How do I winterize an RV with an air compressor? Please provide steps on how to do this. Thanks!?
by admin on Monday, November 15th, 2010 | 2 Comments
I need to winterize my RV and was told that you could do that using an air compressor as well as RV Antifreeze, but I don’t know exactly how to do this and I wasn’t supplied with the information when I bought it. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to do this?
YOU DONT NEED A AIR COMPRESSOR. FIRST DRAIN YOUR WATER TANK AND HOT WATER HEATER THEN CLOSE THE INLET VALVES AND OPEN THE BYPASS VALVE ON THE HOT WATER HEATER TO PREVENT ANTIFREEZE FROM GETTING INTO IT. THEN DISCONNECT THE LINE FROM THE TANK TO THE PUMP AT THE PUMP AND GET A PIECE OF HOSE AND PUT ON THE PUMP SO YOU CAN SUCK THE ANTIFREEZE OUT OF THE JUG TURN THE PUMP ON AND START BY OPENING THE SINK OR WHATEVER IS FARTHEST FROM THE PUMP. OPEN BOTH HOT AND COLD VALVES THEN DO THE REMAINING SINKS,TOILET, SHOWER. THE AVERAGE RV WILL USE ABOUT 2-3 GALLONS TO FILL ALL THE LINES.
Disconnect the water supply line from the OUTPUT side of the water pump. Open all of the faucets. Insert a compressed air blowgun into the plastic water line and bow air through the lines. Do not exceed the pressure of the water pump (e.g., if the water pump produces 25 psi when pressurizing the system, set your air compressor regulator to 25 psi). That’s the HOW of it.
Now for the WARNING portion of my answer. If you do not get all the water completely out of the lines, it will eventually run down to the lowest part of the system. Then it will freeze and burst your lines. When you fill the system in the spring and pressurize it, you’ll have water spraying from the split line. At the very best, this is annoying. At the very worst, you’re going to be in for hundreds of dollars worth of water system repairs plus the replacement of whatever the leaking water ruined. Do you want to take that risk?
The best way to winterize your RV is to poor 10-20 gallons of RV antifreeze into your water tank (how much you use will really depend on the size of your coach’s hot water heater). Activate your water pump to pressurize the system. Turn on each water faucet and let it run until you see antifreeze coming out of the tap. It might be pink, or it might be orange. Depends on what color the RV antifreeze is that you poored into the main holding tank. Please note, that it can take a little while for antifreeze to come out of the hot water lines. The RV antifreeze has to fill the hot water heater before it can come out of the faucet. Your hot water heater may be 5 gallons, 10 gallons, or even larger.
If you have double sinks anywhere in the coach, let the antifreeze solution run into each sink. This will leave antifreeze in the drain for each sink, thereby winterizing your drains too. Also, don’t forget to open the water faucet valves on your external shower (if your coach has one), and your toilet and shower.
In short, the best way to winterize your RV is to use RV antifreeze and open EVERY water faucet until it runs pink or orange. Poruing the antifreeze into your coach’s main water holding tank will use more antifreeze, but it will insure that your entire water system is protected: from supply tank to waste holding tanks.