Help Please - water only flowing out of toilet and sink sprayer after de-winterizing

[Double J]

Hi all! I am de-winterizing and water is only flowing out of the toilet and kitchen sink sprayer.

I plugged the trailer into the city water and flushed the air out of all the lines with cold water. Water flowed out of the kitchen and bathroom sinks, toilet, kitchen sink sprayer, shower and outside shower. I then switched over to hot water and more air and water spit out, but then water and air stopped at all but the toilet and kitchen sink sprayer, but not the actual sink faucet, which I find quite strange. There is a little bit of air trying to flow out of the bathroom sink, but nothing really comes out of the other lines at all.

Other things to note:
-I only cleared the lines with an air compressor before winter so no anti freeze to flush out.
-I also filled the fresh water tank and turned on the pump. Water flowed out of the toilet and kitchen sink sprayer same as city water and pump seemed to work normal for those line.
-there was a small amount of water that leaked out of one of the hot water heater lines at first, but no more leaked out after that. It looks like this has Heppened before as I see old water marks.
-I have not put the water filter back in under the kitchen sink as I can’t find it so I have not ran that part yet.

Does anyone have any ideas as to what is going on here?
I fear this is big problem and am going to be in serious hot water with the wife so any help is greatly appreciated!

Thanks!
JJ

(Here is a picture of the kitchen sink sprayer so you know what I am talking about and the small leak from one of the hot water lines.)

[Farmer Dan]

Maybe your sink aerators are plugged with calcium deposits. Remove and inspect them for calcium, etc. They can be cleaned by blowing them out - or soaking in vinegar.

Dan

[Double J]

Thank you for the response! I will look into that now. So think it is likely to have clogged up at the bathroom, kitchen and both showers at the same time?

Appreciate the reply.

[Double J]

Originally Posted by Farmer Dan

Maybe your sink aerators are plugged with calcium deposits. Remove and inspect them for calcium, etc. They can be cleaned by blowing them out - or soaking in vinegar.

Dan

I think you may be onto something here. I just went out to look at the outside shower. I unplugged the shower nozzle and instantly felt some grit on my hands. Looked at the shower head and there is calcium clogging all the spray holes. Went and turned on the outside shower without the spray head and water was flowing out just fine!

Dan, you the man!!!

Now, what do you mean clean them by blowing the em out? I am going to try soaking what I can in vinegar.

Thanks again!

[Farmer Dan]

Blow the aerators out, while removed, with an air compressor. Maybe turn the pressure down some to prevent parts from flying away (This shouldn't happen - but just in case). Also run the water / calcium out of the lines before reassembly.

Dan

[Double J]

Got it, thanks!

Man is everything clogged with calcium.

Is there something I should do while sanitizing the system to help clear it if all the calcium?

[GCinSC2]

Periodically drain and then flush the hot water tank. Pretty sure there are gizmos to flush/spray inside of tank to flush crud out. I made my own gizmo.

[Belegedhel]

You say you hooked up to shore water, and were able to get water out of all faucets, shower, toilet, etc. Then you "switched over" to hot water, and you only get water out of the toilet and the sink sprayer, correct?

So when you say you switched to hot water, do you mean you still had the shore water hooked up, but turned on the hot water taps and the water heater, or do you mean, you replaced the ambient shore water with heated water?

Some things to check:
-make sure the hot water heater bypass (if equipped) has been changed to run through the water heater
-ensure there are no low-point drain valves open
-unscrew and rinse all of the aerators and make sure you didn't get a bunch of crud plugging them up.
-do you see any water leaking out of the bottom of the trailer, indicating that a low point drain is open or a pipe is burst?

good luck!

[link2dks]

From your description of events I believe this is what happened. If you drained your hot water heater when you were winterizing it still held about 1/2 of a gallon in the bottom. If you didn’t flush the hot water heater tank out then there was a fair amount of calcium in that half gallon of water. When you turned the hot water on you refilled the hot water tank and stirred up all the calcium at the bottom of the tank and ran it through all of your lines causing all of your aerators to be plugged with the calcium that was in your hot water heater.

You should always flush your hot water heater tank when dewinterizing before running any water through your system. If you camp frequently in areas that have high calcium content in their water you should probably flush 2 to 3 times a year. Camco sells a tool for flushing the tank, I think it’s only around $5.

You my find that you will need to remove the mixing valve on the heater tank and clean it as well, it also has a screen that can cause the mixing valve not to work properly.

