I did it! De-winterization and Sanitizing Done!

LauraRey

After wondering if I could do it myself, I now feel like a bit of an idiot for wondering it.  It was super easy and now that I've done it once, the next time will be quite fast.  It took longer to go to Home Depot and get the stupid repair kit for the hose that was broken.  The only real mistake was that I re-installed the battery and wired it backwards, which blew a fuse.  Changed the wires, put in a new fuse, and voila!  Power, hot water and I'm done.

So, if you wonder if you can do it yourself, yes, you can.

Nomad

Cool - Fridge working on propane?

lino

Congratulations- where is your first trip?

This weekend we drained and cleaned the fresh tank and successfully tested the heat, water and ac for  the first time.  Almost everything was easy except hard to match some Aldie valves since they did match instillation to manual online. But was pretty easy to figure out, with help. That's a lot for two newbies.

off to Shenandoah next weekend for first time.

LauraRey

PXLated said:

Cool - Fridge working on propane?

Hmmm....probably should check that tomorrow.  Thanks for the reminder.

LauraRey

lino said:

Congratulations- where is your first trip?

Bronte Creek Provincial Park 
Not as rustic as I enjoy, but lots of stuff there for my eight-year old to do.  I'm also going to teach her how to make pysanky while there.  I have a dear friend who is a retired professor of Russian.  He taught me how to decorate the eggs and I thought sitting at a camp ground would be a nice time to teach my daughter.

LauraRey

LauraRey said:

PXLated said:

Cool - Fridge working on propane?

Hmmm....probably should check that tomorrow.  Thanks for the reminder.

Works fine!

Nomad

Good :-)

Nomad

fiddlefoot - Why don't you start a new ... Anyone Interested ... thread and see what kind of response you get.

LauraRey

PXLated said:

fiddlefoot - Why don't you start a new ... Anyone Interested ... thread and see what kind of response you get.

Eh?

LauraRey

And, of course, the forecast changed and before we have glorious warm (for us) temperatures, it is supposed to drop to -2C for about 8-9 hours overnight.  Thoughts?  I suppose my options are:
1. drain water lines and tanks, leave drains open so I don't have to put in anti-freeze (I'm hoping that would provide relive any pressure from water expanding when frozen)
2. Turn on the heater, prop the bathroom door open and hope for the best.

Thoughts?

ericnliz

@LauraRey, I might suggestion an "easy" option if I may. Blow out the lines, opening one valve at a time ( I usually start with the one furthest away from the city water fill ), including the shower valve, sink valve, and give the toilet a last "flush" to drain the water out. Drain gray, and black tanks, and fresh water tank if there is water in it. You can leave the valves open if you want, but the air pressure usually takes care of 99% of the water. This is just a being on the "safe side" suggestion, as it kind of depends on how long it will remain that cold, and whether there is more on the way. Hope this helps. 

LauraRey

ericnliz said:

@LauraRey, I might suggestion an "easy" option if I may. Blow out the lines, opening one valve at a time ( I usually start with the one furthest away from the city water fill ), including the shower valve, sink valve, and give the toilet a last "flush" to drain the water out. Drain gray, and black tanks, and fresh water tank if there is water in it. You can leave the valves open if you want, but the air pressure usually takes care of 99% of the water. This is just a being on the "safe side" suggestion, as it kind of depends on how long it will remain that cold, and whether there is more on the way. Hope this helps. 

It will be a full 8-9 hours.  This temp drop was a surprise to everyone.  (And has left some of us really cranky, but I digress.)  I think that's what I'll do.  Drain everything, but not reintroduce anti-freeze.  I assume I need to close the lines to the Alde and flip on the bypass before opening the drains, right?

ericnliz

Follow the directions for winterizing in the Alde winterization diagram. Open the valves as directed per the picture. just a side note: I printed that one out and keep a copy in the trailer for reference, it helps to have a visual right in front of you. You can go to the nucamp site, and look under the library section for this info. If you do the blow-out method, you don't need antifreeze in the lines, but a little in the "P" traps for the shower & sink won't hurt.

LauraRey

ericnliz said:

Follow the directions for winterizing in the Alde winterization diagram. Open the valves as directed per the picture. just a side note: I printed that one out and keep a copy in the trailer for reference, it helps to have a visual right in front of you. You can go to the nucamp site, and look under the library section for this info. If you do the blow-out method, you don't need antifreeze in the lines, but a little in the "P" traps for the shower & sink won't hurt.

The position of the valves I understand.  My question is that there are lines to the Alde.  Do those need to be emptied as well?  If I close them and open the bypass (and the drains), there will be a small bit of water in the lines between the valves and the actual Alde unit.

ericnliz

@LauraRey , Shouldn't be enough in there to have an effect. It got to -19* here this winter, and mine was outside under a cover. Just checked everything earlier this week, and had no issues. I did, however open the flap valve for the hot water tank, and drain it as well. The Alde unit itself has antifreeze in it already that flows into the radiators through lines in the Alde unit from the Alde reservoir. If you choose to drain through the flap valve, do that one first while it's still pressurized as it has a back-flow pressure valve incorporated in that line.  

LauraRey

So I took your advice @ericnliz and bought an adapter and blew the lines out with my bicycle pump. Wow, did that work well.  Then, I dumped a bit of anti-freeze into both traps.

That was so easy that I'm sorely tempted to not use antifreeze in the fall.  Thanks for your advice.

ericnliz

@LauraRey, More than happy to help. Might want to put just a bit in the toilet to protect the seal as well. Sorry, I looked back at the previous comments and noticed I neglected to mention that one.