NEED HELP PLEASE-Changing Glycol (SOLVED!)

[Deleted User]

Hi,  I'm using gravity method.  I got about 1 gallon and a 1/4 out. Can you belive though now it won't accept the new glycol!!! This wasn't supposed to be hard! I have the cap off the refill reservoir jug thing and what I'm putting in is just filling the jug and not going anywhere! I could only put in a little more than half a gallon which just seemed to collect in the reservoir. I turned on the circulator pump. That didn't seem to do anything.  I even  opened the bleeder valve in the shower and no air came out.  

I don't know what to do now! I'm so stressed now! Who would have ever imagined the refilling part would be the worst part! I thought I was home free after I got about half of the fluid drained.  

Do I just need to run the circulator pump longer? I was afraid I would damage it. 

Does it matter if the cap is on or off of the reservoir? Does it need create pressure to start circulating?

Do I need to raise and/or lower the tongue to get it to go in?

I'm in the camper now.... sad. 

[Deleted User]

Update.... I'm a bone head as usual.  Just needed to tilt tongue all the way up.  Now it's starting to gurgle a little bit and the level has gone down in the tank.  Duh!!!! 

Also figured out you have to turn pump on and off on and off frequently and it really sucks it up then.

Ok, all done! I took out about a gallon and a 1/4 and that's what I put back in! I will take the leftover glycol with me for my first trip to top if off if needed. 

I had planned to do that in the Spring and again in the Fall  (every year) since I'm not able to take it all out through the gravity method, but phew, not sure I feel like doing that again this fall.  True it was much harder the first time and would be easier the next time, but all that raising and lowing the tongue wore me out! 

Denny16

Do a partial change once a year should do the trick, not sure you need to do it twice a year.
cheers

ScottG

Glad it finally worked, @TabbyShack. As one who had talked ad nauseum about changing the glycol--but has yet to actually do it--your post made me a little nervous.

Sounds like maybe you had a persistent air bubble. We'll need to add raising the tongue and cycling the circulator pump to the list of refilling tricks.

DougH

Did I read someone suggest bumping the pump speed up to 5 for a while too?  Before setting it back to 1.5 when done?

ScottG

DougH said:

Did I read someone suggest bumping the pump speed up to 5 for a while too?  Before setting it back to 1.5 when done?

Yes. That is commonly recommended to facilitate getting any air out via the auto-bleeder.

[Deleted User]

Here is what worked for sure..... filling jug as full as possible turn on circulator pump go out and raise tongue as far as it will go up,  turn circulator pump off (gurgle gurgle) turn pump back on (gurgle) off (gurgle gurgle) on (gurgle) haha refill jug, repeat cycle until you stop hearing gurgle. I also fully lowered the tongue and did the whole on off cycle with the tongue down also.   With tongue raised fully and turning the pump on and off frequently is what really got it flowing. Just turning on the pump and leaving it running didn't seem to do much.  This is how much I got out. I couldn't really get to the pump to move it up to a faster setting because of a slightly injured back but I'm sure that would be very helpful.  Mine was on 2 or 3 based on a photo I took of the pump awhile back.