Dave S

[Wazbro]

I thoroughly flushed out my water heater last fall then flushed it again this spring, unused in storage between. Much more calcium/minerals came out this spring, this proves to me that while the water heater tank sits empty over the winter the deposits built up inside the tank dried out and flaked off.

[Silvr_Bullet]

Originally Posted by Wazbro

I thoroughly flushed out my water heater last fall then flushed it again this spring, unused in storage between. Much more calcium/minerals came out this spring, this proves to me that while the water heater tank sits empty over the winter the deposits built up inside the tank dried out and flaked off.

I am doing all that you do, I have taken criticism for then syphoning out that half gallon of remaining water in the heater. I am aware that the manufacturer says leaving it in the heater will not cause damage, I agree. I wonder if it helps to remove it, who knows. If I had a large capacity air compressor I could dry it out but I use a Viair which doesn’t have the capacity.

[guskmg]

When de-winterizing be sure to close the low point drains, clean the water filter screen and use a knife to scrape off the sediment on faucet aerator screens. It is a good idea to use a filter anytime you hook up to city water or fill your fresh water tank. That will keep the junk out of your system.
guskmg

[jrwayne]

Dropping in,

You can get new aerators. Not expensive. Always run in-line water filters

[KCurtis]

I use a 3 stage water filter and water softener and in 2 years I've not had any problems at all.

[GOUSC]

All the above are good suggestions, especially the one by Link2dks and use an inline filter. One other item I do is empty and flush my water heater if it will be more than a month between trips so it doesn’t sit with stale water in the summer heat. I was at a CG this winter with high calcium content for 5 weeks. I flushed the water heater mid trip and at the end.

[richard5933]

Originally Posted by jrwayne

Dropping in,

You can get new aerators. Not expensive. Always run in-line water filters

In this case the call is coming from inside the house, so to speak. Even with an in-line filter on the incoming water source, the mineral buildup inside the water heater will still be there.

Problems like this are why flushing the water heater is recommended.

[LilPeanut]

If you want to get it all out of there once there is calcium, get some industrial strength vinegar. You can get it in the cleaning aisle of box box stores. Fill the hot water heater through the temp/pressure inlet (have to remove it) and let it sit for a day. You will be shocked what comes out.

[Mike edmonds]

Hi,
I'm a newbie Airstreamer. Each trip is a learning lesson.
This week I went to a site that had power but no water. I filled my fresh water tanks before setting up camp. I had zero water coming out of the sinks, shower and toilet.
I could hear the pump working, but alas no water. Im assuming a valve was closed from being dewinterized, but I could not find it. I have a 2022 Caravelle.
22 foot. The only valves I could find were in the floor of the closer, I opened them and water just drained from outside the camper.
One suggestion was that I blew a fuse, but that did not make sense to me as the pump was working. What else would you need a fuse for as it relates to the fresh water tank?
Thanks,

Mike

[Silvr_Bullet]

Originally Posted by Mike edmonds

Hi,

I'm a newbie Airstreamer. Each trip is a learning lesson.

This week I went to a site that had power but no water. I filled my fresh water tanks before setting up camp. I had zero water coming out of the sinks, shower and toilet.

I could hear the pump working, but alas no water. Im assuming a valve was closed from being dewinterized, but I could not find it. I have a 2022 Caravelle.

22 foot. The only valves I could find were in the floor of the closer, I opened them and water just drained from outside the camper.

One suggestion was that I blew a fuse, but that did not make sense to me as the pump was working. What else would you need a fuse for as it relates to the fresh water tank?

Thanks,



Mike

Hopefully you have resolved this problem, the pump is churning water out somewhere, maybe at the pump itself or a broken line if you’re not seeing water where you would expect to see it. I hope you don’t have that kind of problem.

[WestieHouse]

Originally Posted by Mike edmonds

Hi,
I'm a newbie Airstreamer. Each trip is a learning lesson.
This week I went to a site that had power but no water. I filled my fresh water tanks before setting up camp. I had zero water coming out of the sinks, shower and toilet.
I could hear the pump working, but alas no water. Im assuming a valve was closed from being dewinterized, but I could not find it. I have a 2022 Caravelle.
22 foot. The only valves I could find were in the floor of the closer, I opened them and water just drained from outside the camper.
One suggestion was that I blew a fuse, but that did not make sense to me as the pump was working. What else would you need a fuse for as it relates to the fresh water tank?
Thanks,

Mike

Any chance you or previous owner installed a valve before the water pump to use for pumping winterizing solution from the jug? If so is the valve turned to the correct direction allowing pumping from the freshwater tank?

Just a thought and probably a simple fix. Keep us posted. I always learn something from these types of posts.