Water Pump When Winterizing With Compressed Air

Bert

I did a thorough job of blowing out the water lines in my Tab just ahead of a winter storm that's dumped 18 inches of snow 100 miles north of Missoula. I do worry about the water pump. I ran it until water quit flowing before blowing out the lines. Does all of the compressed air flowing through the lines ensure that the water pump is empty? Is there any point to unscrewing the inlet and outlet hoses on the pump as I have done in the past? If not, I'd prefer to leave them connected. They're no fun to take off or put back on and if you fill the tank before reconnecting the hoses the next spring you get water everywhere (how do I know this?).

Sharon_is_SAM

Best to disconnect the lines on either side of the pump to make sure they are dry.  Leave yourself a note somewhere obvious as a reminder in the spring.

N7SHG_Ham

After blowing, I took inlet hose off and sucked about a five second run of antifreeze into the pump and toilet. Surprisingly more water than I wanted to see was also expelled out the low point drains which I still had opened. I think it very hard to get every last drop of water out, I do hope with the compressed air method plus a little antifreeze in pump and toliet all will be good.

ScottG

I run a little antifreeze through the pump just to chase out any residual water, then I run it dry and leave the lines detached at least for a bit. The instructions don't call for running antifreeze through the pump, and I'm not sure it's really necessary, but I do it regardless. Someone here (@BrianZ, I think) came up for a clever set of fittings to facilitate the process.

BrianZ

Here's what I'll be doing again after blowing out with compressed air, to put antifreeze in the pump, toilet & outdoor shower without putting any in the rest of the plumbing lines, except P-trap drains in the sink, shower & in the gray/black tank drain valves..

https://tab-rv.vanillacommunity.com/discussion/9137/a-modified-hybrid-winterizing-method-pump-toilet-shower

Today was a record high 92° here in VA, so it'll be at least another 6 weeks before we winterize.

VictoriaP

N7SHG_Ham said:

After blowing, I took inlet hose off and sucked about a five second run of antifreeze into the pump and toilet. Surprisingly more water than I wanted to see was also expelled out the low point drains which I still had opened. I think it very hard to get every last drop of water out, I do hope with the compressed air method plus a little antifreeze in pump and toliet all will be good.

This is honestly why I won’t risk doing blowout only. I spent an hour blowing out the lines with a pancake compressor, and tried all sorts of maneuvers to empty the fresh water tank thoroughly. As soon as I disconnected the lines to the water pump to add a permanent bypass fitting for winterizing with antifreeze...wham, more water draining. Seriously discouraging, and made me glad I’d already decided to use a glycol based antifreeze in the lines. I don’t have the DIY skillset y’all do for replacing everything that breaks, I just am not willing to risk it when non toxic antifreeze is cheap.

Nightly lows expected to drop below 40° here on Monday, and snow last night dropped to 3500 feet less than an hour away. Winter is coming...