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Re: [GMCnet] Winterizing the GMC [message #106189 is a reply to message #105793] Fri, 19 November 2010 10:00 Go to previous messageGo to previous message
Richard Denney is currently offline  Richard Denney   United States
Messages: 920
Registered: April 2010
Karma:
Senior Member
On Fri, Nov 12, 2010 at 4:21 PM, Ken Henderson <hend4800@bellsouth.net>wrote:

> I wasn't able to escape the coldest days we had last year (what, 23*F a
> night or two?).
>

Show off.

Last February, as I was cutting a path through 30" snow adjacent to the
coach, and as I shoveled up to the door of the coach to allow me to get to
the engine so I could tap the fuel tank for the five gallons I needed to run
the snow blower another eight hours, it occurred to me that for many of us
who are not lazy retired old laggards like you still have to winterize our
coaches. I was in a grumpy mood that day (er, week), what can I say?

Here's my winterizing scheme:

But a first point: I never use the city water connection, and I always keep
the valve from that connection closed (I plumbed valves for everything--I
never depend on plastic check valves). I learned that from Gene Fisher, and
I've passed it along to newbie RV owners I've met. Gene's idea is that if
you only use water from the tank, then 1.) a leak that pops up when you are
out in your towd is at most a 36-gallon problem, not potentially a
3600-gallon problem as fed by the local water system, and 2.) when you run
out of water in the tank, you have another issue that requires moving the
coach to the dump station (I don't use continuous sewer dumps, either--I
want that liquid sloshing around in the waste tank to minimize the formation
of dried...solids).

Year 1:

1. Buy 10 gallons of RV antifreeze. Price: $36, only 1/8 of a Standard GMC
Unit.

2. Drain the system as much as possible by opening the drain on the faucets,
hot water heater and the fresh water tank. Leave the pump off.

3. Pour 9 gallons of RV antifreeze into the freshwater tank. As soon as the
pink stuff starts coming out of the tank drain, close the drain valve. This
protects the drain valve, which on my coach has too much that is horizontal
to be sure that it drains completely by itself.

4. With a hot-water tap open (to minimize air pressure buildup in the water
heater), turn on the pump.

5. When pink stuff starts coming out of the open faucet, you know the water
heater tank is full. Close the hot-water faucet, and open the cold-water
faucets. When pink stuff starts coming out of them, close the faucets.

6. Flush the toilet until pink stuff can be seen in the bowl.

7. Open all the cold-water faucets until the tank runs dry. Don't forget to
run a little of the pink stuff through the shower hose, unless you are sure
you can drain it.

8. Turn off the pump, and open a tap to let any residual pressure drain off.
Note that at this point, I've run pink stuff into the traps of both the
galley sink and the lavatory.

9. Put a clean bucket under the water heater drain (using tubing if
necessary; it's not necessary for me because I do not have a standard water
heater in the standard location).

10. Open the water heater drain and recover the contents of the hot water
tank. Open a hot water tap so that the tank drains without pulling a vacuum.

11. Pour that back into the empty RV Antifreeze bottles. Write the year on
the bottle with a Sharpie. I usually recover all six gallons--some of what
drains comes from the hot water pipes.

12. Take the remaining gallon of RV antifreeze and pour it through the
shower drain.

13. Empty the black tank using the macerator. There will be about four
gallons of pink stuff in the waste tank, and that will provide a good rinse
in the tank as well as leaving residual pink stuff in the macerator.

14. Put the six recovered gallons on the shelf for next year.

Year 2 and thereafter is the same except I buy four gallons instead of ten.
With the six from the previous year, that gives me all ten that I need.

I tried it with fewer than 9 gallons in the freshwater tank, but unless I
could put the coach on a spit and rotate it to the perfect angle, the pump
would suck air before I'd filled the hot water tank and the surge tank
fully. You might save a gallon or two by plumbing a fill hose directly into
the pump, but I tried that one year. When the pink-stuff bottle got down to
about a quarter full, the hose overbalanced it and it tipped over, making a
big mess. So, I paid myself three bucks so that I could try to clean the
pink stuff off of a range of interior surfaces. Not worth it!

Annual cost is about $15, or about 1/20 of a Standard GMC Unit. It is not
worth the redesign of the plumbing around the water heater that would be
required to install a bypass to save $15 a year.

I've never had mold grow in my recovered antifreeze, which is, I suppose, a
pretty good confirmation that I'm doing enough to keep critters out of the
water system. I do sanitize it at least once a year using chlorine, and like
Emery I don't worry about any residual chlorine taste after a good flush of
the system. The chlorine taste is a sign that the system is sanitized.
Considering the amount of pool water I have ingested (I learned to be a
long-distance swimmer a few years ago), I've never minded the chlorine
taste--it tells me that the other...stuff...in the pool is being
neutralized.

Rick "who spent three times the amount of time it takes to follow this
procedure to write it down" Denney

--
'73 230 "Jaws"
Northern Virginia
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