Preparing for Texas freeze

[neilnoff]

Brrrr...Low temps forecasted for Houston the next few nights are in the teens down to single digits, with daytime highs still below freezing through next week. My coach is stored in a fully enclosed, but unheated, storage garage & I do have 50amp service. I won't be able to cycle the AquaHot because it's in an enclosed unit. Black & gray tanks are at about 10% and fresh water about 30%. Unless you all tell me I'm nuts (won't be the first time), my plan this morning before the cold really hits is to go over and run the sink faucets and shower until they are dry, dump the water from the toilets so they are dry, then completely drain the gray, black & fresh tanks. Not used to these temps down here and "winterizing" never really crossed my mind, as we will be rolling out again in a few weeks, but I don't want those liquids to freeze and potentially damage tanks or lines. Am I being overly cautious by taking the above steps? Any other suggestions in lieu of the above, or in addition to the above? Thanks in advance for your advice!

[Isaac-1]

If you have electricity, then run a small personal cube heater in the wet bay, and another one in the coach to keep interior temperatures above freezing.

[jbhobbs54]

Poor RV antifreee down all your drains and toilets to make sure the traps and tank values don't freeze.

[neilnoff]

Thanks for the responses. Also, now that I've had my 2nd cup of coffee, why don't I just run the electric side of the AquaHot and set the basement heat to 40 degree? My pea-brain always seems to equate AquaHot with diesel heat, but I assume using the electric mode on the AquaHot will keep my bays (and tanks) from freezing? Thnx

[Turbojack]

Problem is if power goes out

[BillJinOR]

turn on the electric element to the aqua hot it will keep it hot enough , maybe not to live in at those temps but certainly to not freeze ... easily.

[Persistent]

I live in Wisconsin. Temperatures here have been down below -15 deg F lately. I am sure Huston will not get that cold.

Your RV probably has "low point drains". Use them to drain water instead of running the pump. One will be in the bottom of the fresh water tank. There is probably another pair, one for hot and one for cold. Open all the low point drains and the faucets inside. Most of the fresh water will drain out.

Remove the drain plug from the water heater. you might as well inspect the "anode", if your heater has one. Replace it if it is eroded away.

Run the pump dry and remove any water filters. Drain filter housings. There may be other appliances that have water in them. There may still be water in appliances.

The water lines and valves will freeze first. Any where there is a small amount of water trapped will freeze and possibly break valves and fittings. Opening valves releases the water and reduces probability of bursting.

Ice makers and clothes washer are difficult to drain.

Heating the cabin and water bay with a portable electric heaters may be enough to do the job.

Winterizing with RV antifreeze or the blow out method or both are more reliable. I use these methods in Wisconsin.

I wish you good luck and happy trails ahead!

[Turbojack]

If you drain the water you still have water in the pipes that can freeze. Would have to run rv antifreeze thru the pipes If you blow the water out it my still be in low spots possible if you open the low drains you might be ok

[Gary.Jones]

These Northern owners just dont understaned what we encounter down here in Dixie. Here in Louisiana, we are faced with exactly the same weather except our temps on Monday are in the single digits. NONE of us down here routinely winterize our coaches if we have them plugged into 50A service as its just not needed, but when temps get down into those ranges, we have to scramble to come up with a solution that helps.

Here is my situation and how I plan on dealing with it. I have one main difference. My coach is in the driveway so I CAN run the AquaHot the whole time, so I have my slides out and will set the AquaHot temps and the floor heat to be in the upper 60s and my basement AquaHot temps is set for 58 and I will simply check on it frequently to make sure that everything is running.

