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Running The Heater Instead Of Winterizing, Not Winterizing,
Running The Heater Instead Of Winterizing, Not Winterizing,
Good morning,
I love this trailer!
We are going to use the trailer this winter but not too much, but
often enough that I will not winterize. What should I leave the
heater set at to prevent freezing any water anywhere?
I searched but could not find it. I am sure this has been asked before.
To keep the plumbing in the underbelly warm, you will need to run the propane furnace. Typically the lowest setting on the thermostat will be in the 10C (50F) range . . . warmer than you need, but as low as you can set. There is the cost and replacement hassle of keeping the propane tanks replaced, to consider. You might want to think about winterizing with antifreeze and flushing this into the tanks when you plan to use the trailer. As long as you are not drinking the system water, any residual antifreeze will hardly be noticeable. With a bit of practice, winterizing with antifreeze takes about 10 minutes and $5.
Not knowing where you are located, whether freezing is a remote possibility or a sure thing:
1. The cost of failure is high. What happens if you run out of propane, 12v power fails, or the furnace fails? Know of people who counted on their furnace keeping their RV from freezing last winter who live in Texas. Worked until the batteries went dead from the lack of incoming 120v power to run the converter to charge the batteries.
2. Winterizing is fairly simple after the first time.
Which brings me back to item one, the cost of failure is high. The cost benefit of running the furnace vs not winterizing…
Colan Arnold
2016 Momentum 397TH
Full time since 2016
Low temperature is 0-20 degrees. Will setting the heater to 50
prevent freezing between the coroplast and the floor?
We winterized and sanitized last winter. It is easy, but I don't
know how you get it done in 10 minutes. One must include driving
time to the storage lot, pull the trailer out and put it back,
drive home. Sanitizing certainly takes more, it takes me 25
minutes to fill the fresh tank and then after treatment it has to
be dumped and filled again. And, it has to soak between
treatment and flush. Sanitizing burns a whole day. If I have to
do this each time I take the trailer out I will stay in motels.
Running the furnace at temps below 20F is going to use a lot of propane and battery power. Do you have an electric plug-in at your storage location to keep the RV battery charged? If so, confirm with your storage lot as to whether they allow running the propane furnace in an unoccupied trailer. You will have to refill propane tanks every few days. Running the furnace is designed to keep the underbelly space above freezing . . . although many have reported problems with this particularly as temps approach 0F.
Intermittent use of a trailer in the winter takes some compromises. Water should be used only for washing and flushing, thus sanitizing is not necessary. Before storing the trailer, drain the water heater and all tanks. With the water heater bypassed, pump antifreeze through all the lines. (This is the 10 minute part). When you want to use the trailer, connect to a water source and flush the antifreeze into the tanks. If you need to use on-board water, re-drain the fresh tank and refill from the water source. There may be a small amount of antifreeze in the water, but it is non-toxic and will not affect washing and flushing.
Low temperature is 0-20 degrees. Will setting the heater to 50
prevent freezing between the coroplast and the floor?
We winterized and sanitized last winter. It is easy, but I don't
know how you get it done in 10 minutes. One must include driving
time to the storage lot, pull the trailer out and put it back,
drive home. Sanitizing certainly takes more, it takes me 25
minutes to fill the fresh tank and then after treatment it has to
be dumped and filled again. And, it has to soak between
treatment and flush. Sanitizing burns a whole day. If I have to
do this each time I take the trailer out I will stay in motels.
You’ll be driving to the storage lot at least a few times a week to change propane bottles. No need to sanitize the water system for un-winterizing.
ETA: Another consideration may be that your storage facility may prohibit operation of heat producing or propane items in storage. My brother-in-law’s storage requires them to turn propane off before entering the facility.
All interesting points and am glad to discuss them but the primary question has not been answered.
Low temperature will be 0-20 degrees.
Will setting the heater to 50 prevent freezing between the coroplast and the floor?
September temps in 30s with heater set to 55 one tank lasts 4
weeks. Trailer is in a shed with three sides with 30 amp
service.
Are you both saying RV anti freeze is safe to drink? Last year I
had a heck of a time getting the anti freeze out of the system.
Could taste it after sanitizing and flushing the tank multiple
times. See my other thread about the fresh tank will not empty
completely.
All interesting points and am glad to discuss them but the primary question has not been answered.
Low temperature will be 0-20 degrees.
