De Winterizing

[davsal]

Ok, De Winterized the camper this year. Only blew out lines with air, did not use antifreeze. So took it out camping this weekend, and fought air in water system all weekend. Was not hooked up to water, was pumping from freshwater tank. I thought I had let every faucet run for long enough, but still ended up fighting air from time to time. Was both in hot as well as cold water. Could my pump be cause, and how would one check to see. Thanks David

[dwkerch]

I don't use anti-freeze to winterize either. Don't like to go through the process of getting it all cleaned out. If you are careful about properly winterizing with air it works fine. I simply blow out my lines and fittings with air and pour a couple of cups of anti-freeze down every drain to protect the traps, and either pour 2 or 3 cups into each holding tank to protect the dump valves or leave both dump valves open. The trick I have learned in order to avoid the issue you had when de-winterizing is to open fawcets as you fill the lines with water, either from the fresh water tank, with the pressure pump, or from a city water hookup. I open all hot water fawcets first, then turn on the water supply or pressure pump. Air is expelled from the hot water lines ahead of the water head as the tank and lines fill. Don't forget to open the relief valve on your hot water heater - that act will expell a lot of air through the water heater. When I get a full water stream from the hot lines, with no air, I turn the hot fawcets off and open the cold water fawcets, and again wait until I get a full cold stream with no air and turn them off. I have found that this process usually eliminates the problem you described, not always, but usually it does, and if you do still have some air in the lines it is minimal and clears out quickly.

[davsal]

I will try your method of doing all hot first ( and yes I opened up pop off valve on water heater to fill tank ) then all the cold. Was looking at another post, and they mentioned possible leak on inlet side of pump. As I did have hoses off of pump when I winterized. I did not want to have to buy new pump, and was not sure about getting all water out of it. Thanks for your reply.

[Jim28730]

Originally Posted by dwkerch

I don't use anti-freeze to winterize either. Don't like to go through the process of getting it all cleaned out. If you are careful about properly winterizing with air it works fine. I simply blow out my lines and fittings with air and pour a couple of cups of anti-freeze down every drain to protect the traps, and either pour 2 or 3 cups into each holding tank to protect the dump valves or leave both dump valves open. The trick I have learned in order to avoid the issue you had when de-winterizing is to open fawcets as you fill the lines with water, either from the fresh water tank, with the pressure pump, or from a city water hookup. I open all hot water fawcets first, then turn on the water supply or pressure pump. Air is expelled from the hot water lines ahead of the water head as the tank and lines fill. Don't forget to open the relief valve on your hot water heater - that act will expell a lot of air through the water heater. When I get a full water stream from the hot lines, with no air, I turn the hot fawcets off and open the cold water fawcets, and again wait until I get a full cold stream with no air and turn them off. I have found that this process usually eliminates the problem you described, not always, but usually it does, and if you do still have some air in the lines it is minimal and clears out quickly.

X2...great advice