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Old 03-30-2023, 07:39 PM   #1
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To Bypass Water Heater or Not? 2023 Micro Minnie 2108FBS

Hi everyone! Newbie here! We are new to everything RVing. We purchased a new 2023, 2108fbs the beginning of February. We live in south Florida, so no winterizing involved. I just found out I should've drained all the fresh water that's been sitting in there that the dealer put in to test the trailer before we took ownership. I found the steps in the manual. I have been reading posts, looking at videos and I'm still trying to wrap my head around the steps. It doesn't say to bypass the water heater. Some videos say to bypass it, not to put the bleach mixture through it because the bleach will cause rust? 🤷🏻*♀️😖

I have drained all the water out of the fresh tank from the line under the FR tank and opened all the valves to drain any water in the lines inside the RV. Do I still need to drain from the low point under the bathroom sink (I will need to take off paneling in bathroom to find them).

I haven't drained water the out of the water heater pending what I'm supposed to do? If I don't not sure how to bypass it.

Thanks for helping me understand this better!
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Old 03-30-2023, 08:53 PM   #2
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All things have to be done depending on what we each have going on! So no complaints if others have different methods of doing the water systems.
But understanding why there is a bypass my be a start. When we do th ewinterize, we often put Safe intifreeze in that is less apt to harm us if we do drink some of the remains after we drain and refill.
We add that pink antifreeze and run it through all the lines. But if we don't bypass the heater, that alone takes six or more gallons of antifreeze!
So they put bypasses on the heater so we can fill the lines much better and they assume we will be opening the valve at the bottom of the heater to protect it from freezing.
That's where you get to adapt things you see needed!
No freezing means you are likely fine without adding antifreeze so bypassing the heater will be a waste of effort!
Simply drain the water heater of water so that it doesn't turn to sewer water while stored.
Then when ready to use again and it may have been months, the lines and remaining water that doesn't fully drain from the fresh water tank may have lots of fungus, bacteria, etc in it, so it is wise to go to the trouble of adding bleach to run through all th elines as well as the water heater and fresh water holding tank.
Kind of just to be careful as we don't know what has grown in that standing water. A little like drinking your bird bath?

I'm sure you have found the various levels of bleah to use for the amount of wat in the tanks but that is not a terribly precise amount for a couple reasons. One is that the chlorine in bleach reacts with the various organics in the water and we don't know how much that is going to be, so we shoot in round numbers and assume it to be enough.

Then there is the part that folks worry about it harming the tank? They often have this super worry about bleach!
What they don't know is that all the public water in the country was treated with chlorine before chloramine was developed and it is really pretty safe as about half the country still uses just plain old bleach to treat their drinking water, especially in smaller water sources like community or private wells. It is safe and handy as well as cheaper than investing hundreds of thousands of dollars for the chloramine treating.

So if you get somewhere close to the correct amount of bleach to treat and let it stand overnight to do the work, then drain it, there will be no harm done.

I recommend put the right amount in including the water heater, let it stand for a few hours or drive somewhere to slosh it around in the fresh water tank, then drain and refill the holding tank. If you are not currently on a system that uses chlorine, you are likely to smell the chlorine for a bit but it is safe to drink, just that we will smell it if we are not used to it being there.
One of the benefits of chloramine treatment is that it gasses off much slower, so we can use less in the public drinking water. That lower level with less gassing also makes us smell it less often!
You've probalby noticed the chlorine smell around a pool or spa? That's the chlorine leaving the water and it doesn't rust stuff there enough to worry, even at the really much higher levels of pool water!
Hint? Don't drink the pool water! But it's fine to drink the RV water if we pay attention when sanitizing!
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Old 03-30-2023, 11:24 PM   #3
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This helps a lot! Thank you so much for explaining Richard. I will go ahead and drain the water heater, add the mix of bleach and water back in my fresh water tanks and pump it through the system and leave overnight, then drain and flush fresh water back through the system until it smells of no bleach. After that, I will drain the FW tank again and leave it empty until we plan on using it next weekend.
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Old 03-31-2023, 07:32 AM   #4
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Lots of things like sanitizing the tank depend on the exact siutuation at the time. If we have am Rv that has set for 6 months or a year, we may want to do more to clear the Junk that "might" grow in the tank than if it was just a week ago!
The thing I keep in mind is that we don't want to treat water to fully kill all the bacteria as that gets too close to killing the good bacteria in our GI tract.
We treat the water to what they have found is safe for most people to drink and that does leave a certain amount still living in the water.
Even bottled water has an expiration date as they figure the increased bacteria may be getting too high.
So we do what we think is that right level at the time and it usually works out fine. Life has very few real guarantees!
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Old 03-31-2023, 01:40 PM   #5
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I don’t let bleach get into the hot water tank because there’s always a small amount of water left in the hwt after you drain it. If there bleach in it, it could corrode the tank. Everything else in the system is pex and safe for bleach, so before giving the system the bleach treatment, we bypass the HWH. We also do not run anti-freeze through the lines. Just blow them out, and put some pink in the traps.

If you’re taking delivery of a new trailer, chances are it was winterized when it left the factory. All that pink needs to be blown out first with low point drains open. Then you can bleach treat the fresh water tank. Let it sit for a day and then pump some of that water through the fixtures. Flush fw tank and run unbleached water through fixtures to rinse until there’s no more odor. Then change bypass valves back to no-bypass. Like Morich said. Each person/RV has its own procedures.
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Old 03-31-2023, 03:04 PM   #6
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A good reason not to worry if some small amount of bleach is left in the water heater is the way they are built. There are two basic types, one lined and one aluminum. Chlorine does not react well with either type.
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Old 03-31-2023, 03:34 PM   #7
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Thank you Morich
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Old 04-01-2023, 06:02 PM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Morich View Post
A good reason not to worry if some small amount of bleach is left in the water heater is the way they are built. There are two basic types, one lined and one aluminum. Chlorine does not react well with either type.
Plus, the Atwood aluminum tank is coated/anodized to resist corrosion and reaction with chlorine.
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