Winterization Video

[Mainiac]

Weatherization update:  we raised the front of the unit and drained the fresh water tank. As we have the outlet on the bottom there was a little water left in the tank. The tank drain was closed and the trailer leveled. We turn the valves and pumped a little antifreeze into the tank. As it was going in we did notice the filter catch bowl did turn pink. As we, like many, do not like the taste or smell of the antifreeze, we raised the front of the unit, put the bottle under the drain and opened it. We captured the AF instead of letting it onto the ground. We also removed most of it from the tank. What was left in there should protect the tank. When the tank was drained the valve was closed. What little was left will be easy to flush in the Spring. We plan on sanitizing the tanks then too, which will remove any lingering smell or taste. An aside, before putting the Teflon tape on the anode, and putting it back into the water heater, we felt inside the bottom of the tank. It felt gritty. We will make a wand over the winter and really flush it out. I was surprised how much residue gathered in only one season. And we had a filter on the intake most of the time.

[John E Davies]

. An aside, before putting the Teflon tape on the anode, and putting it back into the water heater, we felt inside the bottom of the tank. It felt gritty. We will make a wand over the winter and really flush it out. I was surprised how much residue gathered in only one season. And we had a filter on the intake most of the time.

The grit is not necessarily dirt from filling the fresh tank, since you use a filter, rather it’s hard calcium deposits that result from hot water sitting for long periods of time in the heater tank. The wand will remove most of it, you can get one for about what you would pay for the parts to make one.

 

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B002XL2IBS/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

http://www.waterheaterrescue.com/Longevity/sediment-in-hot-water-heaters.html

 

John Davies

 

Spokane WA

[topgun2]

Canoe -

 

I just used the "wand" yesterday on my water heater.  It worked great but I'm guessing that I kept moving it in and out for a period of 10 minutes or so before I could no longer see any particles coming out.  Instead of letting the water simply continue to flow into the heater, I'd shut it off and then restart the flow in order to get a surge of water coming out.  This helped any particles get over the "lip" where the anode rod screws into the heater.

 

Bill

[John E Davies]

You can also tilt the trailer to the right when rinsing, to encourage the debris to collect near the opening. I always wondered why the designers did not make the inside of the tank slope toward the opening, and also minimize the height of the lip. It does act as a dam....

 

It isn’t critical to get it surgically clean, just flushed regularly.

 

John Davies

 

Spokane WA

[Mainiac]

Makes you wonder why this "stuff" doesn't show up on the bottom of your coffee cup or tea kettle in greater amounts. I suppose we could always adapt a wand to the wet/dry shop vac and wand and vac the material out, if we were really concerned about it. I think I have more things than that to think about. Think Spring...

[dharmardr]

We just made a run, yesterday, from Winchester,VA to home in NW CT. I opened the fresh water tank drain valve before leaving VA hoping to drain the tank completely, in preparation for winterization. I was thinking the movement of the trailer for 6+ hrs, up and down hills side to side on corners etc. would  get the job done. Am I making an assumption that is incorrect, or can I conclude that the fresh tank is empty?

 

Also, would blowing compressed air through the black water flush and the city water outside connection passed the check valves be sufficient or is the AF and pump necessary? I blow all lines out and draw AF in them also but last year only blew out the black and city did not use AF in them.

 

Thanks

[John E Davies]

We just made a run, yesterday, from Winchester,VA to home in NW CT. I opened the fresh water tank drain valve before leaving VA hoping to drain the tank completely, in preparation for winterization. I was thinking the movement of the trailer for 6+ hrs, up and down hills side to side on corners etc. would get the job done. Am I making an assumption that is incorrect, or can I conclude that the fresh tank is empty? Also, would blowing compressed air through the black water flush and the city water outside connection passed the check valves be sufficient or is the AF and pump necessary? I blow all lines out and draw AF in them also but last year only blew out the black and city did not use AF in them. Thanks

Most likely your fresh tank has less in it than if you just drained it normally, but I seriously doubt if it is empty. You can’t assume anything. You need to raise the front really high, stick a bucket under the drain, and see how much comes out. I bet there are at least five gallons left.

