Winterized today and still can't get the pump to draw in the anti-freeze

Wayne

Wayne

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Staff member
It was time to winterize today as we have no plans to do any more camping this fall and we are less than a month from our average first freeze.

New Horizons says you can select the "winterize" on the Anderson valve and the pump will draw the anti-freeze into the system. It won't. I tried to put the jug of anti-freeze on a ladder so the jug is higher than the pump, but when the air in the hose gets to the pump, it doesn't pump.

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It's very frustrating. It would be nice to be able to quickly winterize with anti-freeze, instead I have to use my air-compressor and blow the system out.

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The air compressor is very effective, but with so little tank volume, it takes a long time.

I guess unless I replace the pump with one that will tolerate some air without losing prime, I'm stuck with the air compressor.
 
You could always drill a snug hole in the cap of the bottle, feed the hose through it, and then poke a tiny hole in the bottle and pressurize it with the compressor. That should get things moving.

Could also get a $10 garden sprayer from HD and put the antifreeze in that.
 
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ctechbob said:
You could always drill a snug hole in the cap of the bottle, feed the hose through it, and then poke a tiny hole in the bottle and pressurize it with the compressor. That should get things moving.
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Not a bad idea. The only problem I can see is if I have the Mrs. hold the bottle while I am inside running faucets and the bottle blows up, I'm in real trouble. I guess I should hold the bottle.

ctechbob said:
Could also get a $10 garden sprayer from HD and put the antifreeze in that.
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Connect the trailer to the hose to the sprayer with some kind of a reducer?
 
Wayne said:
Not a bad idea. The only problem I can see is if I have the Mrs. hold the bottle while I am inside running faucets and the bottle blows up, I'm in real trouble. I guess I should hold the bottle.


Connect the trailer to the hose to the sprayer with some kind of a reducer?
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Yea, maybe take the spray valve off, and use a barbed fitting to join the two hoses. Only problem I see with that is the water pump might still be able to out-pull the sprayer since the feed tube in them is usually not very big. Would probably be ok if you use the sprayer to do all the work, but I was trying to think of a way to get the system primed and then let the pump take over.

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Wayne, is there another valve between the antifreeze line and the pump? Maybe on the inside of the unit? My trailer has a valve on each line to bypass the water heater , and a valve on the pump to switch off the antifreeze line.
 
spasm3 said:
Wayne, is there another valve between the antifreeze line and the pump? Maybe on the inside of the unit? My trailer has a valve on each line to bypass the water heater , and a valve on the pump to switch off the antifreeze line.
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Yes, there is a water heater by-pass/isolation three-way valve. That I turn to by-pass before winterizing. The pump does draw anti-freeze until it gets air, then it's over.

Maybe I will put a two way valve in like I did in the Airstream, which would fix the air lock problem.

The easy way to winterize RV plumbing

When we first got our Airstream, I followed Airstream's directions and blew water out of the plumbing with compressed air. The steps looked like this: Load air compressor and spare air tank (for volume) into truck. Load generator into truck. Drive to storage where trailer is located. Unload...
rvthe.us rvthe.us

However, I would be concerned about getting the water out of the 4-way Anderson valve. I will problem blow the Anderson valve out with compressed air.
 
Anyone know of a small electric pump that connects to a garden hose? I'm thinking if I hook a pump to the city water inlet and force the water into the system like city water pressure does, then I could winterize on the "winterize" position of the Anderson valve.
 
The only unknown is the pressure, I wouldn't want more than 75 psi, but I can't imagine either of those pumps could reach a pressure anywhere close to that.
 
Wayne said:
The only unknown is the pressure, I wouldn't want more than 75 psi, but I can't imagine either of those pumps could reach a pressure anywhere close to that.
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I'm sure you're right, there's no way that thing will get close. Might have enough snot to get it pushed through the lines, but that's about all I would expect out of it.
 
honestly, I wouldn't use the pink stuff... because later you have to get rid of it.. I grew up in Michigan, my dad always had RV's and the only winterization he ever did was drain the tanks, open all the faucets and blow the system clear with air pressure..

and I haven't figured out to draw water in to the trailer with mine either.. I even ran a bucket and hose straight to the pump, bypassing all the inlet features and had zero success..
 
MSCH said:
honestly, I wouldn't use the pink stuff... because later you have to get rid of it.. I grew up in Michigan, my dad always had RV's and the only winterization he ever did was drain the tanks, open all the faucets and blow the system clear with air pressure..

and I haven't figured out to draw water in to the trailer with mine either.. I even ran a bucket and hose straight to the pump, bypassing all the inlet features and had zero success..
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Maybe I will just stick with compressed air, as it works really well.
 
Well, I thought we were done until warm(ish) weather again, but it looks like we're headed to Cherokee NC in Feb to watch my cousin in a volleyball tournament. Might as well make a weekend out of it I reckon. More work for the heater/furnace.


...if KOA's reservation site ever starts working again....
 
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ctechbob said:
Well, I thought we were done until warm(ish) weather again, but it looks like we're headed to Cherokee NC in Feb to watch my cousin in a volleyball tournament. Might as well make a weekend out of it I reckon. More work for the heater/furnace.


...if KOA's reservation site ever starts working again....
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perish the thought but you could always just try calling them on the phone. :)
 
MSCH said:
perish the thought but you could always just try calling them on the phone. :)
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Hard to do when the hours I'm awake don't align with 'business norms'.

I'm usually booking sites at 3 in the morning when things settle down at work.

I ended up booking a well regarded mom n pop place down the road.
 
It would be nice to get back to the time when you could travel without having to make reservations ahead all the time. When we went Az-Fla-Pa-Az in April we had sites booked the whole way. I asked when we checked into campgrounds and it would have been hit & miss to just pull in and get a site at too many of them. I don't want to be scrambling for someplace to stop after a day of driving. The big problem with booked out is you're locked into a traveling schedule.
 
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