Now with no AquaHot to do the work and I have done this strategy in the past when I did not run the diesel AquaHot at night, I have two smallish square electric heaters with high and low power switch. They are 900 and 1800 watt units each. I only use the 800W setting on both. It is surprising, but you can easily draw too much power for electric heaters in our coaches. The power for most sockets goes through a bypass circuit breaker on the inverters and if you try to run two 1800 watt electric heaters on full power, you will blow the bypass circuit breaker on your inverter and you will have no power to the sockets until you climb into the basement and reset it. Every year some new coach owner is mystified about why he cant use two or three huge heaters in their coach and keeps blowing circuit breakers.... that is the reason. This is not like home... many of those duplex sockets are tied together and you will over load the circuit. So, I deal with this by only using two 800-900 watt heater units. I turn them on and let them run all night. One sitting on the dinette and one sitting under the bedroom TV on the cabinet top. Then turn on your electric water heater element and turn on your basement heating circuit on the AquaHot. The electric element will keep the basement at a good set temperature (58 for mine). Turn off all the other AquaHot zones.... the electric element will keep the basement OK if it is only heating the basement zone... turn the other zones off. The work in the other zones is done by the electric heaters in the main coach. My two 800-900 watt heaters will keep the coach in the 60s and will run 24/7.

Then for good measure, I remove the panel in the wet bay and put a good old fashioned 100 - 200 watt incadescent bulb in a metal automotive "trouble light" (120 VAC, METAL shield) and hang or sit that right under the black and gray tanks and macerator pump. That incandescent light and metal shield will generate a lot of heat and will keep your water and waste tanks just fine. I plug it into the socket in the AquaHot/transfer switch bay.

And then do a lot of worrying that everything is working. I can walk out to the driveway and check it all, or I can bring up the FireFly and check it all. I'll set the alarm for 3 am and check how all is doing. That has worked just fine for 6 or 7 years now. Its my strategy and I'm sticking to it....

Dont futz with the water. If my tanks were at 100%, I would worry about them, but no place in my rig should get anywhere near 32 degrees with this set up.

Gary

[Cousin Ed]

Our Aspire sits outside on Cape Cod for November & December and I set the Aqua-Hot on electric at 45. It's full of water and the refrigerator is full. Our temps have gotten down to the teens for a night or two without any problems. I have monitors for the temps in four locations, water-bay etc.

[RVFunlovers]

I am camped just north of Houston. It is cold and expected to get much colder. We cancelled our plans to drive up to the Dallas area Sunday for a week. Roads are expected to be a mess Sunday and Monday. Just not worth the risk for us.

I have learned the hard way the lesson of running a couple of little electric heaters, coffee pot, toaster oven, etc.... I had to empty out a basement compartment and climb in to find the inverters and the switches on the side of them. Each of my inverters have a small almost hidden reset switch.

While we are camped I run two small electric heaters when it is cold out like now. I plug one up to the outlet near the front dash. That outlet is on a different leg than my other outlets. The other heater I plug in in the bathroom. I use both heaters in the 750 watt mode only but they crank some heat. I also use fireplace heat and floor heat on electric. Coach stays warm and basement stays warm enough. And we have enough power to allow for normal things like TV, stove, coffee pot as needed. If DW needs to do laundry or use a hair dryer the little bathroom heater gets turned off. Yes, I learned that the hard way as well with another trip into the basement to reset inverters.

The couple times my inverters have tripped. My dash AC outlet still works. You can see you have no inverter power on Vega touch. And my GFI circuit breakers have tripped in the circuit breaker panel above the drivers seat.

We just use the aqua hot for showers. When we get to single digits on Monday I might need to run the aqua hot diesel heat. I have never had the coach in weather that cold except when it is winterized and not being used.


Safe Travels

[Prairie Dog]

so, if you ran aqua hot in diesel mode 24/7 for a week and used it for everything, how many gallons would you burn?

[neilnoff]

Thanks to all for your comments and suggestions. Hope everyone keeps warm the next few days and safe travels if you are on the road -- Regards--

[Bobby F]

From a MN perspective, protecting these large investments by depending on a continuous electrical supply seems like a brittle solution. Don't y'all ever lose power in the cold?