 

As stated before, compressed air is good, but there will always be a little moisture left that cannot be removed that way. When the sprinkler guy blows out your lawn’s irrigation system, it is protected from freezing by being buried deep under ground and perhaps under deep snow cover. The sprinkler heads have a little residual water that drips back deep into the ground.

 

That doesn’t apply to your Ollie. Tho I guess you could bury it over the winter..... It is up to you to decide if you want to take the risk of not using AF. If the winter temps are really low, then antifreeze would be smart and you would probably sleep better knowing those lines can’t possibly rupture. The cost really is minimal.

 

John Davies

 

Spokane WA

[donthompson]

Hi Grayson,

 

The weather is beautiful in Iowa but snow and a low of 28 degrees is forecast for Saturday.  I took advantage of mild temperatures and sunshine to complete my winterization this morning.  I used compressed air and antifreeze.  I followed the routine in the Oliver video when adding antifreeze.  This included using the hand-pump connected to the city water, fresh water, and black tank flush inlets.  I did them all.

 

I've collected all of the advice on winterization that I follow in three separate documents.  At some point, I'll put all of the info in one document.  If you want me to send the documents to you, please send me a message with your email address and I'll send them to you today.  Going for a bike ride now.  Still have to clean the inside of the camper and wash it before it gets dark.

 

Don

[dharmardr]

John,

 

Lifted the front of the trailer until the rear bumper was on the ground, bucket under the fresh water drain. Got nothing.?

[John E Davies]

John, Lifted the front of the trailer until the rear bumper was on the ground, bucket under the fresh water drain. Got nothing.?

Did you open the drain valve? If so I guess your tank was indeed empty. Does your water level gauge read anything while the front is raisd? The level sensor is in the very back of the tank and will register any remaining water.

 

John Davies

 

Spokane WA

[SeaDawg]

If you are in the northern Midwest, as I am, get it done.

 

It's cold, and the cold will continue all week, at least at night.

 

Another crappy Halloween, just like my childhood. Always wanted to be tinkerbell, but the weather was never accommodating in Minnesota.

 

A costume that fit over a snowsuit was so much better.   ,

 

 

[SeaDawg]

#firstsnow is beautiful

 

#butyouknowitsmonthstil14hoursofsunshine

[topgun2]

Sherry,

 

If I've ever known a "Tinkerbell" its you!

[Mainiac]

We had drained our fresh tank, blew out, added AF, and all the procedures. With the fresh tank problem of not being able to totally get all the water out, we made sure it got some antifreeze. As we don't care for the taste and smell of AF, we jacked up the front of the trailer and recovered as much AF from th tank as we could. I was in the camper yesterday looking at getting ready to install an accumulator and just happened to to set a 9 LED flashlight face down on the tank. WOW, the whole tank glowed pink. Guess there was a whole lot more AF in there than I thought. I  will make sure we flush a couple of times come "wake-up". We plan on sanitizing then anyway. A just FYI...

[DavePhelps]

So if there was a small amount of water in the tank, say an inch or so and it froze solid, would that really hurt anything? There is plenty of room for expansion. I just wonder about this as we use large plastic tanks (250 gallon) for watering trees and there is always some water in them through the Winter. It does freeze here, though not probably as hard or for as long as other parts of the country, and the tanks are fine come Spring. I just hate having to put AF in the tank the way it is currently designed. It's just too hard, if even possible to get a complete drain and flush. I know they say it's non toxic but, well, I prefer not to use it in that location. Traps yes, tank no. The rest of the water lines I carefully and thoroughly blow out with compressed air.

 

Dave

[Try2Relax]

All I've done is blow out the lines, admittedly pretty extensively, and I don't use antifreeze (yuck). Two New England winters, not a problem yet, knock on wood..

 

Never realized the fresh tank didn't fully drain, and no problem, I agree with the space to expand being adequate.

[SeaDawg]

That's what my dad did for our campers and trailers in Minnesota winters.

 

When we leave our trailer in storage in NC, we don't have power, much less an air compressor so the pink stuff rules.

 

We never use tap water for drinking, so. .. not the same issue for us.  I can certainly understand that hesitancy

 

One year, we forgot to winterize the outdoor shower. Of course, we had a week of hard freezes, in October, and it blew out.  Bummer, but live and learn. Never again . One expensive lesson was enough....

