How To Winterize Your RV Water System
The lucky ones are packing up and stretching their wings for the annual flight south. The rest of us are faced with many months of snow, below zero weather, and seeing our RV sitting alone, waiting for the first spring birds to return.
I live in northern Minnesota, and the occasional frost has already arrived. Within the next few weeks temperatures will be dropping well below freezing every night. Now is the time to prepare your RV for those cold winter months. If you wait much longer you’ll have a pretty stiff repair bill next year, as the water system in every RV must be protected from freezing.
There are a number of ways to prepare your water system for freezing weather.
Personally, I choose to use the quickest, easiest method, and for me over the last 30 years I don’t recall any plumbing or mechanical failures related to how I winterized my various units.
To begin with, I will assume that all your water tanks are empty. Draining the waste tanks and the fresh water tank after every outing is the recommended approach.
Just follow these easy steps, and in short order your rig will be properly drained:
1. Remove the drain plug on the water heater and let it drain completely. While you have the drain plug out, if there is an anode rod attached you can check its condition and replace it when you find it dissolved. With the water drained, reinstall the plug and snug it down.
2. Turn on your electric water pump and open a faucet. Pump what little water that may be left in the lines coming from the water tank to the pump through the system. When there is only air coming out, turn off the pump -- and at this time you can disconnect the battery as well. If you have a motorhome equipped with a master switch, you can turn it off.
3. Next, attach an air blow out adapter to your city water inlet. Attach an air hose from an air compressor with an adjustable regulator. With all the faucets closed, start with the regulator backed off at zero psi and increase it until you're at about 10 psi.
4. Go through the RV, and working one at a time open each faucet and let it run until only air is coming out. Don’t forget the shower and the toilet (and the outside shower, if so equipped). Once you're satisfied that all the water has been blown out, you can disconnect the air compressor.
5. Pour about a cup of RV antifreeze into every drain in the RV. Don’t forget to pour a little into the toilet so it doesn’t sit dry all winter. This will prevent the seal on the flush blade from getting stiff and dried out.
6. The last step is to take a 5 gallon bucket and drain the little bit of water that has now been drained into the waste tanks.
Your water system is now protected for the winter ahead!
For Added Protection...
In my personal opinion (at least with the RVs I’ve winterized), this has been enough protection to keep an RV's water system from freezing. However, some may want to pump RV antifreeze through the water lines and the water pump to insure complete protection.
If that is the direction you choose to take, you will need a few more components:
-
A pump converter winterizing kit that will allow you to pump RV antifreeze right from the jug into the pump and continue throughout the water lines.
- A water heater bypass kit that will allow the RV antifreeze you're pumping through the system to bypass the water heater. Without this kit, you will fill the water heater with RV antifreeze before it goes on through the hot water lines. This could amount to 6 or 10 gallons of antifreeze.
Pumping RV antifreeze through the system may require a few gallons of antifreeze, all depending on how large an RV you have. If you go this route, you will also have to disconnect the water pump inlet line from the RV, as well install the two aforementioned kits.
If you do a thorough job of blowing the water out with air, this whole process becomes unnecessary. A water system that’s void of any water will not freeze. You must be diligent about blowing out all the water, but that’s a lot easier and faster than pumping RV antifreeze through the system, and you won’t have the residual mess to deal with in the spring.
Thanks! Appreciate it. It was more than a cup though. Included some #2 if you know what I mean, but I imagine that it will be ok?? Right?
Will, No this won't cause a problem for you. I'm assuming your water lines were empty and you had already drained the tanks before this indiscretion took place. With empty tanks keep in mind a cup of liquid doesn't amount to a hill of beans in a 30 gallon tank. Doing nothing would have been appropriate, but the antifreeze won't hurt anything either.
Stan, Technically you could do this, but don't forget you will have to drain your water and sewage tanks as well. Plus if your in a cold climate you may have material freezing in your waste tanks through the night. Your better off to travel with no water and don't use the plumbing during periods in cold weather.
Hi, I have winterized and someone used the bathroom afterwards?? I poured another gallon of antifreeze down the toilet , but will this be a problem in the Spring???? Curious if anone has dealt with this???
Thanks
We are new at this RV thing and need advice in traveling in the winter. We do not have heated tanks, and would prefer not to add RV anti-freeze. Can I camp using city water at each stop, and then simply blow the lines each morning as described above?
Thanks.
Thanks for the info, will try this weekend. Just bought a 86 minni winni.
Dave, Bob, & Anthony, Thanks guy's for the good words.
Great information and nicely detailed. I do this every year and no problems.
I have done this for years and it works great. Now have a washer/dryer in current motorhome, so I have to add antifreeze because of it.
thanks