Hot Water tanks

[Lisa B]

I know that you are suppose to by-pass the hot water tank when using the rv antifreeze. But why are you suppose to do it? We hear that you are suppose to do it but never as to why you are suppose to do it.
Lisa B

[NO1RAINH20]

First of all it is a cost saving factor,and secondly once the tank absorbs the scent of the antifreeze and then get heated you will understand why. Also make sure you only use non toxic antifreeze

[Dave78Chief]

Simple answer is:
The hot water tank typically holds 6 gallons. Thats 6 gallons of antifreeze. You bypass the tank and drain/flush it so you do not have to purchase 6 gallons of antifreeze. The piping system takes only a few gallons at most.

Dave

[Lisa B]

so when you take all the water out of the system there will be no water in the hot water tank/pump to cause any damage in the winter?

[Lisa B]

That would be bad to have that happen. So then you don't want any of the rv antifree to get into any of the tanks that store water?

[NO1RAINH20]

There will be no water in the hot water tank as lons as you bypass and pull the drain plug on it.that is of course as long as the check valve works.after we run antifreeze thru the system we blow as much as we can back out with air to make rinseing the system in spring much eaiser.

[Lisa B]

Ok makes sense. What should the check valve look like and where would you find it?

[Lisa B]

By the sound of we have some troubles then. The guy that we got the camper from put the rv antifreeze in (pink) and when we got it home when you turn on the faucets the antifreeze would come out that was 3 years ago as we have not put any water in it as of yet due to all the repairs.

[Dave78Chief]

Check valve is on input side water heater plumbing (bottom fitting on tank). Used to prevent hot water being forced back into cold water side due to hot water expansion.
3 years in system - Not good but not a problem per-say. Just means you need flush and sanitize your system.
From Wa8yxm:
What do you use to disinfect your fresh water holding tank
You do want to INCLUDE the water heater in this flush.

Then winterize with new antifreeze.

Dave

[toneumanns]

Lisa let me give you a suggestion. Your questions are good but indicate that you are new to RVing. Sometimes it is better to let someone do your winterization who is familiar with RV systems. It isn't very expensive but if you do it wrong it can & will get very expensive to fix cracked plumbing. Good luck.

[offthewall]

Quote:

Originally Posted by toneumanns Lisa let me give you a suggestion. Your questions are good but indicate that you are new to RVing. Sometimes it is better to let someone do your winterization who is familiar with RV systems. It isn't very expensive but if you do it wrong it can & will get very expensive to fix cracked plumbing. Good luck.

I always let someone else winterize it. Fairly cheap at my dealer and he guarantees it if something should freeze.

And I've been RVing for over 40 years.

[Lisa B]

It doesn't seem to be all that hard of a thing to do yourself if you read up on how to do it. Have a paper the the camp store that tell some things. It is very expensive to have someone do it in this area they are taking over $50 for it. We already had to replace the hose on the air vent to the water tank as something got into it and blocked it off.

[Lisa B]

Will have to do a good flush with bleach and baking soda and have to run it around the block to make the water move around in everything.

[Lisa B]

There is a place right here in town that works on rv but I would not take it there as I seen the kind of work they do. They had alot of camper there they they worked on and all the roofs were bad and this black tar was just all over them where they tried to patch them. The places that work on rvs are to far from us over an hour to get there that is a lot of gas to burn up.