'UN-Winterize' - How do I do it?

[pollymenaker]

How do we un-winterize our
How to Dewinterize your RV





Dewinterizing

[SteveH]

Flush the water system with fresh water.

[HowieE]

Assuming the trailer had antifreeze put in it. Also assuming the hot water heater has a bypass. Hook up to city water and run all the faucets and toilet until the pink stuff is cleared. There will be pink foam at the end of this but run it till it is clear. Now put some water in the water tank and again run all the faucets till clear again. Now open the hot water heater bypass and fill the heater. That should do it.

If your unit does not have a hot water bypass drain the hot water heater of antifreeze before starting to flush with city water. When draining the hot water heater try and have on hand about 18 in. of small tubing, 1/4 or 3/8 will do. Slide the tubing into the heater as it is draining so the tubing rests on the bottom of the heater. This will siphon off the last quart of so that is below the drain and greatly shorten the amount of water you will have to use to flush the anti freeze. Once drained replug the heater and start as noted above.

Antifreeze is not harmful but has been known to send you to the toilet more than needed so flush it well.

[Minno]

If you plan on drinking the water in the fresh water tank, then you need to sanitize the fresh water system before using it. Do a search on Sanitize in the forums, and you'll get plenty of pros and cons to drinking the water you carry. Many of us do without any worries or problems at all.

To sanitize, mix 1/4 cup of bleach for every 10 gals of tank capacity in a bucket with some fresh water, and carefully pour it into an empty fresh water tank. A funnel works well for this. Add water to fill the tank, and then pump the bleach mixture through ALL the fresh water plumbing, including the hot water heater. Pump until you smell the bleach mixture at each and every faucet, both hot and cold. And the toilet. Turn off the pump, and top off the fresh water tank. Let it sit for 4 hours at least. Overnight works quite well. Drain everything, including the hot water heater. Now, add 1 quart of white vinegar for each 10 gals of capacity to the fresh water tank. Fill with water, and then pump the vinegar mixture throughout the system, again until you smell the vinegar at each faucet, both hot and cold. Don’t for the toilet during all of this – you want the cold water pipe to it sanitized as well. Note – you really can’t add too much white vinegar, so more is better than too little in this case. Let it sit overnight, or for a couple of days. It will get rid of the bleach taste and smell. Drain everything again, and fill with clean fresh water. Then you can safely drink it.

Kay and I have been doing this for years upon years, and we have never gotten sick from drinking the water in the trailer.

Chris

[Ag&Au]

I just retrieved the Airstream for its winter domicile (covered and enclosed on 3 sides).

Everything survived intact and functioning with no plumbing leaks.
The LCD TV survived the cold no problem. The minimum temperature was -19F.

Winterizing consisted of throughly blowing the water out of the plumbing, draining the water pump per instructions, draining the fresh water tank, and pouring a little antifreeze in each sink and shower drain. In addition, anything stored in the trailer that might freeze was removed and stored in our basement.

I was very happy to see no water running out the bottom of trailer during testing.