Winterized...Did I Miss Anything?

[n2zon]

THANKS! to everyone who took time to read and post advice.

The check valve in the black water flush has now been blown out, and unless I missed something else, we should be ready to go.

Damn, I hated to put the coach to bed this year. We *so* want to point the nose South and visit people down there, but it's not just not the time. The Winnie had gotten to the age where we weren't comfortable taking it long distances, but this ol' girl's got some travelin' left in 'er! *Sniff*....

[Shutterbug57]

I didn’t see opening the low point drains and getting antifreeze from them.

[n2zon]

Originally Posted by Shutterbug57

I didn’t see opening the low point drains and getting antifreeze from them.

The fresh water tank, black water tank, and gray water tank, are all empty. There don't appear to be other low point drains on our coach, and the Tiffin owner's manual does not include using them to drain the system for winterization. Where are yours, so I can check?

It's going to be 22F tonight per NOAA. I can turn on the heat if I should, and look at this tomorrow.

[Dave P.]

Originally Posted by n2zon

I winterized the coach today. What I did:

• Used the levelers to tilt the coach to the left
• Opened the fresh water drain
• Dumped the black and grey tanks, including a thorough black tank flush
• Disconnected the input line to the water pump
• Attached a fitting and hose to the water pump and put the hose in a gallon of RV antifreeze (changing each time the gallon container ran low)
• Turned on the pump and ran the outside shower until the I got what looked like full-strength antifreeze from both hot and cold taps
• Did the same for each set of taps in the coach; kitchen, bathroom including toilet and sprayer, bedroom sink, and shower, then repeated the cycle on each set of taps to be sure
• Set the Splendide WD on warm water and started a cycle, running it until the water level was about 2" above the bottom of the drum
• Stopped the WD and changed it to the drain cycle to pump out the antifreeze, then shut it off
• Unhooked the icemaker line from the refrigerator and ran the pump until I got anitfreeze out of the line
• Activated the icemaker solenoid and blew out the line to the icemaker itself
• Blotted up the water that was in the icemaker mold
• Added antifreeze to every trap, pouring an additional half gallon into each of the black and grey systems
• Ran out the fresh water fill hose from its reel and drained it
• Removed the water filter, cleaned the housing, and reassembled (without the filter until next season)
• Reconnected the pump and secured the fresh water drain and fill hose
• Dumped what little was in the black and grey tanks.

I think this covers everything in the coach's OM, and the manuals for the AquaHot, WD, and refrigerator, but this is my first time winterizing this coach. So if anyone spots anything I should have done, and didn't, please let me know!

This took me about 2.5 hours. (I had the Winnie down to about 20 minutes, but that ain't happenin' for the Tiffin, with its AH, WD, and icemaker!) I used four gallons of RV antifreeze to feel reasonably sure I had pure antifreeze coming out of everything.

Thank you for the list. I forgot the toilet sprayer. Hopefully I can just take the sprayer off and drain the hose.

[Shutterbug57]

Originally Posted by n2zon

The fresh water tank, black water tank, and gray water tank, are all empty. There don't appear to be other low point drains on our coach, and the Tiffin owner's manual does not include using them to drain the system for winterization. Where are yours, so I can check?

It's going to be 22F tonight per NOAA. I can turn on the heat if I should, and look at this tomorrow.

Sorry, I just saw this. In our 2011 Phaeton, the low point drains are in the wet bay on the left side near the wall. They are blue and red PEX lines with valves on them.

In our rig, the rear propane furnace also heats the wet bay. I have had it out in the low 20s and the wet bay was at 38* in the morning. It did drop a few degrees when I started driving, but stayed above freezing.

[n2zon]

Originally Posted by Shutterbug57

Sorry, I just saw this. In our 2011 Phaeton, the low point drains are in the wet bay on the left side near the wall. They are blue and red PEX lines with valves on them.

In our rig, the rear propane furnace also heats the wet bay. I have had it out in the low 20s and the wet bay was at 38* in the morning. It did drop a few degrees when I started driving, but stayed above freezing.

It (barely) stayed above freezing last night, so I'll check them at first light today. Our AquaHot has has a separate zone for the wet bay.

[Peter M]

Originally Posted by Mike8253

Interesting. On my 34PA, there is no check valve on the flush line, and what water doesn't make it to the sprayer just runs back out the hose. .

+ 1
Same as my 32 SA.

[n2zon]

Tucked under and behind the water filter and pump, I did indeed find the low point drains. I opened the valves and perhaps half a cup of clear water (total) came out from both.

So, two things should be added to my list, the low point drains and the black water flush check valve. Thanks!