Handy DIY Tool for Winterizing an RV Water System
Dave SolbergDescription
Winterizing an RV water system isn’t just recommended, it’s necessary. Without taking the proper precaution and preparing your rig for winter, you risk pipes freezing and damage to the water system, which spells trouble when you go to take your first trip of the spring. To winterize your RV’s water system, you have to attach an air hose to the exterior water main and shoot compressed air through the lines of each of your appliances to remove any residual water.
In most cases, winterizing an RV water system is a process that requires two sets of hands; one to engage the air hose outside the vehicle, and one to open the faucets inside. You may not have another set of hands to help you in the process, so we have a quick trick you can use to make winterizing an RV water system a one-man job. In this lesson, we teach you how to craft a simple tool that eliminates the need for someone to hold the exterior end of the line.
Winterizing an RV water system with an old garden hose
If you’ve ever gone through the process of winterizing an RV water system, you know that it’s impossible to do on your own, right? Wrong! With a few simple household items and a little jury rigging, you can forget about having to call over a friend and do it all by yourself. RV expert Dave Solberg teaches you how to make a quick and easy tool that utilizes an old garden hose, air chuck and worm clamp to attach an air compressor to your water line.
With this basic rig for winterizing an RV water system, you can turn on the air and do what you need to do inside — open each faucet individually to clear out leftover water from your appliances and protect your pipes for hibernation. Try out this easy tip, and you’ll be done winterizing in no time!
One of the ways you can winterize your RV is to hook an air hose into your city water fill, and then simply go inside and open up the different faucets, toilets, that type of stuff, to blow all the water out of your lines. The challenge you have with that, it's usually a two person job. By the time you take this off, put your air, I gotta get it started there. There we go. Put your air inlet valve in and then your regular hookup here, somebody's got to hold the air chuck onto that while somebody else goes inside and opens everything up. Here's a handy little tool that you can make just out of some old used hose. Take and cut the male end off at any length that you want and take an air chuck, just like this and a warm clamp. Screw this in. Tighten that down. There we go, good. This one's got a short valve so I wanna get it right down to the end of that hose. Tighten it down. There we go, nice and tight. Now what I can do, is I hook this right into my outlet there. Got the air hose and like this. One of the things I want to do before I hook this up, I wanna check my air compressor. Now we happen to have an industrial air compressor that's gonna be up into about 120, maybe even I can dial it up to 200 PSI. I don't want it that high, so I'm gonna bring it down to about 40. That's enough to blow the air through. I might go up to 45 . And some of the fittings aren't gonna take that high compression. So all I have to do, hook this up. We have a little bit of a leak on our side here, just through my coupler, but that's all right. It's gonna stay up. It's gonna keep my 40, 45 PSI inside. I'll unhook this here. But by having that hooked up now I could go inside and open each individual faucet. I'm going to start at the one closest to and then just work my way past until I get to the farthest one. Make sure you do the toilet. But it's a handy little piece that you can winterize your motor home or your travel trailer all by yourself.
They have male air chucks for air compressors that fit in to the female RV water inlets, if you don't want to make one up from an old hose.
How do you assure that your water pump doesn't have any water left in it using this method?
A very neat idea. I am going to make me one this afternoon.
I have a method that does not require a compressor - because not everyone has one. I first drain the water heater tank. Next I activate my bypass valves for the water heater. Then I fill the fresh water tank with 4 jugs - 4 liters each - of non toxic antifreeze ( it's pink in colour ). I then turn on each water using devices - the sinks, the shower and the toilet - making sure to flush each one until both the hot and cold run pink. At the start of a new season simply drain the fresh water tank of the antifreeze, refill a couple of times with fresh water and then flush the antifreeze from the sinks, shower and toilet.
Thank you for a great idea
QUESTION..... SO IF YOU DON'T HAVE AN AIR COMPRESSOR. IS THERE ANY OTHER WAY TO WINTERIZE WATER SYSTEM
Great video, thanks. How do you handle a unit that has a fridge with both a water and ice dispenser as well as a combination washer/dryer? Thank you for your response.