spectacle. So snugging down associated fittings while cold is a good idea but remember what gets tightened in cold weather becomes gorilla-tightened at 90°F, just saying.