I live in Denver, Creede….. so I know (what with our 7 degree nights a short while ago) you have finished your winterizing job in Boulder for this year. I just thought others might benefit from my 'sperience re a leaky upper check valve and its effect on my winterization (mine's a Class C but then, water is water.)
Perhaps some CV's develop catastrophic backflow leaks from failure of the poppet, but I suspect most do not………..at least mine has been a bit of a leaker for 2 years now. SOooo, I do the usual stuff re opening the FW tank drain, closing the WH bypass valve and all; and then after I open the low point drains and the faucet valves, etc, I rock n roll around the storage lot for about 20 minutes to try to get the lines as free of water as possible.
When I do eventually pump in the "pink stuff" via the on-board pump, I do the cold side first and then with the water heater drain plug still removed (to keep the delta P across that CV as high as possible) I open the hot side of the sinks/shower(s) one at a time ….. just until I see pink. I end up with about a teacup of anti freeze dribbling out of the WH drain plug opening. So, not much is wasted.
It would be interesting to know more about the failure mode for these CV's. Maybe mine is about ready to fail completely and back-flow in the "wide open" mode. If so, I will dump a LOT more of the pink stuff out on the ground next year. If that happens, I will certainly have to pull the WH to replace the CV on mine. If so, I may try to sneak in 2 in series …… space permitting; that would slow the faucet flow rate a bit with 2 CV's, but I doubt it would be a big deal.
Good luck with the Check Valve change out in the future….. and safe travels.
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Ed Sievers, Denver, CO
07 WBGO Outlook 31-C Sold Real good coach, just time to hang up the keys at 91.
"Be the person you needed when you were younger"
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