Newbie Question About Flushing Water Tank For A Winter Trip

Happy New Year, campers! We live in Michigan and are planning a February trip to Texas. How do other northerners handle flushing and refilling in the winter? Is it best to flush before leaving and then refill with water immediately, flush before leaving and then fill when you are outside the freeze zone, or wait until you are outside the freeze zone to both flush and refill? Thanks!

 

Depending upon temp when you leave / travel south, you may want to keep the pink rv stuff in the system so your pump is good / doesn’t need to be primed until you are out of the freeze zone before flushing pink stuff and refill.

but as you know, sometimes February might not be bad for temps up north here, and you can flush/ refill at home.

standard caveat: just my opinion I could be wrong and likely am.

 

If I'm traveling through freezing temperatures, I'll leave it winterized and only "break winterization" when I'm sure I won't run into any freezes. There isn't any need to carry antifreeze in the tanks, I'll drain them before I leave. It is the fixtures and pump that you are trying to protect....

In my experience, it takes several fresh water tanks flushes to get the antifreeze out completely. I will cook and drink from our tank. Its amazing how little antifreeze it takes to contaiminate. Foruntaley, RV antifreeze isn't toxic but I'm still not volunteering to test that

I'll drain the tanks of antifreeze before I leave, there's usually only a few quarts in there anyway, but when I get to my first 'water stop' they'are empty. Then I fill the fresh tank to overflowing. Run the pumps with "fresh" water through all 3 outputs....the outside hose feed, the spray handle, and the spigot. I for just a 30 seconds or so - until they run clear. Then drain the tank again with fresh, run the pumps etc. I'll do this 3-4 times to get all of the antifreeze out.

I always fill to overflowing when rinsing the tanks, and if I can drive around for a little bit just to agitate the tanks.

I won't drive in sub freezing temps though --- a cracked pump or fixture is something I don't want to deal with when I should be enjoying my time away.

 

I've heard of vodka before --- never tried it. I'd be concerned about alcohol eating the rubber membranes in the pump.

I think a lot of this depends on how hard the freeze, and how long. If you're hovering at 31 you're probably not going to be in too much danger since the pump and the plumbing is in the storage bay which will naturally be slightly warmer, the tank itself is "freeze safe" if I remember correctly.

To drain the lines to the faucet and spray handle, turn off the pump and lower the 'arm' of the sink down into the sink. Raise the spray handle as far as it will go straight up then open the valve on the facuet --- this will syphon the water out of the lines --- its freezing water in the spray handle which will cause it to crack -- then you've got problems.

Flushing grey water is a touchy topic depending on where you live. In places like Texas, if a drop of grey water hits the ground and its spotted by police --- its a hefty fine. I'd never advise anyone to drain anywhere other than a dump station. I've NEVER opened by grey tank and just drove down the road before letting the 8 gallons spray into harmless droplets....

but in this case, were draining the fresh side -- I'd do what I needed to do with a clean conscience. Its no different than running a fresh water hose...

 

The bottom shelf vodka does work, and for the reasons Sweeney gave,may be better for short term freeze protection as opposed to long term, but I have used it for both without a problem so far.

 

I use vodka with a bit of food coloring every year for winterizing. Yep, we're in central NC, not someplace really cold, but over the 8 winters I've used vodka it has certainly hit single digits a number of times and in the teens bunches. No problem so far. The taste is just so much easier to rinse out of the system than rv antifreeze. I mean, heck, it's vodka ...
I do hate for the clerks at the local abc store to think that I might actually be drinking that $9.95 half gallon of swill.
To add what Sweeney said about the sink, I *always* remove the sprayer nozzle from the hose after winterizing. Just don't forget to put it back on before you turn on the pump.

 

I actually have used antifreeze to wash dishes in the winter and even when I start to use in the summer there is still some pink to it. I have separate gallon jugs for drinking/coffee even in the summer.

 

This is helpful for me --- my garage is usually around 55 degrees in the winter. It's attached, insulated, and has an insulated door. My furnace is in the garage, and I added a vent that I can open when it gets really cold out, so I don't have to winterize. Kind of nice

The vodka trick would allow me to get in trip on the marginal weekends like we have coming up in the next couple of weeks. Hmmm....

Tulip Hill -- here I come