Disclaimer: In general, this forum is intended to be a place for Grand Design owners to gather and exchange ideas regarding their use of and experiences with Grand Design products. Any information contained in the forum should be independently verified by checking with Grand Design, one of its authorized dealers, or reviewing your owner’s manual.
If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You will need to to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below. Thanks for visiting and your interest in Grand Design!
Winterizing with the Nautilus panel and Furrion tankless water heater - I've read the GD owner's manual, some forum posts and watched GD's videos on winterizing. Two things I'm unclear on - to get anti-freeze pumped through the tankless water heater (which Furrion says to do) it looks like you put the Nautilus settings to City Water and NOT to the Winterize settings before running the pump to draw in the anti-freeze. Correct? And I'll need to leave the sewer line connected so that I can dump the residual water that will enter the three holding tanks during the anti-freeze process. Correct? It seems pretty straight forward but most of the literature and web info is based upon bypassing a tanked hot water heater system. Thanks!
I try to drain as much water as I can before pumping in the antifreeze. Also remember that there is a drain on the tankless water heater that will hold water, drain this before and also after filling with antifreeze to get antifreeze into the drain.
Winterizing with the Nautilus panel and Furrion tankless water heater - I've read the GD owner's manual, some forum posts and watched GD's videos on winterizing. Two things I'm unclear on - to get anti-freeze pumped through the tankless water heater (which Furrion says to do) it looks like you put the Nautilus settings to City Water and NOT to the Winterize settings before running the pump to draw in the anti-freeze. Correct? And I'll need to leave the sewer line connected so that I can dump the residual water that will enter the three holding tanks during the anti-freeze process. Correct? It seems pretty straight forward but most of the literature and web info is based upon bypassing a tanked hot water heater system. Thanks!
Country Campers Post #42 and a few others following it delved into black tank flush connections, and avoiding potential cross contamination of city water supply hose, so I weighed in on that. Evidently other posts returned to winterizing and my post shows up disconnected from #42. Feel free to delete it or move it to a new topic. Sorry for the confusion.
Good discussion about connecting to the black tank flush. At our campground, each site has a separate non-potable water spigot (painted red with a sign). So I use a black garden hose connected to the black tank flush, along with a shut off valve on the end of the hose, along with the red faucet shut-off. Saves using potable water for flushing. Since we’re parked permanently now, it eliminates connecting and reconnecting the white hose for flushing. With our previous TT at other campgrounds I used the separate black hose connected at the spigot with a “Y” that has a shut-off on each leg; flush leg only turned on when flushing. When done flushing, shut off the black hose first at the spigot; then shut off the valve at the end of the hose. No danger of drain back from the tank flush, & does not cut off water supply to the DW or get any air into the system from disconnecting & reconnecting the white hose for flushing. Although, using quick-disconnects would make using only one hose pretty easy.
Glad this thread is here. This will be the first time winterizing a trailer with anti-freeze. Since '93 I have always blown out the lines with air. But since my selling dealer and several knowledgeable people on this site seem to think it is a bit risky on these trailers, I'll go the anti-freeze route this year.
One question. Is one gallon enough?
Keeps things dry and tidy. For my 297rsts, I just lay it in the front storage area and syphin from there. Any unused can just stay right in the container.
Glad this thread is here. This will be the first time winterizing a trailer with anti-freeze. Since '93 I have always blown out the lines with air. But since my selling dealer and several knowledgeable people on this site seem to think it is a bit risky on these trailers, I'll go the anti-freeze route this year.
One question. Is one gallon enough?
I have used about 2.5 gallons. What I do is put 3 or 4 gallons in a 5 gallon bucket and syphon from that. This way I can go around all of the fixtures easily without running back outside to switch jugs, extras can be poured back into jug for next year. I also use air to blow most of the water out before the antifreeze. Before leaving the campground on our last trip of the year I open all fixtures and the low point drains for the travel home, this also helps to get a lot of the water out. Also run plenty thru the fixtures for the drain traps, and also do the outside spray ports.
Glad this thread is here. This will be the first time winterizing a trailer with anti-freeze. Since '93 I have always blown out the lines with air. But since my selling dealer and several knowledgeable people on this site seem to think it is a bit risky on these trailers, I'll go the anti-freeze route this year.
One question. Is one gallon enough?
Can we just use a compressor and blow out the system making sure we do not exceed the 45 PSI?
Yes you can. You will however run the risk of water collecting in a low area and freezing , as noted throughout this thread. It is a risk but there are some that do it.
That is a brilliant install by Bogen2. It looks complicated at first but other than taking a lot of time probably wouldn't be that difficult.
I was thinking of modifying back to the more simple days of just having a city water input, a fresh water tank input, and a water heater bypass. I'm not sure Bogen's idea would take much more time.
If I can get the winterizing down to what I feel comfortable with, and remove the soft hose, I think I can live with the Nautilus system. Time will tell.
My previous TT had a pump and 2 small valves. Easy to use and easy to winterize. The Nautilus panel is just a "fancy" item that looks "cool". Over thought out process in my opinion. This also goes with all of the other items in our world , make it smarter and it will be better. Sometimes less is more and much easier.
The Nautilus panel is nice , a little , easy to switch between uses , but too many moving parts. I have actually thought about removing it , while doing some other plumbing mods , but have not put too much effort into it so far , why fix it if it is not broken yet.
Brian
You and I think exactly alike! The *only* feature I like is the ability to siphon (pump) water from a container into the fresh water tank. That might be useful sometime.
My old 5th wheel simply had a water heater bypass. I never used anti-freeze, just turned the bypass and hooked compressor to city water input. Never had an issue. I really believe the Nautilus system is for the benefit on the manufacturer. Much quicker on the assembly line with everything in one place.
It would probably be a pretty big job to remove the Nautilus and retrofit a conventional system. But, after reading some of the posts about how the soft tubing between the pex and the Nautilus leaks, it may be about as much work as extending the pex tubing. One of these days someone is going to try it I bet.
Leave a comment: