Hello, I usually take my 09 airstream international to the local RV shop to get winterized. I wanted to save some money so I decided to do it myself. I chose the blow lines and antifreeze in the traps method. I ended up with water all over the floor of the trailer
. Let me break down the steps I took and maybe someone can let me know where I went wrong.
1. Drained the water heater
2. Opened the low point valves (question on that - see pictures)
3. Turned on water pump until no water came out of faucets.
4. Disconnected the intake & outtake lines on the water pump. Turned on the pump and then caught the half a cup of water that came out with a towel.
5. Now is where things went south. The manual says to blow at least 60lbs of air with all faucets/valves open AND the pump outlet hose disconnected.
When I did this water came pouring out of the pump outlet. Maybe less than a half gallon, but hard to tell since most of it went under the cabinets.
I ended up reconnecting the outlet hose. And continued blowing, opening all faucets repeatedly until no water came out. (note: both in and out hoses are now connected)
SO WHAT WENT WRONG?
Here are some more details & questions that may shine light on an answer.
A. I may have had the low point valves and water heater plug open when I did the first blow through. Are these supposed to be shut before blowing? I assume yes - this would force water to come out of the faucets?
B. On a second try I did plug the water heater and bypassed it. (I am not filling the pipes with antifreeze but my theory was that by bypassing the water heater I would have less work for my cheap underpowered air compressor.
C. I hope that blowing air through the city inlet with the in/out hoses attached to the pump did not hurt anything. It seemed to do the job of forcing water out of the faucets.
I think my future steps should be as follows: (let me know what you think)
1. Open all Faucets and then low point valves + Water Heater plug with bypass off. ( My thinking here is open faucets and bypass off let air come into the system for better drainage) Rock trailer up then down.
2. Once water has drained -Turn on water pump. My question at this point...Should I close the low point valves, plug water heater and bypass it?
3. Remove both intake / outage hoses from pump - Run pump catch hopefully just a little water. THEN reattach both hoses before blowing air?
4. Blow air with both hoses attached to water pump.....opening closing both hot cold faucets throughout trailer.
5. Put antifreeze in traps.
5. Drink beer.
I have one last question about the low point drain valves. See the pic. There are two valves on my fresh water tank. One on the side one on the bottom. The bottom one has a broken knob so I've never tried it. The white one on the side works but clearly its not the lowest point on the tank. Any ideas as to why there are two and how to fix the broken one?
Thanks.