 

Sherry

[ScubaRx]

Although it doesn't apply to this Southern good 'ole boy redneck, for all you Yankees that have to winterize, don't forget your toilet valve.

[donthompson]

I second the motion on the toilet valve, but I have a question about it.  Last year, I winterized using compressed air, antifreeze through circulated with the water pump and the boondocking inlet and pouring antifreeze into the two sinks and the shower drain.  To make sure I had antifreeze in the toilet valve, I flushed the toilet until the flush ran pink.

 

In January, I met Stan and Carol Moyer in Lawrence, Kansas, and we headed to Big Bend National Park.  I filled my fresh water tank in Lawrence where I started using the furnace at night (the weather was really mild during the day when traveling) and the next morning, I discovered the toilet valve was cracked and spewing water in the bathroom.  Luckily I found a small RV repair shop.  They replaced the valve and I only had to wait a couple of hours.

 

Any idea why I had this problem?  The answer may benefit many of us.

 

In Eastern Iowa, the weather has changed drastically this week.  It's 25 degrees now at almost 7 a.m.  Glad I winterized last week!

 

Don

[topgun2]

Don -

 

I would have thought that passing the pink stuff through the toilet valve by "flushing" the toilet would have done the job.  Therefore, I suspect that there was some other unrelated cause for the failure.

 

A few nights ago - as usual during the middle of the night - I realized that I did not put the pink stuff in the black tank flush line.  So, I took all the winterizing stuff out to where the Oliver is stored and got all set up to perform this minor task and realized that I forgot the little piece that I put onto the line coming from my hand pump that allows me to attach it to the Oliver.  So, I get to make the ten mile trip again!

 

Bill

[ScottyGS]

John & Matt,

 

thanks very much for this video!  The Flying Sea Turtle is full of the pink stuff and my mind is at ease over it because I know it was done right.

 

Looking forward to the De-Winterizing Video very soon!    Matt, see you next week at the Mother. Ship.

 

Thanks again

 

Scotty

[donbob3]

My Oliver 140 was picked up in May 2016.  Jason has performed the Fresh Water Tank Mod.

 

Can I assume that I can follow the video and be assured that my fresh tank is winterized?

 

 

 

Also my water heater seems to have only one inline valve at the bottom of the unit.  Can I assume

 

that it has a check valve instead of the inline valve for the outlet?  This is not mentioned in video.

 

 

[topgun2]

donbob3 - Since it has been 8 hours since you posted and no one with better knowledge of the subject has replied - and this includes just about everyone out there - I thought that I'd give you my 2 cents worth.

 

I assume that you emptied your fresh water tank.  If that assumption is correct then there should be a little water left in it plus a little bit of anti-freeze in it .  This is normal and should not cause you any problems over the winter.

 

I also assume that you drained your water heater and I'm assuming that your water heater is the Suburban as I'm not familiar with the tankless units.  When you took out and then replaced the anode rod certainly you drained that water heater.  Then the valve near the base of the water heater is the water heater by-pass valve.  When you turned this it allows the anti-freeze to by-pass the empty water heater.  If you didn't do this it would take an additional 6 gallons of anti-freeze just to fill the water heater alone.  And, assuming that you did empty it there is little to nothing in there to freeze.

 

Does that help you?

 

Bill

[donbob3]

Above is true, when I check fresh tank monitor, it is showing 10% usage.  I was concerned that draining the fresh tank via valve on floor still was leaving water in tank even after the tank pick-up mod.

 

Thanks for your comment.

[John E Davies]

Above is true, when I check fresh tank monitor, it is showing 10% usage. I was concerned that draining the fresh tank via valve on floor still was leaving water in tank even after the tank pick-up mod. Thanks for your comment.

Did you raise the tongue? Any water left in the tank can be sucked out using the water pump, _before_ adding antifreeze (capture it in a bucket at each faucet). Or you can open the tank drain valve and let it drip a long time.... What small amount is left will be of no consequence.

 

If you don’t elevate the front significantly (at least six or eight inches), you can’t effectively empty it, this is simple geometry.

 

It’s been a while since I watched that video, does it discuss raising the front for complete draining? If so, then sorry for my comments....

 

John Davies

 

Spokane WAa