# Winterizing 101



## Keith68 (Feb 18, 2011)

Hi All,

My manual did not give directions on winterizing without a by-pass. Since I didn't have time to buy one, I thought maybe I needed to add an additional six gallons of anti freeze. Can anyone let me know what I did wrong or anything I should add to the steps I took:

1)Unhooked fresh water source and ran all water out with all 6 taps (hot and cold).
2)Turned off hot water heater and drained it. Drained grey and black tanks.
3)Poured 11 gallons of RV anti-freeze in fresh water tank.
4)Ran all spigots until fluid came out. Flushed toilet util the same result.
5)Poured an ounce of anti-freeze in all sinks and toilet.
6)Removed batteries and unhooked propane attachment.

The antifreeze that came out when I turned the hot water handles was slightly diluted. Is that okay?

Thanks in advance,

Keith


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## hautevue (Mar 8, 2009)

Your process seems fine. The diluted antifreeze is probably due to water in the fresh water tank.

The disadvantage of your process is that you use a lot more antifreeze to do the job, and you have to flush and flush the fresh water tank when you dewinterize. Leaving even a little pink stuff in the fresh tank will make your first spring trip water a little off-taste.

I'd suggest getting that by-pass installed, and then you can use the TT pump to suck pink stuff into the lines and avoid dumping a lot of antifreeze in the fresh tank.

Toilet and traps--don't forget the tub trap. Pour pink juice in ALL the traps: sinks (bathroom and kitchen) and tub trap, and make sure you have the bottom of the toilet bowl covered--the seal should not be allowed to dry out. If you have ever used the outside kitchen, make sure the supply lines run pink. You want to replace the water with pink solution.


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## Keith68 (Feb 18, 2011)

Thanks a million for your comments. When you say traps, I'm not sure what you mean. In addition to running it through all the lines, I poured anti-freeze down the sink, toilet, and tub, but I did not put a stopper in the sink or tub and leave a standing pool. Should I do that? I did leave a 1/4 of the toilet full of anti-freeze.

Thank you again.


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## hautevue (Mar 8, 2009)

Keith68 said:


> Thanks a million for your comments. When you say traps, I'm not sure what you mean. In addition to running it through all the lines, I poured anti-freeze down the sink, toilet, and tub, but I did not put a stopper in the sink or tub and leave a standing pool. Should I do that? I did leave a 1/4 of the toilet full of anti-freeze.
> 
> Thank you again.


No need to stopper the sinks or tub. Do as you did and pour a few ounces (3 - 4 usually will do it) into each trap to have the pink juice displace the water, then leave the trap open (no stopper). The trap is the u-shaped curved pipe under the drain that always has water in it to prevent sewage gasses from coming out into the living space. The TT is identical in function to our house plumbing systems. (The toilet drain system is different from our homes but I won't go into that here.)

Your handling of the toilet is perfect--the "last flush" of the line to the toilet should put pink tinged water in the toilet bowl, and then as you did, I pour a few ounces of straight pink into the toilet bowl just to be "sure."


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## Keith68 (Feb 18, 2011)

Thanks again for the great info. You helped me breathe a sigh of relief and get back to my studies.


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## therink (May 13, 2010)

It sounds like you may have overlooked opening the low point drains. There may still be some unprotected water in these. Usually, these are opened first to drain water from the system. 
Also, if you have a black tank flush system, you have to blow that out with air.
Steve


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