Winterizing.

[dennis 221]

I've read most posts here. Now on my Google News feed up pops how to winterize camper water system. An it states Not to flush hot water heater with rv antifreeze "cause it will damage water heater " so is this true or false?? Thanks all

 

[dakozicki]

I live near Reno and have “winterized” my water system simply by emptying it. While that worked, it worried me. Last year I used RV antifreeze, but I didn’t run the pump to make sure it got into the hot water tank. I haven’t had an issue. I’ve read on here and have friends who use cheap vodka. I think I will try that this year. I sometimes use the camper in winter and don’t like the time it takes to flush the system before filling it.

 

[longhorn1]

I run RV antifreeze through all the lines, water tank, pump, and hot water heater. Never heard this and never had a problem. Your water tank will hold 1-2 gallons of water and your hot water tank will hold 1/4 to 1/2 gallon. In Indiana we get down to negative numbers and have never had an issue. I look at it this way, winterizing everything is cheap, having your hot water tank split open and the cost of over $800 to replace it makes it an easy decision.

 

[dennis 221]

being from IOWA i feel your pain/ freezing cold lol!!!think I'll run some r.v. stuff through system!! after our next trip to s.w..

 

[Wallowa]

Of course if you drain the system...leaving 1-2 gallons in 20 gallon tank and 1-2 gallons in 6 gallon tank....below freezing temps will not damage the tanks since ice does not expand that much....I personally do not want anything but water and the occasional 1/4 cup Clorox in my drinking water ... enough chemicals already in the water... Vodka notwithstanding

 

[rando]

This seems to be a topic of discussion every autumn .

Many of us, even in solidly cold areas just drain the system, and possibly blow it out with compressed air, and have had good luck with this for years. If you use the camper in the shoulder or winter season, adding any sort of antifreeze is a real pain, as it takes a lot of flushing to get the stuff out, then you need to add it again when you are done, and there is a residual taste to the water system.

 

[donmac]

[SIZE=11pt]I reside in the NorthEast and have had a bunch of RV’s, most with much more complex water systems than my FWC. Some folks get away with just draining the tank(s) and blowing out the lines, but many in the cold regions prefer to pump the lines with antifreeze. Most people don’t fill the freshwater tank with antifreeze, you simply drain it. If you’re using RV antifreeze you typically install a winterization kit that bypasses/isolates the water heater and you then just drain it. I used to take a mid-winter trip down the east coast to FL every winter and would winterize/de-winterize on the way down and back. Even with a larger RV with bathroom etc. you can do it in 15 mins while on the road if you have the right tools and experience.[/SIZE]

 

[MountainSufi]

Howdy from Jackson Hole

Four Wheel Camper advises just emptying the water tank, UNLESS you have a hot water heater.

FWIW, I don't & have never had a problem with simply draining. A friend with a FWC hot water system experimented & stopped adding RV antifreeze as recommended. He's had no failure for years.

Me? I'm glad I don't have a hot water heater, and value the extra storage space.

 

[Wallowa]

Howdy from Jackson Hole

Four Wheel Camper advises just emptying the water tank, UNLESS you have a hot water heater.

FWIW, I don't & have never had a problem with simply draining. A friend with a FWC hot water system experimented & stopped adding RV antifreeze as recommended. He's had no failure for years.

Me? I'm glad I don't have a hot water heater, and value the extra storage space.

Really? Never heard that before...where did you read that?

 

[Jon R]

Of course if you drain the system...leaving 1-2 gallons in 20 gallon tank and 1-2 gallons in 6 gallon tank....below freezing temps will not damage the tanks since ice does not expand that much....

Hi Phil. The mechanism by which water freezing can damage containers is more complicated than that. I’ve made ice blocks for the cooler in open top containers and often had them stretch or split. Water expands about 8% when it freezes. As a container cools due to colder exterior temperatures, you get a frozen layer buliding in thickness at the walls and exposed water surface. Once that layer get thick enough to stop escape of the internal water that has not yet frozen, further freezing of the internal water can’t always expand upward into the space above the water, and the expansion occurs in all directions. A very thin layet on the bottom of a tank is ok, but above a certain thickness water gets trapped as described and can damage the container.

I used one of my wife’s aluminum cake pans to make an 8x10x1.5 inch thick block of ice. I ruined the pan because it stretched the bottom of the pan significantly.

 

[Wallowa]

Thanks Jon...interesting observations...ice is a incredible machine at exfoliating rock or splitting other ice, ice ridges...I guess if over burden of ice is stronger than container, what gets distorted is the weakest substance....candidly, I thought of ice trays that do not get bulged when cubes freeze in them...as I recall maximum ice expansion occurs at 32* F; when it first freezes...in a hot water heater the ice should freeze from the metal surface of the heater outward and expansion should be away from heater wall..water has a high latent heat while the metal of the heater doesn't.

Guess proof of the pudding is that many, myself included, who have never used anti-freeze but only drained FWC water system including heater and main water tank, have not suffered internal damage to the heater...in my case to -11 degrees F this winter while I was skiing..honestly just hitting 32*F is the critical point for expansion and beyond that a moot point..but hey, I could be wrong!

Will try research what FWC sez about not just draining system if you have a hot water heater..

Phil

 

[wicked1]

I also simply drain it. I camp all four seasons. I have a hot water heater. I open all valves and drain the system before I head home. And leave all the drains open, faucet open (but pump turned off) while I'm driving, to shake out any water. The one line I can't imagine would get cleared is one going to the toilet, but it has never failed.
It gets below zero F here.

I've gotten nervous a few nights while camping when it has gotten very cold.. I have insulated inside my cabinets. I leave the cabinet doors open so the furnace heats inside them. And when it got VERY cold, I turned on the hot water heater.

Otherwise, I don't ever use the hot water heater and wish I had the storage space instead.. Toilet, too. I peed in it once while on the road when I couldn't find an open bathroom. But otherwise never used it.

 

[Jon R]

I certainly don’t doubt the experience all of you have discussed, and based on that I plan like you to just drain mine and blow out the lines.

 

[dennis 221]

so to all that use r.v. anti freeze how much do you put in system???

 

[Wandering Sagebrush]

so to all that use r.v. anti freeze how much do you put in system???

When I use it, I make certain it runs through the pump, all lines, and out the faucets, toilets and showers. I also pour some into the waste tanks

 

[Vic Harder]

so to all that use r.v. anti freeze how much do you put in system???

Very little. 1 gal is enough to treat the system. I've done it twice now (it get's to -35*C here) and regret it in the spring when I have to flush and flush and flush to get the icky taste out of the system. Just blowing the water out this year.

 

[Kbarry]

I agree with Vic. I have used the RV antifreeze once and it took a very long time to get rid of the taste. I blow out the system in the fall and leave it empty all winter.

 

[UmkaAndHawk]

Toilets: "I peed in it once while on the road when I couldn't find an open bathroom. But otherwise never used it."

We use a couple of plastic bottles. If it's good enough for truckers, it's good enough for us.

​(And we're backpackers, so digging a hole continues to work for bigger business, indeed, it's much easier with the fancy heavy trowel we get to use now, than it ever is with the lightweight plastic thing we bring backpacking!)

 

[Vic Harder]

+1 for bottles. We use a wide mouth 1.5L water bottle (clearly marked) so it has become a His and Hers bottle. ;-)

 

[dennis 221]

does that little plastic water filter in water line just unscrew to empty it???