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Wednesday, April 16, 2014

DEWINTERIZING AND SANITIZING - STEP BY STEP

It was time for me to dewinterize my Roadtrek and I went to this site and pulled up my article on the process. My intention was to print out that article and use it as a guide - even I need reminders to keep the steps straight. Well, I printed it out and looking it over I said to myself, "to go along with this article, why didn't you write a simple to use step by step listing of all the steps leaving out the explanations?". Well, I sat down and wrote just that and here it is. Copy and paste the steps as follows to a single page and print it out. It will make the job so much easier! Read the main article FIRST and familiarize yourself with the process. Then take this one page step by step checklist and take it out to the Roadtrek when you do the job!

Before I start, just one explanation because you will see below that there is a new step added and another step is in a different place in order. The new step is adding flushing the hot water tank out during this process. Because when I winterized it was too cold to do this, I waited until now. Do it before you dewinterize so that you don't push any of the minerals and gunk that accumulate in the hot water tank to go into your plumbing. Here is how to FLUSH THE HOT WATER TANK. The step changed in order is putting the hot water tanks operation off of bypass. To avoid putting any remaining anti-freeze (if there even is any) into the hot water tank. When on city water, the hot water tank just fills on its own as long as it is not bypassed.

OK - HERE WE GO!



DEWINTERIZING STEP BY STEP

  1. KEEP THE HOT WATER TANK IN BYPASS WHEN STARTING.
  2. SET TANK VALVES TO SUMMER MODE.
  3. FILL THE TWO FRESH WATER TANKS.
  4. TURN ON THE BATTERY DISCONNECT SWITCH.
  5. TURN ON THE WATER PUMP.
  6. TURN ON COLD SIDE OF SINK – RUN UNTIL ALL PINK COMES OUT AND CLEAR WATER RUNS. TURN ON HOT SIDE OF SINK.
  7. OPEN SHOWER DRAIN IN FLOOR.
  8. TURN ON COLD ON SHOWER UNTIL CLEAR, REPEAT FOR HOT.
  9. FLUSH TOILET.
  10. TURN ON COLD OUTSIDE SHOWER UNTIL CLEAR, REPEAT FOR HOT.
  11. TURN OFF WATER PUMP AND BATTERY SWITCH.
  12. OPEN HOT WATER TANK AND FLUSH WITH FLUSH STICK.
  13. REPLACE ANODE ROD. CLOSE HOT WATER HEATER DOOR.
  14. LEAVE WATER PUMP OFF.
  15. CONNECT HOSE TO CITY WATER LINE WITH PRESSURE REGULATOR.
  16. TURN ON HOSE AND REPEAT STEPS 6 TO 10.
  17. NEXT SANITIZE TANKS.

SANITIZING THE FRESH WATER TANKS

Note - this section was updated in May 2015

  1. TURN HOT WATER BYPASS VALVES TO HOT WATER FLOW.
  2.  USE CITY WATER LINE TO FILL HOT WATER TANK BY RUNNING CITY WATER INTO THAT TANK. (NOT CITY WATER FILL - REGULAR USE OF CITY WATER)
  3. DISCONNECT CITY WATER CONNECT FROM HOSE.
  4. PUT ONE HALF CUP BLEACH INTO THE FRONT EXTERIOR FRESH TANK. (PRE-MIX THE BLEACH IN A GALLON JUG OF WATER BEFORE PUTTING IT INTO THE FRESH TANK - DO NOT PUT PURE BLEACH INTO THE TANK.)
  5. PUT ONE QUARTER CUP BLEACH INTO THE REAR INTERIOR FRESH TANK. (PRE-MIX THE BLEACH IN A GALLON JUG OF WATER BEFORE PUTTING IT INTO THE FRESH TANK - DO NOT PUT PURE BLEACH INTO THE TANK.)
  6. TOP OFF WATER IN TANKS WITH HOSE.
  7. DRIVE BACK AND FORTH TO MIX THE BLEACH INTO THE WATER.
  8. TURN ON BATTERY SWITCH AND WATER PUMP.
  9. **TURN ON EACH FAUCET HANDLE PLUS INSIDE AND OUTSIDE SHOWER ONE HANDLE AT A TIME SMELLING FOR BLEACH TO COME THROUGH WITH EACH. NOT THE TOILET.
  10. LET BLEACH SIT IN TANKS FOR AT LEAST FOUR HOURS.
  11. DRAIN WATER TANKS.
  12. FILL WATER TANKS AGAIN.
  13. **REPEAT STEP 5 SMELLING NOW FOR NO BLEACH SMELL.
  14. DRAIN TANKS THROUGH THE LOW POINT DRAIN.
  15. REPEAT STEP 8 AND 9. IF BLEACH SMELL REPEAT FROM STEP 8.
  16. DRAIN TANKS OR LEAVE FULL FOR TRIP
DONE

