Winterization Question on a 16' Sport

[Airabel]

Starting to think about winterizing and I can't seem to figure out how to drain the water pump or pump-in antifreeze. Looks like I have to remove the entire line from the tank including filter to the pump inlet. See attached phote. Is that correct?
I bought a Winterization Kit but looks like all I can use is the siphon hose to pump in the antifreeze, once entire line is removed.

[NoResults]

Disconnect water line at pump. Hook up air compressor to water inlet and blow out the lines. Drain the water heater and put it in by pass mode prior to blowing out the lines.

Then add antifreeze to all the drains and toilet.

PS forgot after you have air compressor hooked up open faucets one at a time till you have nothing but air coming thru.

Dave

[Airabel]

We live in Wyoming so I want the added protection of antifreeze in the lines. The pump inlet line does not look flexible enough to move out of the way to install a siphon hose to the pump.

[Peanut]

Save the trouble - just drain the water tank and dump a few gallons of antifreeze in through the water fill outside. Drain the hot water heater and flip the by pass valves. Turn on the pump and open shower values (one at a time) until you see pink, press the toilet pedal, then do the galley sink. Finally, do the two drain values in the area near the pump. Fifteen minutes and you are done.

[TG Twinkie]

I would not put anti freeze in the FW tank. It would take several flushes to remove it. And you can't completely drain the FW tank.
I would modify the fresh water line on the intake of the pump to be able to install the winterizing kit.
Looks like there is room to do it above the inline filter in the pic.
Remove the existing fitting at the tank. Run a new line straight out. Then an elbow to the left. Place the winterizing kit and inline filter after the elbow. Then another couple of elbows back to the pump intake.

[Launce]

I just did this first time in my 16' Sport.

First, I drained all the water out of the fresh water tank and the pipes onto the ground (by opening one of the valves on the right in your picture).

Shut off the FW tank (valve at bottom of tank -- I didn't put antifreeze in the FW tank).

I unscrewed the connection on the intake side of the water pump, the one closest to the FW tank (at the bottom in your photo), ran the pump dry for just a sec, and then screwed the coupler end of the antifreeze siphon hose to that intake side of the water pump.

Put the siphon hose into the antifreeze jug, turned on the water pump. And sucked all the antifreeze out onto the ground. Closed the bottom drain, which I had forgotten to do (!), went out and bought another jug of antifreeze, did it again.

Opened the sink faucet, shower, toilet, etc. I'm not giving a detailed procedure here -- bypassing/draining water heater, cleaning waste tank, AF in the city water inlet, AF in the traps, etc. -- just focusing on that water pump.

At the end of the process, unscrewed the winterizing-kit hose from the water pump intake and reattached the pipe from the FW tank.

(Note I chose not to blow the water out of the pipes. After reading a zillion posts and articles, I figured out that's only crucial if you're NOT going to use antifreeze. If you are using antifreeze, then that's going to push out the water just like air does, and the only issue is that a little leftover water might dilute the antifreeze a tad. So be a big spender and run a little extra antifreeze through the system.)

At the end of the day, my pipes and fixtures and the water pump are full of antifreeze. The water-heater tank and the fresh-water tank are cut off and sitting empty -- if a little moisture freezes in those, no harm is done. The waste tank (black/grey combined in mine) is almost empty, but I left a little water/antifreeze mixture in it to keep any residual sludge from drying out.

[OTRA15]

Lots of winterization threads going on all at once due to it being Fall, with plenty of incomplete advice being given IMO.

Check out the list of topics in the Winterization sub-forum:

http://www.airforums.com/forums/f458/

and these active threads:

Sticky topic in forum above: http://www.airforums.com/forums/f458...rize-7222.html
http://www.airforums.com/forums/f458...ml#post2030871
http://www.airforums.com/forums/f240...ml#post2030882

"Winterizing" search results: https://www.google.com/search?q=wint...=airforums.com

We do not use antifreeze at all in the supply piping [since 1991] and have done fine. Compressed air etc. done correctly works very well with no risk of chemical aftertaste etc.

Good luck!

Peter

[ROBERT CROSS]

Originally Posted by NoResults

Then add antifreeze to all the drains and toilet.

Dave

What I did 'til the RV Antifreeze ruined the seals in the toilet slide valve.
1/4 cup of veggie oil in the bowl has kept things working for 10yrs.
Some use sillycone.

Bob

[BambiCamp]

my RV tech installed the siphon kit by moving the water pump (seems like airstream can design siphon in at factory or leave clearance for this necessary weatherization fixture)

[OTRA15]

Originally Posted by ROBERT CROSS

. . .
1/4 cup of veggie oil in the bowl has kept things working for 10yrs.
. . .

Until that oil gums up over time IMO, especially if the toilet is not used for a couple of years, say.

The mfg. booklet recommends something else, but I am on the road right now so can't look it up.

Peter

[Launce]

Originally Posted by BambiCamp

my RV tech installed the siphon kit by moving the water pump (seems like airstream can design siphon in at factory or leave clearance for this necessary weatherization fixture)

Yeah, I wonder if my method, just disconnecting and reconnecting the intake on the water pump, would result in antifreeze backflow into the fresh-water tank. Which would not only leave a bad taste (propylene glycol is a nontoxic food additive; I wonder if they add a bittering agent to keep kids and pets from chugging it?), but it might drain antifreeze from the pipes. I'll have to go and check.

And if I want to install one of those permanent valves, like the Camco 36543, to make things easier, it does seem like I'll have to move the water pump to provide clearance -- which, as BambiCamp notes, is kind of annoying.

[pcskier]

Originally Posted by Launce

Yeah, I wonder if my method, just disconnecting and reconnecting the intake on the water pump, would result in antifreeze backflow into the fresh-water tank.

Doubtful. Just take the hose out of the antifreeze supply and let the pump run another few seconds before reconnecting the line from the tank. Antifreeze would have to run out of the pump, through the line to the strainer, and down into the tank. There won't be enough left in the pump for all that to happen. If you'd feel better about it, you can also just leave the line into the pump unhooked until spring, and hook it up to start your flush.

Just start your unwinterizing process by running water from your tank to push fresh water through the pump and the system and clear the system using plenty of FW from your tank. Then continue the flush using city water connection. I only mention this because starting your spring flush with city water will pressurize against the pump outlet, and *if* you have a stuck valve in the pump, it could start pushing antifreeze through the pump and into your fresh tank. You read posts on here often where people are hooked up to city water and finding that their fresh tanks are filling up with water due to this occasional problem.