So, I’m now onto day 3 of attempting to winterize our new 2022 AI 24GT.
I followed the steps in the manual, which seem to be incomplete and are not especially helpful for those of us with zero experience with these things. My manual says to use no more than 30 psi to blow out, then says up to 50 psi is okay if water heater is bypassed. The video on Airstream’s web page is clearly a few years old and says to use 60 psi. So, which should I believe??
The manual also still neglects to tell you that you have to leave the outside hose attached. It actually tells you to remove it before the blow-out stage
I’ve attached a pdf of the winterizing instructions in the 2022 AI 24GT manual.
After reading through this thread, I’ve found a few more mistakes I’ve made that are not addressed adequately (or at all) in the manual and that I need to correct.
Mistakes I made:
-didn’t leave shower hose attached
-didn’t leave water heater drain valve open. It took me a few minutes to realize the “service panel” mentioned in the manual was on the actual water heater and not the service panel on the box that was built around the water heater (which also needs to be removed).
-left all of the drain valves and faucets open at the same time…
-disconnected the water line from the toilet (said to do so in manual), which led to a giant puddle of water in the wet bath.
-did pump antifreeze through macerator, but didn’t pull hose out all the way and didn’t open the gray valve.
I was planning on just blowing out the lines and adding RV antifreeze to the traps, black and gray tanks, & macerator, but I wasn’t confident I got all of the water out, so I was then going to fill the lines with RV antifreeze. At that point I realized I don’t have the right tools for this. I bought an RV antifreeze pump kit, but it connects to the city water connection and there is no way to connect it to the flojet pump which has weird quick connects. Airstream implies that adding antifreeze through the lines is “optional”, but I’ve seen many comments about getting antifreeze into the water pump and macerator. So, I’m a bit uncertain what do here.
FWIW, I second the poster who recommended the blow-out plug with the quick connect rather than the tire stem style (which is the one I bought unfortunately). I can see value in having both if you only have access to a stations air hose.
So a few embarrassing questions:
Do I need a separate adapter (mentioned in one of the posts on this thread) to connect to the input on the pump or can I just stick a piece of hose in the inlet hole on the pump (with no connector to make a seal) to use the pump to put antifreeze in the lines?
I went back out and reinstalled the outdoor hose and ran more air through but could feel no air coming out of the hose end. I’m not sure if have the valves and faucets in the right positions.
Give I have no water in my tanks, I can’t test it, so:
-which direction do I turn the outdoor faucet handles to open them: clockwise or counterclockwise?
-what should be the position of the valves located near the pump (under the fridge) see pick below. I can’t tell what these are going to but
Airstream refers to them as low point drain valves, unless there’s another set of valves hidden in this compartment.
Typically, having the handle parallel to the pipe is the open position. Is this true here? Are the valves in the pic open or closed?
And here’s a pic of the valves accessed by removing passenger side cup holder between ottoman and rear lounge. are these open or closed?
If I have an air output gage on the compressor, do I need another pressure gauge before the blowout plug?
Finally, do I need to (or should I) run antifreeze through the water heater (tankless). Manual says to drain it and that RV antifreeze can be added if desired, but no idea how to do that unless it’s just a matter of closing the bypass valve and running the pump.
Thanks in advance. I’m disappointed in the quality of the Airstream manual. It feels like a copy and paste with a few minor updates from previous years and I’m left wondering whether I can trust it or not.
The manual also recommends removing the house batteries, but doesn’t tell you how to do that. That’s for another day I guess…
Frustrated,
Kristin