De-Winterizing Advice

[Paul & Deb]

I'm one of the lucky ones who have never had to winterize an RV in over 50 years of RVing. My trailer is on the way home from a 2 month visit at the Service Center and I noticed on the work order that the last thing they did is winterize it. Needles to say I haven't a clue what I need to de-winterize it so I was looking for some guidance from you experts.

Anything special to know or just drain my tanks and lines and move on?

BTW, If I hadn't read the service order like 3 times I would have never even thought about it and we're going dry camping in a week. I guess that would have sucked.

[Cate&Rob]

Hi Paul,

"De-winterizing" just means flushing everything really well with clean water. Some will follow this with a sanitizing process to get rid of any lingering antifreeze "taste", but since we never drink the water from our RV system, we don't bother with this. "City" water is almost always chlorinated which will sufficiently take care of sanitation for non-drinking applications.

Run the City fill to the fresh water tank with the tank drain open.
Run City water to all faucets and just keep opening them all one at a time, several times.
Open and close the low point drains.
Open and close the water lines to the washing machine connections (even if you don't have a washing machine)
Close the water heater bypass and run City water to fixtures, with the water heater drain open.
Then, open a hot water faucet ( to purge the air out of the water heater) and close the water heater drain.
If you have a built-in water filter . . . replace the filter element.

That should do it .

Rob

[Paul & Deb]

Hi Paul,

"De-winterizing" just means flushing everything really well with clean water. Some will follow this with a sanitizing process to get rid of any lingering antifreeze "taste", but since we never drink the water from our RV system, we don't bother with this. "City" water is almost always chlorinated which will sufficiently take care of sanitation for non-drinking applications.

Run the City fill to the fresh water tank with the tank drain open.
Run City water to all faucets and just keep opening them all one at a time, several times.
Open and close the low point drains.
Open and close the water lines to the washing machine connections (even if you don't have a washing machine)
Close the water heater bypass and run City water to fixtures, with the water heater drain open.
Then, open a hot water faucet ( to purge the air out of the water heater) and close the water heater drain.
If you have a built-in water filter . . . replace the filter element.

That should do it .

Rob

So when draining from the fresh tank and low point drains I assume the RV antifreeze is just running on the ground? Hmm, I can't just do that in the street so how do you usually manage it?

BTW, it looks like GD replaced my Kantleak with a Nautilus or at least that's what I read on the service work order. I have no idea why as it's always worked fine without leaks (since I replaced the plastic T years ago). I've never really looked at a Nautilus system so I assume it has all the same functions.

[Country Campers]

Paul

The RV anti freeze is safe to dump anywhere, at least that's what the bottle says. If you can hook up to your house water just open all of the faucets and such till you get clear water. You will also want to add water to your fresh water tank and run the pump until all is clear. Then drain your tanks , fill fresh water tank and you should be good to go.

I am not sure why they would replace your panel with the Nautilus unless you requested it, if they did with out your permission I would certainly question that. Pics when you get if back would be helpful , if you need it.

Brian

[Paul & Deb]

Paul

The RV anti freeze is safe to dump anywhere, at least that's what the bottle says. If you can hook up to your house water just open all of the faucets and such till you get clear water. You will also want to add water to your fresh water tank and run the pump until all is clear. Then drain your tanks , fill fresh water tank and you should be good to go.

I am not sure why they would replace your panel with the Nautilus unless you requested it, if they did with out your permission I would certainly question that. Pics when you get if back would be helpful , if you need it.

Brian

Thanks Brian.

Hey, don't get me wrong on the Kantleak versus Nautilus, I am fine with whatever they did and certainly not complaining, I just don't know why so once I get it back I will double check everything and give them a call. I do know once it was in their hands they did find a number of things and just went ahead and fixed them so I am grateful.