Walking The Winterizing Tightrope

[Pahaska]

Interstate traps are all waterless, at least for all recent years. One thing less to worry about.

Two things to worry about are the outside shower and the flush valve on the toilet. When I bought my used 2014.5, the outside shower fitting had already frozen and cracked on the dealer's lot. I discovered it at the first rally we attended and the dealer replaced it.

The toilet flush valve is one thing we share with the trailer owners. I blow mine out with compressed air.

[uncle_bob]

Originally Posted by jmslade

Thanks Bob. On the city water valve, how do you handle boondocking in freezing weather?

Hi

The only way is to either get lucky or blow it out with a compressor. To increase your chances, don't have city water hooked up if it will be freezing any time soon. Run with water in the fresh water tank instead. Since the city water gizmo is behind a door it does have some protection. Folks do pack the area with foam.

That said, we regularly camp out in "overnight freeze" sort of weather (with the heat running) and have not had a problem. I've done nothing to protect the regulator. I do accept that at some point the regulator / back flow gizmo will break and I'll be out $10 to replace it.

====

The factory approach is to blow the lines clear. You can pretty quickly run enough air through the lines and big spurts of water will stop coming out. If you want them clear, you need to keep going to the point you don't have mist coming out f the faucet. With a compressor that's bigger than most AS trailers, that's pretty easy to do. With something that will plug into a normal wall outlet .... you can go for hours and still have a bit of water coming out.

The risk here is that the water all eventually dribbles back down the pipe and pools right in the wrong place. You could go for 20 years and never have it do exactly that wrong thing. Next year it does and you have a mess ....

Bob

[Titus]

I don't doubt that PEX tubing can withstand the ~9% expansion when water freezes, but can't think that repeated expansion of 9% is good for it. Plus there are many parts that are harder plastic, or metal, that may not withstand the expansion - faucet valves, water or waste pump, etc. At a minimum you should not try to use (turn or turn on) any of the moving parts if there is any chance of them having frozen in them.

[uncle_bob]

Originally Posted by Titus

I don't doubt that PEX tubing can withstand the ~9% expansion when water freezes, but can't think that repeated expansion of 9% is good for it. Plus there are many parts that are harder plastic, or metal, that may not withstand the expansion - faucet valves, water or waste pump, etc. At a minimum you should not try to use (turn or turn on) any of the moving parts if there is any chance of them having frozen in them.

Hi

We had PEX in a house in Kansas. Due to a construction error (somebody forgot a section of insulation ....) we had a pipe that froze on a regular basis. It took a couple of years to become annoying enough to finally rip open walls and find the problem. I have no idea exactly how many freeze / thaws it went through. I'd guess it was well into the "many dozens" range.

We never had it break.

With small amounts of water here or there, you may not get a "full force" freeze. If there's an air pocket down at the freeze point, that can help a lot. That's no help in a fully loaded trailer. It can help you with drained or blown out lines.

Bob