Winterizing

There are three valves under the bed in my pod that isolate the water heater.  I shut the two that to to and from the water heater and opened the bypass valve.  My pump is a few feet from the water heater, under the sink.  I took off the panel that covers the space by the floor that the pump sits in, removed the hose, and opened the valve.  Then hose in the bottle, pump on, anti-freeze into the system.

[QUOTE=furpod]

@ Footslogger..The system works almost exactly like your home system.Water comes into the system at a single point. In the case of a self contained camper, the single point can be fed by either the "city water" supply, or the "fresh water holding tank" On city water, the city water pressurizes the system. On Holding tank, the pump pressurizes the system. After the water passes the pump/city water "in" junction, it goes to a "T". One side of the "T" feeds the cold water side of the system, and the other goes to the WH, and then from there feeds the hot water side. When winterizing, the reason you set the bypass valves to bypass, and drain the WH, is so that you don't have to pump 6 gallons of anti freeze into the WH.. It would take about 8 gallons of anti freeze to do the system if you didn't bypass and drain the WH. It may very well be that all your anti freeze is in your WH.. not good if it's as cold out as you say.

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We got snow last night but it only dipped to 30 degrees (not as low as predicted). I'm going to head outside today an take a good look with a fresh set of eyes. Thanks for your explanation. It makes sense. Just that things are really tight in there so it's hard to see the plumbling well. The pump in my unit is under the bed on drivers side, wedged between the hot water heater and furnace. Almost impossible to follow the routing of the lines much less get your hands in there.

I saw the 3 valves and right now I know that the input and output valves to/from the hot water heater are in the CLOSED position. Plus, I have the water heater drained and the anode removed - - so even if I had accidentally pulled the pink stuff into the water heater it would have run out of the anode port and I would have seen it. What I have trouble seeing is that THIRD VALVE, which is most liikely under the pump near that city/holding tank "T" you described. With better lighting and a little heater running inside the camper, I am going to go back out and sketch the layout. Diagrams are the easiest way for me to get a handle on this. Plus, then I'll have a template for next year.

Hell, who knows   ...I might have even left the low level drain caps off when I was doing all this last night. I had poor lighting and near freezing temps and was in a hurry (bad combination). If that's the case I blew 4 gallons of antifreeze out of the low level drain :-)

'Slogger

Originally posted by marwayne Here is a pic of the bypass valves. The valves are in the position to fill HW, turn all 3 valves 90* and you bypass the HW.

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My plumbing doesn't look like this. I have the 3 valves picutred but my pump is wedged between the HW heater and the furnace under the bed. That being said   ...just as a sanity check for myself - - in your picture the valves are currently in the open (non bypass) position and if you connected to city water or activated the pump your water heater would fill    ...correct ?

Thanks for the help and the pic. Picture help a lot, eventhough it appears that the plumbing layout varies considerably from Pod to Pod.

'Slogger

Originally posted by rex WHAT IS ALL THIS TALK ABOUT WINTERIZING.I AM ON MY WAY TO THE LAKE TO WATCH WV TAKE ON TEXAS GO WVA,ITS CLOUDY HERE TODAY LOW 80,HAPPY TRAILS TO ALL rex pHp stuart fla

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Just be happy you can. Snowing here and below freezing. This camper is gonna watch the game of his choice (Wyoming/Nevada) from the comfort of his living room :-)

'Slogger

Mystery solved - - recall the Nat'l Guard !! It was 2 things that caused the vanishing 4 gallons of antifreeze. First (and foremost) the low level drain caps were off. I had taken them off when I blew the system out with the air compressor and had forgotten to put them back on. The reason I didn't notice that sooner was that I was inside the camper during the antifreeze uptake process and the low level valves are behind my drivers side wheel    ...so I now have a patch of dead grass that is good to -50 degrees:-)

The second thing was that one of the bypass valves - - not the hotwater tank input/out line valves    ...the other one.

Once I got the drain caps on and oriented the valve correctly the system pressurized using the pump with the drop line sticking in the antifreez jug I had pink stuff flowing out of all faucets in seconds.

Thanks to everyone who offered advice and information. In the end what helped me most was going out there with a clear head and fresh eyes, doing a diagram of the plumbing and then going forward from there.

Note to self     ...DOCUMENT the hell out of this for next year :-)

'Slogger