Winterize Questions

I'll take a crack at trying to answer your questions.

Low point drains? Yes. Open them. It drains water from the lines, not the tanks. You can wait until after you have blown out the lines. I did it while I had the compressor connected. I went through and did the bathroom sink and toilet, the kitchen sink, and the outside shower first. There was not much water left when I opened the drains, but there was enough that it was a good idea to drain them. I did bypass the water heater first (see below) and drained the tank by removing the anode rod. That not only drained the tank, but gave me a chance to check the condition of the anode rod so that I could replace it if it were needed.

For the water heater, it depends on the valves. Mine has three valves. One is on the cold water inlet line. A second is on the hot water output line (red). The third is on a line that goes between the cold and hot water lines. To by pass the hot water heater, close the cold water and hot water valves and open the bypass valve. To use the hot water heater, close the bypass valve and open the cold and hot water valves. If yours has a different valve setup, you will need to refer to whatever instructions you were given for that setup.

The main reason for bypassing the hot water heater is if you use the RV antifreeze. It is very corrosive to the anode rod. If you have removed the anode rod and drained the tank and blown the water out of the rest of the system, I suppose you could skip the bypass and leave the tank inline. If there is a chance of you using the antifreeze though, you should bypass the water heater.

Remember to turn the air pressure down to around 40 psi. at the compressor.  I have a drain plug somewhere out in the weeds by the barn from forgetting to turn the air pressure down on the pickup camper years ago.  

  Thanks for covering the part I didn't. You must have had some air pressure! Since the pump puts out about 50 psi, 40 psi on the air line is great to make sure nothing blows out. Drain plugs are easy to replace. Water lines would be more of a pain.

Another winterizing question.  If temps dip below freezing temporarily overnight during the winter months, do you need to winterize.  I live in SC, there is not a good deal of freezing weather but it does happen occasionally.

+1.