Flushing water lines after Winterizing

[Ted Fyden]

was curious if anybody flushes anti-freeze with chlorine solution to kill two birds with one stone so to speak. the book in section 7 page 7 (Plumbing) is telling me how to disinfect but i am also gonna flush out anti-freeze.

[Morich]

Yes, that is the way we normally do it.
Small point that I keep in mind is that "things" can tend to grow on the top inner surface of the holding tanks, so while I have the chlorine in, I like to work the RV back and forth a bit to try to splash a bunch on the top where it might not go when just filling!
Kind of like rocking a boat back and forth to make it slosh around?

[wahoonc]

Originally Posted by Morich

Yes, that is the way we normally do it.
Small point that I keep in mind is that "things" can tend to grow on the top inner surface of the holding tanks, so while I have the chlorine in, I like to work the RV back and forth a bit to try to splash a bunch on the top where it might not go when just filling!
Kind of like rocking a boat back and forth to make it slosh around?

As part of the spring chore list we fill the entire water system with a chlorine mix and then drive it a few miles. At the same time, we have added our Geo-Mix to the holding tanks to make sure they are nice and clean. We use our camper year-round for the most part so "Spring" will vary.

Aaron

[be happy]

I guess I add a step before adding the chlorine solution. I open the low point drain valves and drain as much antifreeze out as possible. Then I flush the system with fresh water. After flushing system I will then do the chlorine solution.

Just a thought how many folks flush and sanitize the fresh water hose each spring. I will add chlorine straight to hose and move hose back and forth to move the chlorine around. Let set awhile then flush.

Happy Camping

[Morich]

Originally Posted by be happy

I guess I add a step before adding the chlorine solution. I open the low point drain valves and drain as much antifreeze out as possible. Then I flush the system with fresh water. After flushing system I will then do the chlorine solution.

Just a thought how many folks flush and sanitize the fresh water hose each spring. I will add chlorine straight to hose and move hose back and forth to move the chlorine around. Let set awhile then flush.

Happy Camping

Yes, fully agree with draining the antifreeze first and then flushing with regular tap water with chlorine content before filling and letting it stand. I also add the chlorine to the hose as a way to clear it.

Sometimes we can get into small points in communications that may not mean the same to each ? Flushing to me means removing what is left after draining! Like I want to get the smell and taste out before using!

[Marine359]

It’s really not necessary to put anti-freeze into the lines. Blowing out the lines with 40 psi compressed air, and putting some ant-freeze in the traps works perfectly well. You do have to make sure you first drain fw tank and run the pump dry, then do the blowout properly to evacuate all water from the system. Plus, anti-freeze (pink) becomes ineffective if there’s any water left in the system that it can mix with.

[Morich]

Winterizing is always going to be a personal choice and each of us will have different ideas of what we want.
I have found that doing everything I can to avoid trouble from frozen pipes and fittings is well worth the effort.
One of the reasons I do extra is because I started out in RV with buying old items that were really cheap! Many of those old items were sold really cheap because they had been left prone to freeze damage! Once I had spent some time getting to and repairing a few things that were missed, I did NOT want to let any freeze while I owned them.

I looked at a number of RV that had frozen holding tanks and I considered that fatal, so never bought them. Dropping a tank and all the stuff in the way, put those into what I termed fatal!

So we get to make the decision of how much we want to do the work to avoid freezing versus how much we want to lay awake at night and wonder if we will have a useable RV in the morning!
Each time we winterize, we get one chance to do it right or do it just a touch too quick and get it wrong!
I do not take chances that leave me wondering if I missed a couple teaspoons of water setting in some fitting like a tee that will be impossible to reach without taking woodwork and cabinets apart!

Shopping and buying lots of used RV tells me a lot of folks take chances and don't get it right!
To borrow a phrase?
There are bold owners and old owners, but very few old, bold owners!
The freeze doesn't often kill the owner but trying to fix it after, may make them die early!

