Cold weather and the fridge water line...

[DBDTIMES2]

This is our first year wintering with our 1017 DS4369. The heated tanks, oasis system, block heater and superb insulation are FANTASTIC!!

BUT!!

Since the DS is a winter ready coach.....why....is the water line of the fridge left unprotected from freezing in the full wall slide?

I would assume operating the slide with a frozen nylon water line would become..... a cracked and leaking line once it thaws.

I wrapped our line with heat tape and secured the plug to the vertical slide bracing so as not to interfere with the slide seal...for a cost of less that $30.00. and has worked so far down to -3.

I would think that this a simple fix for the factory , allowing the owners of any Newmar unit to enjoy all the amenities that are what make Newmar such a great product.

Just a suggestion........................................ ..... we love our DS

Happy New Year all!!

Dave and Dayna

[deaton]

Good thought. I don’t like those nylon lines for another reason. Mice can sense the water in the line, and in our last coach, they chewed it full of holes. I replaced it with a stainless line and got rid of the mice.

[RJOL]

There was a heat trace inside of a black cover, on mine. It started leaking last year and I took all of that line our and replaced it with new poly tube. Now I make sute thst anti-freeze gets into that line when winterizing.

[cruzbill]

Wrap your heat tape around the blue solenoid valve in line with the tubing. The inside of the solenoid traps water and it'll be the first thing to freeze.

[67vette]

Good info leaving in a couple of days heading South, get someone please tell me how to access this water line, do I need to pull fridge out and then what? Thanks in advance

[DBDTIMES2]

Originally Posted by 67vette

Good info leaving in a couple of days heading South, get someone please tell me how to access this water line, do I need to pull fridge out and then what? Thanks in advance

The water line on the 4369 comes out of the basement, and is located in a flexible trolly allowing the line to articulate with the movement of the slide and the nylon line is wrapped in a black foam cover, on the full wall slide. It may not be located in the same fashion on your model. If the fridge is not in your slide there will be no problems since the oasis keeps the basement from freezing.
There is enough room to snake heat tape around the foam in the trolly from inside the basement all the way to the 90 degree elbow entering the slide floor and attaching to the fridge.
My problem was not the solenoid, but the entire length of hose from the basement to the 90 degree elbow was frozen. Still in Denver, has been in the single low digits...and works perfectly.