Winterizing your trailer

Every year at the end of the season, when you put your RV away for the winter, you have to protect it to prevent frozen lines or tanks. Because water expands ('grows') when it freezes, it will actually rupture your tanks and pipes, leaving you with a very costly repair bill.
Just fill a plastic bottle with water, close it, and put it outside when temperatures are below freezing, you will see what can happen to your water tanks...

The winterizing process has two steps: First you remove as much water from the system as possible, then you flush the system with antifreeze.

SAFETY FIRST: When winterizing your trailer, you MUST use a special, non-toxic RV Antifreeze. Using anyhing else may put yourself and others in grave danger through poisoning.

If you don't want to read the following detailed description of winterizing, click here to go straight to the checklist.

Why is just draining not enough?

The water lines (pipes) in your RV are not straight and level. When you drain 'all' the water out, some water will stay behind in dips and low points in the lines, and when this freezes, it will still burst the lines. Even when you 'blow out' the system by using compressed air (more about this later) there is absolutely no guarantee that your system will be free of water. This is where the antifreeze comes in: By flushing the system with antifreeze, the small amount of water that stays behind mixes with the antifreeze, and can no longer harm the lines.

Where to start...

First and foremost an important point: The HWH (Hot Water Heater) is part of the system, and can contain as much as 10 gallons of water (depending on type). Of course we don't want to fill this completely with antifreeze, so it must be isolated from the rest of the system and drained. To do this, your HWH has a set of isolator valves, and a bypass valve. The isolator valves are normally open, and when closed isolate the HWH from the system. The bypass valve is normally closed, and when open connects the cold- and hot water side of the system, so that we can fill both hot- and cold water lines with antifreeze.

Finding the valves.

The valves are on the back (inside the RV) of the HWH, and in some RV's they can be hard to find, so first, on the outside of your RV, find the HWH. Pick a window or other reference close to the HWH, and go inside the RV and find the HWH using this reference. For example: in the picture, the HWH is under the rear window on the driver's side of the RV. On the inside, the same location is under the sofa-bed, so have a look under there... Yours may be hidden under the bottom shelf of a cupboard, or behind a wall in some storage compartment, often you have to remove a panel, or you have to crawl into a compartment to reach the back of the HWH.
RV designers enjoy a strange kind of humor...

Now we have to identify the valves. Here things can get a bit tricky. There can be one, two or three valves. (more RV designer humor)

One 'rule of thumb' is: whatever you find, close the open valves, open the closed ones, and you're done. Except for when someone closed one of the valves for some reason, and now you're lost... So, it pays to take a few minutes to understand the situation:

There is a cold- and a hot side on your HWH. Cold is at the bottom, hot is at the top. The cold line goes in at the bottom, the hot one comes out at the top. Easy. There is also a short piece of waterline running up-and-down between the two, this is the bypass line.

One valve:

If you have only one valve, it will be a 3-way valve at the bottom (cold side). Normally its handle will be pointing horizontally (side-ways), along the cold line. Turn it vertically (pointing up) along the bypass line. Presto. Done. You are now in bypass. There will be a one way valve (check valve) at the hot side (top) of your HWH (you can't close it, it doesn't even have a handle, it just sits there, doing it's job without pay or compensation...) so your HWH is now isolated, you can go out and drain it. (see below)

Two valves:

This is much like the one valve situation, but you have no check valve at the hot side. So; both your valve handles will be pointing horizontally. Turn them both so they line up with the bypass line (the short up-and-down line that connects the two valves) and you're done. same as above: go out and drain your HWH. (see below)

Three valves:

You bought the fun RV... You have two isolator valves, one on the top, and one on the bottom, close them both. (righty-tighty...) There is one valve, the bypass valve, in the short up-and-down piece of pipe (the bypass), open that one. (lefty-loosey...) Job done. We're all set for draining. (see below)

Draining

Open all faucets to get rid of any pressure in the system and to let air in when draining, now go outside your RV and open the HWH cover. Lift the small lever on the pressure relief valve to let the air in —watch out, some water will rush out of the valve.
Now drain the HWH by removing the drain plug or anode rod. If you have a drain plug,it's probably plastic; be gentle. If it's an anode rod, you will find a metal plug, with a rod, about ½" in diameter and about 5" long attached to your plug. The rod may look a bit 'rough', that's fine, it's job is to corrode (rust) to protect the tank. (better to replace a few buck's worth of anode now and again, than a HWH that'll cost you all of your pocket money...) While the HWH drains, find the low point drains, and open them too (they may be in the form of taps, or just blind stops that you have to screw off). There is probably a potable water drain somewhere on your RV, it may be outside or inside, it may be close to your potable water tank or not, frankly, it could be anywhere. In campers; look under the step up to the bedroom, and on some campers you'll have to use your waterpump to pump your tank out. If you can't find the potable water drain, use your water pump to empty the water tank. (Just switch on the pump, it should run from your open low point drains or otherwise from one of the open faucets)

And last but not least: you did dump your galley and body waste tanks right? If not, make sure you do before you store your RV! (see pictures)

With everything drained, you may want to use a 'blow-out-plug' (see picture on the left) to get rid of more water that may still be standing in your lines, but you don't have to. Also, blowing out gives a false sense of security; there are vertical sections of waterline in your RV, and blowing out will not empty these. The water will collect again in the horizontal runs, and freeze your lines if you don't use antifreeze.

When everything is drained, close the low point drains, make sure you don't lose the HWH drain plug and or anode rod, and close the pressure relief valve on the HWH again (flip the small lever down). Close the HWH cover.

Antifreeze

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