Hello, I am going through the process of winterizing my Hawk. I have completed the instructions as per the owners manual, however, I still notice water in the clear receptacle above and to the right of the flo jet water pump. I also noticed some water in the clear tube that leads so no where. It is attached to a shut off valve directly below the pump. Was this installed as a method to insert anti - freeze?
It will no doubt extremely cold this winter as I live in Northern Canada.
My questions:
1. Is it normal to still have a little bit of water in the lines/tanks?
2. How many of you have used the antifreeze and do you find it is required?
3. Is it possible to get absolutely all the water out?
Any info would be greatly appreciated!
I do not want to wake up to any surprises this spring.
Thanks!
Okay, Ramblingman, I'm one of those who uses my FWC year-round and I live in snow counrty (the northern Sierras/southern Cascades (Susanville, Ca-not northern Canada) and camp in snow and cold-one of the winter types like MarKBC and a few others so I have to watch what i do, especially when I get home from a run somewhere during the winter. When I first got my FWC, six years ago, I did what you just did that first winter and even went out and bought some anti-freeze but wait a minute, I was planning to go right back so draining things out all the time was sort of defeating why I bought my FWC in the first place. My major problem was finding a non-frozen water tap to fill up my tanks before my next trip or find a non-snowed in road out of town ,so even though my situation is different, here are a few hints that may help you out.
After you drain your tank, drive around for a while, then park it on a slant and this may be wrong but to get rid of last bit of water i hit the pump (instead of doing all those other things with the hot water heater and tank) and watch the water come out in the sink! Last year I made the mistake of coming back from the coast in a snow storm and forgot to both drain the tank and hit the pump switch when I first got back until a couple of days later and my while my water lines froze up, the tank did not---worry time, but when the sun came out -much to my surprise -everything thawed out. I guess I'm a lucky soul, cause waiting for the sun to show all I could think about was how stupid I was-me who should know better. I've had to tear my whole system apart before when a check valve was put in backward and once when my tank sprung a leak (check the FWC thread on that fun) I had to do it here instead of bringing it in. Again I camp year round and leave the FWC on my truck all the time. While I realize I've been lucky so far, I think these things are made tougher than we think, but if you start doing snow and winter camping like I do, the "official" process for draining the tank/hotwater heater etc., just doesn't work-so you gotta improvise and be real lucky-winter camping is fun and there are allot fewer folk out and about! Hope that helps!
Smoke