[Wmlunt]

So Richard, you use the compressed air method? Then full antifreeze?
Anyone know how many gallons are needed for winterizing? (Micro Minnie)
Thx! Bill

[Marine359]

Water cannot cause damage if there’s none in the system. If there is, it will expand and the risk is greater to fittings because pex is freeze resistant. Your risk is actually greater depending on anti-freeze if you don’t fully evacuate water, unless you use enough of it to flush everything through. Many years ago, took my lead from a Minnesotan (does it get colder anywhere than that?) who has never had freeze damage. I sleep well in winter as long as I have fuel and the furnace stays lit. Anti-freeze only in traps if the blowout procedure is done properly. If you don’t do it right, you risk a freeze. If you don’t know what you’re doing working on anything you run risks. There valid opinions on both sides. Pick your poison.

[Morich]

My method is overdone and I admit it! But I hate the thought of fixing things if I miss something! I have the time and have the tools, so why not?

I'm not in hard freeze country most of the time now but do it the same as when I was North. Shopping centers in Texas don't even have places at the meters to plug the car in while shopping!

I drain it all as well as I can but know that will depend on how the ground slopes where the RV is at that time! After draining, I blow it out but know that I am prone to missing small amounts, especially at fittings.
I then add the pink to mix with anything I've missed and again blow it out into jugs to keep for the next year! There is no point in leaving the antifreeze in as it is not keeping water from freezing if I take it out, so I save the time money, and effort of getting new every year.
Two gallons of pink is usually plenty if we bypass the water heater to avoid filling it and don't put it in the fresh water holding tank but just run it through the lines and pump.

One of the small points which tend to be easy to find water left after blowing out is the filter at the pump. Since there is a check valve to keep water from going back through the pump from the city water side, it can stop air from blowing back through to clear the water, if we are adding air at the fresh water port.
It is likely to vary on different RV but it can be hard to figure how to blow air through this filter. You can't blow air into the fresh holding tank and force it into the lines as the tank has an air vent. That leaves that little fragile plastic filter housing as really easy to miss and break it!
It often looks better if we leave the bottom of the filter hanging down! Just the way our mind works, perhaps and we want the bottom down? I turn the filter so the bottom is UP to allow water to run down and out! I want it to dump itself-----just in case I forget!

Over working the issue? Possibly, but I like to cover myself for the times when I screw up!
I prefer taking several days when it is nice out to do it slow and easy as I HATE finding out I missed something and have to do a bunch of repair the next time I want to use the RV.
I look at it as insurance?
Do you buy insurance because you MIGHT need it someday? Or do you wait to see if you have a fire or wreck and then buy insurance?

[Marine359]

I run my pump dry after emptying tank.
Hey, if you think you may lose sleep over it, purge and use anti-freeze, but use enough that you’re sure it has flushed all the lines with pink. I’ve done it and it takes 3 gallons to completely flush all lines. You can tell by testing each line, opening its low point drain. If you don’t completely flush through with pink, it’s useless.

[Wmlunt]

Great tips guys! Thx! Bill

[Marine359]

Originally Posted by Ted Fyden

was curious if anybody flushes anti-freeze with chlorine solution to kill two birds with one stone so to speak.

I normally sanitize my fw tank when I dewinterize unless I winterize/dewinterize more than once per season. It’s normal for us to winterize/dewinterize at least twice per year, as we go south in winter, sometimes more than once. Mix the chlorine with water in a reliance jug, thereby sanitizing the jug and a second jug or bladder. Before pouring it into tank, I pour some into my fw hose to sanitize the hose. Finally, fill the tank with the sanitized jug and sanitized hose. Drive around to wash the tank. Then, run the water through all plumbing fixtures with low point drains open. This sanitizes the water lines (sorta). Final step is to empty chlorine water, and fill/empty tank three times until all traces of chlorine odor are gone. Fresher than a baby’s bottom.