Question: Is RV Anti-Freeze Required by your RV Mfg's Owners Manual?

[dkoldman]

Originally Posted by Morich

I would have said yes, and almost automatically!
But then that avoids the idea of thinking, so I wanted to consider it! Now that we no longer are expected/ assumed to think, I went to AI for an answer.

What does AI stand for any way?
Agitated Idiot comes to mind when I read some answers.

I tried to sort out the difference in Jersey cows and others and all I could get was something to wear!

But I wanted to keep an open mind so looked further and got this :
Attachment 190646

What further proof could we ask for if a machine tells us ??

Artificial Intelligence

I appreciate your info. It is very clear and I accept what it says. But when I read it seems to read as generic because we all know that it can freeze, but every P trap design is different.

I have my doubts because I have 2 p traps in my attic from condenser s and the water on those P traps have never frozen. The attic is above insulation and just as cold as outside air.

Nonetheless, I did something that I know you would appreciate. I looked at my RV's plumbing diagram and I noticed that I only have 2 P Traps. Bath and Kitchen, so all of these years I have been pour AF in outdoor kitchen sink and shower for no reason

The P traps in the Bath and Kitchen sinks are easy access. The next time I use or I may pour AF just to get liquid, I may take one off to see how mater the trap retains, I may even buy a replacement P trap as a backup while I purposely try to freeze one that has it natural water from draining.

Note: If I was REALLY nervous pervous worried about freezing P trap, I could simply just wrap with some insulation. If my pressurized water spigots on outside walls of house don't burst when under that insulated cover I put on during freezing, I will take the bets that the P traps inside my RV, both enclosed in cabinets areas will not freeze? Or if they do freeze will not burst as it has plenty surface area to expand on both sides

[reeman]

As others have stated it depends greatly upon where one lives. Not even a hard frost so far on south Vancouver Island. HOWEVER this certainly does not mean the antifreeze will not become necessary. Learned that the hard way 2 years back when a snap freeze took out the pressure flush valve on the dometic because I just drained the rig and largely relied upon gravity to winterize and forgot to pump antifreeze under pressure into the toilet valve even though I did the sinks and showers. PITA to the pocket book but a lesson learned. I do have a hot water bypass and drain the hot water tank without fail and pump antifreeze only into the bypass not the tank. Bypass systems are easy to understand if one looks at the schematic or draws one up themselves detailing it like an electrical circuit.

In the case of our rig it is much more reliable to just use the pump to winterize than using compressed air. Trick is to do it one line at a time, first sinks and showers up high then toilet NOT the other way around. Fresh water tank is just drained and left open, that is why there is an air bleed vent on the fresh water fill. Here to get a tech to do it one needs to get on a waiting list and some dealers overcharge for what is a very simple service.

[dkoldman]

Originally Posted by reeman

As others have stated it depends greatly upon where one lives. Not even a hard frost so far on south Vancouver Island. HOWEVER this certainly does not mean the antifreeze will not become necessary. Learned that the hard way 2 years back when a snap freeze took out the pressure flush valve on the dometic because I just drained the rig and largely relied upon gravity to winterize and forgot to pump antifreeze under pressure into the toilet valve even though I did the sinks and showers. PITA to the pocket book but a lesson learned. I do have a hot water bypass and drain the hot water tank without fail and pump antifreeze only into the bypass not the tank. Bypass systems are easy to understand if one looks at the schematic or draws one up themselves detailing it like an electrical circuit.

In the case of our rig it is much more reliable to just use the pump to winterize than using compressed air. Trick is to do it one line at a time, first sinks and showers up high then toilet NOT the other way around. Fresh water tank is just drained and left open, that is why there is an air bleed vent on the fresh water fill. Here to get a tech to do it one needs to get on a waiting list and some dealers overcharge for what is a very simple service.

To keep the thread on track with it intent, I remind all again that the focus is not on which method any one would prefer, but what method does your manual say.

i.e. You may wish to use AF as your preference and there is ZERO debate ion that as far as the intent of this thread. However for my Rig, WBGO specifically says no AF should be used in the toilet.

So what is my point, each RV owner should read their manual, if they wish to do something different that is fine, but it is not often called out.

On another forum another posters loves in the Yukon, he says he has never used AF except in his P traps in over 30 years. His point was his manual did not say to use in AF if he was in sub freezing -30 below temps etc. His manual said to use AF if a air compressor was not available. The worse I have seen in my RV is 8 degree temps lows and 16 degree highs for about 5 consecutive days all air blown at the time.

Now if we wish to discuss where manuals or WBGO Engineering is wrong, I would very much interested.

The only time I did not follow my manual was last weekend when I did not put the 1 cup of AF in P traps and I purposely blew out the water in the drains P traps ( separate procedure), but I did so just to see if I would get odors. I did not. In future I will go back to adding the 1 cup because it was less effort to add 1 cup than blow out the P Traps. With that said, I am curious if my P Traps will actually freeze? That may be a study on another day.