Solis 59px won’t siphon antifreeze

[johniac]

I tried searching the forum, but didn’t find anything. I have the valves set to Winterize, but it won’t draw any antifreeze through the inlet for any fixture. Pump works fine from fresh water tank. Inlet works fine for city water supply or to power fill tank. I’ve tried everything I can think of.

[Morich]

We are missing some critical info to really do a good look at what steps may have been missed as parts and locations are prone to change from year to year.
So what model year do you have?
Knowing which year you have will allow folks to do a check of the manual and suggest what may have been missed!

Are you doing the winterize process by following the manual? There seems to be some things missed if you are adding antifreeze and there is still water in the tank??
Can you maybe point out which step you got to before things failed?

If the pump is working but no vacuum is found at the suction hose, the most likely thing may be one of the drain valves is left open. The main point if that it is much easier for the pump to move air from some open drain than to move liquid from the jug!

Did you get the filter back on the pump good after draining it? That can be an easy spot to lose suction!

A careful run back through the process and following the manual may be the best way to look for the problem.

OR if the hose is handy, a quick way to spot an open drain is to connect water and find where the water comes out!

The winter process is tricky and may need careful following the manual as we often don't do it but once/twice a year?

I feel for you as I have trouble finding my coat after it being in the closet too long!
Winter does have a way of teaching us to pay more attention to the small stuff!

[johniac]

Thanks for your reply! It’s a 2022 Solis. I was following the procedure in the manual. I had the fresh water tank and the lines drained via the valves under the back seat bench, and the valves were closed. After seeing that it wasn’t drawing the antifreeze, I added some new water to the fresh water tank to make sure the pump could still pull water from there.

When you say “pump filter”, do you mean the filter trap under the passenger side cargo area floorboard? I emptied that before I started. Maybe I didn’t screw it back on tight enough? I can check that.

[Morich]

I'm not familiar enough to know the locations on different things without doing some looking, so maybe we are speaking the same filter---or not?
What I meant was the small filter on the end of the pump. It is a small plastic things and can get cocked kind of half on/half off and not seal at times. Or maybe we totally forget and leave it off, so I thought to mention it.
With knowing exactly which RV, Winnebago gives us an interactive parts catalog that I love to play with and it gives accurate drawings in most cases. RV come in so many different to sorts and sizes that I don't even begin to try to know lots of the details without looking!
When you want to know where things are on the RV, this is my main place to start:
https://catalog3d.winnebagoind.com/menu/Parts.htm

I'll go take a look to see if there is anything special that might jump out and get back if anything looks odd. Meanwhile maybe somebody with experience with that specific RV comes along and gets you going. I did notice the process seems quite different with the switches and labels that we don't find on many of the older or larger.
Always something new showing up but it's usually electrical stuff!

I'll follow along and get back if I see anything?? Sometimes it's like an Easter Egg hunt and we never quite know which bush we need to look under!

EDIT?
Whoops, I ran into yet another question when looking at that RV. There are two builds that involved changes in the fresh water supply . There may be a label next to the drivers left side which gives info on when the RV was built. The question seems to be if before March 2022 or after?
Any help on that builds confidence we are looking at the right stuff! Click this snip to see what I mean?

[BirchyBoy]

If your RV pulls antifreeze in from the same connection as the fresh water line, try pulling out the little mesh screen and flipping it around. That should press in the check valve and help.

[be happy]

It looks like you have checked and rechecked most everything. Lets go over the antifreeze. I take it you have a long hose that goes from the pump that will end up in the gal. of antifreeze. At the pump end of that hose there should be a small value. That value will divert the pumps action from drawing water from fresh water tank to drawing antifreeze.

Good Luck

[johniac]

The Soils has four levers that control how the water flow is diverted. They are correctly set in the Winterize position.

[MTBer]

Do you have a faucet open when you turn on the pump? If the water in the lines don't have anyplace to go the antifreeze can't get into the pump.

[Morich]

Looking closer, I see no obvious points but I feel like the likely cause is some valve left open. Whether that is a drain valve or one of the valves at each faucet, when air can get in at some point, I feel you are not able to get the pump to build the vacuum needed to draw the antifreeze in.
Perhaps as simple as one faucet has the hot or cold open?
With the compact space involved I can't feel too confident that I'm able to trace the water flow at all points. Part of it just looks like a pile of tubing!

No idea of the situation, so maybe asking some questions might turn up something?
Are we correct in assuming the draining and then replacing water with antifreeze was done without there be a big freeze that might have broken something in the mean time?

As you went through the draining, did you then close each valve at all faucets and leave them closed?
Sometimes my mind is not as dependable on doing small stuff and this sounds like one place is leaking air into the system.
If not a lot of trouble, perhaps setting the valves back to normal use and checking to see if the pump will build pressure and stop running? that would say that all valves were closed. If set to normal and the pump continues to run, it is likely to be blowing air out at some point?

Silly idea to check? Make sure it's not a new suction hose with something stuck in it? Can you blow air through?

[johniac]

Thank you all for your advice! The problem turned out to be the pump strainer. The rubber washer got mangled the last time I screwed it on and so it didn’t seal properly. Once I corrected that, everything worked fine!

[Morich]

Very good!

That little strainer is one that seemed to bite me more often than needed.
It had a nasty habit of getting water back in it from some unknow source even after I drained it. the plastic is so thin to breaks if I look at it, so I finally just started turning the filter so the top was down to let allow water to go somewhere else!