Step by step using Alde on winterized 2018 T@b with wetbath

Do you mean how to heat your cabin using the Alde even though your plumbing is winterized?  Hopefully your Alde does not have antifreeze in it.  

Was it purchased new?  If so, it comes from the factory winterized and they do not add antifreeze to the fresh water tank/Alde.  Assuming no water in your plumbing, you are free to heat the cabin with electric or LPG.  

Just turn on the Alde at the control panel and set your thermostat.  It defaults to the first electric setting if on shore power.  If you want more heat, go up to the second setting.  If you want a faster heat up on shore power, open your propane tank slowly, then turn on the propane at the panel.  If boondocking without power, open your propane tank and turn on the propane at the panel. 

@dsfdogs, which water tank are you speaking of? There is the alde hot water tank and the fresh water holding tank. Some dealerships and owners DO put anti-freeze into the fresh water holding tank but there are many threads which say that the rv anti-freeze should not come in contact with the alde water heating tank. Please clarify which tank as I seem to recall something about damage to the alde stainless steel water heating tank when in contact with the pink rv anti-freeze. .......Unless I'm remembering something incorrectly.  Thanks.

So, bypass the Alde when you sanitize?

When Little Guy first began installing the Alde in the Tab, the instructions were that it was no problem to use antifreeze and operate the Alde with the antifreeze in it, while winterized. The Tab had no bypass valves in Little Guy's first iteration with the Alde.

However, the next year the manufacturer of the Alde released a notice that 'antifreeze should not be put into the hot water tank', and that it specifically would not be a good idea to run it with antifreeze in it. They said that they didn't know if the seals could handle the hot antifreeze.

Conveniently, Little Guy started installing the bypass valves at that point,  so now the Alde tank could stay anti-freeze free, even if the rest of the water system was winterized with antifreeze. My 'early' Little Guy Tab has no bypass valves.

I personally would go with the Alde manufacturer's recommendation, and not put antifreeze in contact with the water heater and its seals, especially when the Alde is in operation. But contrary to Paul the Air Force guy's suggestion, the Alde can be run while winterized, but it should be run dry, with no antifreeze in it. 

And to the OP's original question,  it sounds like Beckley’s doesn't recommend you ever run it with it winterized, and that they put antifreeze in there with that assumption. But according to the Alde manufacturer, the antifreeze should not be in contact with the Alde hot water tank. (Boy it irks me when a service technician thinks they know better than the manufacturer!)

So I'd think if you want to run it while it's winterized (which you can), you should drain the antifreeze out of your freshwater system, rinse it thoroughly to get all the antifreeze out of the hot water tank, thoroughly drain the rinse water from the system, and close the bypass valves so the hot water tank is kept dry. You can then re-winterize your plumbing either with antifreeze or by using the blowout method.

IMHO, it's easier to use the 'blow out' method!

I’m sold on blowing out lines, also.

I travel late in the year through low 20’s or below and (knock in wood) it has worked for me.  I also travel back home this time of the year. I may need to re-winterize this week in these crazy temps before I get home.

I carry my tire compressor and a gallon of RV antifreeze with me, just in case. 

We blew out our lines last winter, had temps below 0F and had no problems in spring. I did leave all the faucets and drains open as well as the Alde’s little yellow flap thingy so any remaining moisture would be able to expand. Antifreeze in traps and toilet bowl only.

The other thing to consider is, adding antifreeze is much quicker than thoroughly blowing the system out, so it would make sense that a dealership would prefer to do that and then deal with draining and flushing in the spring.

It probably takes me a good hour to tilt the Tab this way and that way in order to get all the water out of the lines. 

SAM said:

Keep in mind, since there is no need to bypass the Alde with the blowout method, when you go to sanitize, do as Eric suggested and do not turn on the water pump or you will get bleach in your Alde.  It was recommended to run the bleach water through the plumbing lines and as a result our Alde got bleached as well.

I don’t use bleach.  I use a two part Thetford cleaner/sanitizer. Last year I used it throughout the entire system a couple times but I got to wondering. I asked a friend who is a research chemist whether the chemicals in the Thetford sanitizer (Alkyl dimethyl benzyl ammonium chloride and Alkyl dimethyl ethylbenzyl ammonium chloride) are safe for stainless steel. This is his response. 

“Both will attack stainless steel because the chloride ion is the culprit.  The speed though is determined by the type of stainless steel and the pH.  316 stainless is only slowly attacked by chloride.  Higher pH is also better because there is less free hydrogen ions.  These are higher pH solutions unless there are more ingredients.  The corrosion rate is also concentration dependent.  Chloride is better than chlorine but neither is good for stainless steel.”

So, this year I will take pains to keep the sanitizer out of the Alde. 

Sure ColoradoJon, I'll try to find it. We bought our Tab in 2013, so it might be a hunt.

Edit: ColoradoJon, nope, can't find it for nuthin, sorry. I guess it'll have to be hear-say!

I used the antifreeze method the first winter we owned ours, and ran it winterized, per instructions, and then the notice came out against it and I had to hope I hadn't hurt it. 

I now only use the blow out method.

I'm curious why Alde would think propylene/ethanol would harm the system.  It's just an alcohol based antifreeze, after all, and doesn't seem to harm water pumps, seals, water supply line joints, or valves.  If they have a concern I would expect them to update their recent manual for download to include the warning, but I cannot find it at all!