Winterizing Whirlpool washer...?

[stewed]

We installed Whirlpool stacking W/D units in our Excel 35' RLO last spring and now its time to winterize until heading South. I don't have any problem winterizing the coach, but have no experience with the washer unit. I'm sure this isn't rocket science, but hey........it's not in the manual!

Thanks,

Roger

[LarryGodby]

Here is what I do. Not sure if it right or wrong but it works. I do the whole rig first then I turn on the cold cold cycle and open the cold water inlet valve and put antifreeze into the washer. Then stop the washer and go to the hot water wash cycle. With the cold water valve closed, I open the hot water valve and allow some antifreeze into the washer. Then I just drain it using the spin cycle with both valves shut. I figure the antifreeze that went into the washer has to go through the pump and out the drain. I use an extra gallon of antifreeze but the extra 3 bucks is a lot of piece of mind. Not sure what the expense of pump replacement would be, but it is probably more than 3 bucks.

[Jim & Bona]

As I recall, the one time I winterized our trailer I did it about the same as Larry suggests. I did add one step. Before putting antifreeze into the washer I removed the lint filter at the lower right front of the washer to drain all residual water. Then replaced the filter and did the antifreeze thing.

One warning on winterizing: the mixing valve at the Atwood water heater seems to be a common victim of winter. Several of us have had to replace the valve after the winter. Seems that antifreeze doesn't fill the valve resulting in a failure the following spring. Perhaps some other helpful forum member can suggest a remedy.