Will setting the heater to 50 prevent freezing between the coroplast and the floor?
September temps in 30s with heater set to 55 one tank lasts 4
weeks. Trailer is in a shed with three sides with 30 amp
service.
Are you both saying RV anti freeze is safe to drink? Last year I
had a heck of a time getting the anti freeze out of the system.
Could taste it after sanitizing and flushing the tank multiple
times. See my other thread about the fresh tank will not empty
completely.
RV antifreeze is definitely safe to drink, thats why it is RV antifreeze. It does have a bit of an oder and taste but it is safe. You also should not ever have it in your tank. When you set the Nautilus panel to winterize it bypasses the tank and should just fill the lines. As Rob said it should be a ten minute job, especially if you are doing it several times a winter and have it down pat. Should be no reason you could not do it in your storage shed, should not need to pull it anywhere.
With those temperatures the furnace should keep up fine, but I would not trust it to unless I was with the rig. Too many things could go wrong to risk it for the cost of a couple bottles of antifreeze.
Forum moderators are not GD employees--we are volunteers and owners presumably just like yourself. Unless specifically mentioned otherwise, we have nothing to gain should you choose to purchase a product or engage a service we discuss on this forum.​
Neil Citro
2018 Reflection 28BH Pepwave
2019 F350 6.7L Long Bed Crew Cab
How do i keep the water lines from freezing while driving? 2022 Reflection 337rls. I'm assuming the tanks are heated from the battery but the lines are not.
How do i keep the water lines from freezing while driving? 2022 Reflection 337rls. I'm assuming the tanks are heated from the battery but the lines are not.
Please do a search on that subject. There are many many post regarding it.
How do i keep the water lines from freezing while driving? 2022 Reflection 337rls. I'm assuming the tanks are heated from the battery but the lines are not.
As PineconeNW mentioned, there are many posts on this topic on the forum. An easy way to find many of these is to enter the following into your favorite search engine: freeze site:gdrvowners.com In DuckDuckGo I got the list as shown below. As you can see, some are applicable some are not. By reading through the list you'll find some that are of interest and applicable to your question.
If there's something specific in a thread or post that's not clear, feel free to ask for clarification.
Howard
Forum moderators are not GD employees--we are volunteers and owners presumably just like yourself. Unless specifically mentioned otherwise, we have nothing to gain should you choose to purchase a product or engage a service we discuss on this forum.
Winterized two weeks ago. Our trailer is 40 minutes away so it
takes about 2-1/2 hours to go over fill one of the tanks and come
home. When the overnight lows got to 10 degrees it was too
often.
The most significant thing we learned is set thermostat to 55.
One day the hot water would not run until the heater ran for an
hour. Also, keep the hot water heater on, keep the tank heaters
on.
2022-01-08 Winterized the trailer. Bring 6 gallons next time. Washing machine was unable to complete its cycle.
2022-01-06 Propane, manual switch over, 4 days, 4.1, lows 25-38.
2022-01-02 Turned thermostat up to 55. Hot water would not run.
2022-01-02 Turned on tank heaters. Fresh water tank drain was iced over.
2022-01-02 Propane, manual switch over, 2 days, 3.7, lows 5-25.
2021-12-31 Propane, manual switch over, 4 days, 5.8, lows 25-35.
2021-12-27 Propane, auto switch over, 9 days, 8.6, 2 tanks 7.0 + 1.6
2021-12-18 Propane, auto switch over, 12 days, 7.1,
2021-12-06 Propane, auto switch over, 28 days, 7.1,
2021-11-08 Propane, manual switch over, 54 days, 6.0,
2021-09-15 Propane, auto switch over, NA days, 7.2,
2021-05-23 Propane, one tank filled,
2021-04-22 Propane, one tank filled,
PineconeNW Looking at your timeline of dates, WOW. You might have luck blowing out the washing machine line first, then starting the fill process with RVAntifreeze and stopping once it reaches the unit (this will save on the Antifreeze, then continue with the rest of the unit.
Luckily we live in a much less harsh climate south of Houston. I just blow the lines out a couple of times (I know not all of the water gets expelled) when I know it's going to get into the freezing temps for more than 1 day.
Joseph
Tow Vehicle: 2024 GMC K3500 Denali Ultimate Diesel
Coach: 303RLS Delivered March 5, 2021
South of Houston Texas
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