Winterize Ice Maker

[Pokemon]

I have a 2005 32ft Dolphin LX and would like to know if there is anything special about winterizing the ice maker. I have shut the valve off inside and can drain the line from there, but is there more draining to be done outside or in the ice maker itself? I am going to use air to blow out all the plumbing.

Thanks...

[rgvtexan]

On my Norcold, in the outside compartment is the water valve, it has a fitting that looks like a garden hose. I remove that fitting and let it drain. Then I do the blow out.
The SOUTH method also works very well.

[hometool]

if it was me I would disconnect both water connections to the valve unless I was able to energise the coil on the valve while I was blowing the system out

[Ret Syntst]

I disconnect the water line at the solenoid switch and blow out the line going to the ice maker. I then pump anti-freeze into the line up to the solenoid switch. To do this get an old electrical plug and cut the wires about 10" from the plug. Connect a couple of flat connections to the hot and neutral wires (make sure that they fit into the slots on the solenoid switch). I then connect the wires to the switch and with the anti-freeze running through the pump I plug the line into the outlet in the outside fridge compartment. You have to either be connected to shore power or run the generator to make the outlet live. The anti-freeze will run through the line and shoot out onto the ground. Only keep the wire plugged in for short bursts (5 - 7 seconds at a time) until the anti-freeze runs out of the line. When connecting the flat connectors to the switch it doesn't matter which lines hook up to hot and neutral, the switch is activated either way. I leave everything disconnected over the winter. Do the same thing in the spring with water from the fresh tank or city connection to clear the anti-freeze from the line and hook up the line to the ice maker and you're set to go. This keeps anti-freeze out of the ice maker and the first set of cubes made can be used or thrown away - your choice.

[georgetown350]

Originally Posted by Pokemon

I have a 2005 32ft Dolphin LX and would like to know if there is anything special about winterizing the ice maker. I have shut the valve off inside and can drain the line from there, but is there more draining to be done outside or in the ice maker itself? I am going to use air to blow out all the plumbing.

Thanks...

You will freeze your solonoid if you dont
dissconect it. Leave the valve open , dissconect
the solonoid at both ends, blow the air through
and your done winterizing the icemaker.

[wa8yxm]

Two ways to winterize Ice Maker

With lines full of water, and outside valve open, Open low point valves and manually cycle ice maker.. When the valve opens the water will be siphoned out and leave air behind.. You need the lines full of water for this to happen.Then close outside valve.

Option 2, Cycle after you open low point drains.

Then cycle again while the air is blowing like around the 3rd or forth blow.


Option 3: pick one of the aove, then remove solenoid valve assembly and bring into heated house for winter (I broke mine when I did this, dropped the blasted thing) .

Method I finally used

South method (Don't freeze down here) Finally removed ice Maker and put in trays, More ice, faster, less hassle, more room in freezer.

[Pokemon]

Thanks for all the replays…I appreciate it..

I finally got around to doing the blow out of all the plumbing with my air compressor. Worked great. I went to the freezer and using a screwdriver cycled the ice maker a few times and it blew the water out of the lines and valve. Now I can’t get the hot water tank plug/anode out to drain the tank….see the new post above today…Thanks again…Bill