hot water heater

[jim22]

Just read a question about winterized ... what is the deal with the hot water heater, they say there is a cut off valve to the heater and to be sure water is in it before turning on heater ... where is the valve??? Do you put antifreeze in the hotwater heater when you winterize the trailer??? Need help for sure how to treat a hot water heater both winter and in use.

[bluepill]

When storing in sub freezing temps you need to EITHER drain everything (which is not always easy) OR put special RV antifreeze in all the lines, pump, etc.

Rather than filling the whole heater tank with anti freeze, many units have a bypass valve to keep the heater from filling up. You have to drain the water heater, then put the bypass valve in winter position, then fill the rest of the freshwater system with antifreeze.

In the spring, to de-winterize, you return the bypass valve to summer and flush the whole system with fresh water.

[lostagain]

This site explains the bypass systems. http://www.rverscorner.com/bypass.html

[Kodibear]

Comment about the bypass valve: Since RV water heaters generally run very hot, I've seen some people install complex mixing valves to set the temp at a reasonable level, well, I simply set the bypass valve to mix some cold with the the hot water. Works great, but does take a bit of fiddling to get it right. The adjustments have to be very slight to get the temp right.

[bob109]

Here's a picture of a typical by-pass valve

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5204/...41d1e289_z.jpg