** When you smell for bleach, run the water into a paper cup and smell the water in the cup. If you run it into the sink the bleach odor will be in the sink and you will smell bleach in the water when you go on to Step 13 after flushing with fresh water. 



ADDENDUM:  NEW ARTICLE ON SANITIZING THE HOT WATER TANK

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10 comments:

  1. UnknownApril 17, 2014 at 12:11 PM

    We are de-Winterizing today. You are my go-to site for these sort of once a year processes. Thanks so much for streamling and simplifying the earlier how-to. We will put the now-printed list to good use. Many thanks for your site.

    Mary & Rick
    210P2005

    ReplyDelete
  2. WriterApril 18, 2014 at 6:55 PM

    A reader asked a question about this article on another article so I am responding here also because what he asked is important for all to know. He asked for clarification about City Water as it applies here to fill the hot water tank - here is my response. To fill the hot water tank you must have your Roadtrek either connected to CITY WATER - meaning city water hose running water into all of the plumbing and not city water filling the fresh water tank(s) OR by filling the fresh water tanks and using that water to run into the hot water tanks. Once any water is going through the water pump or pipes it will go into the hot water tank as soon as you turn on any hot water side of a faucet or shower. The water then will start to fill the six gallons of the hot water tank. You will not see water coming out of the hot side of the faucet for a short while because it takes time for six gallons to fill and then the water to start to flow out. The hot water tank is on the sink side for lack of a better description of the water pump and not on the "supply" side or fresh tank side of the water pump where the fresh water tanks are located.

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  3. DaveMay 11, 2014 at 1:23 PM

    Thank you for your helpful blogs..they are tremendous. I have never known how to keep the city water connection fixture (female hose connection) clean and free of road dirt when traveling. Any ideas? Thanks very much

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. WriterMay 11, 2014 at 8:06 PM

      My city water connection came with a screw in cap which keeps all debris out of the opening. Mine is plastic and I have seen the these at both RV accessories stores and also marine stores. You may even find this at Home Depot or Lowes.

      Delete
  4. DaveMay 11, 2014 at 9:16 PM

    Thank you for your prompt and helpful reply. As a new rv and roadtrek owner I keep a binder of many of your articles in my roadtrek. Thank you again.

    ReplyDelete
  5. The T'sApril 11, 2015 at 7:12 PM

    Thank you for your instructions, but as a suggestion, instead of saying where the valve should point (toward aisle or toward driver), we would have had an easier time if it was just stated if valve should be vertical or horizonal.

    ReplyDelete
  6. WriterApril 28, 2016 at 7:04 PM

    I printed out my own article here to dewinterize my Roadtrek and found a pretty big error above. In sanitizing the article said to put a 1/2 cup of bleach and a gallon of water into the front exterior tank and in the next step said to put a 1/4 cup of bleach into a gallon of water into the front exterior tank. OH BOY! Sorry about that - no harm would have been done but I never mentioned the rear fresh interior tank. That next step with the 1/4 cup of bleach is for the the REAR INTERIOR TANK. The article is NOW CORRECTED! Sorry.

    ReplyDelete
  7. AnonymousMarch 10, 2018 at 7:05 AM

    Thank you for great information.

    ReplyDelete
  8. KCJune 11, 2019 at 3:31 PM

    Why is an anode not needed in the fresh water tanks, yet needed in the hot water tank?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. WriterJune 11, 2019 at 4:52 PM

      The water in the fresh tank is not there over any length of time but unless one empties the hot water tank after every trip by removing the anode rod and letting the water in the tank pour out on the floor, which is the ONLY way to empty a hot water tank, the water will be in the hot water tank all season. But mainly the anode rod takes away the process of the water interacting with the steel hot water tank and rusting the steel - even though in most hot water tanks today, they are glass lined.

      Delete