How to De-Winterize a Traditional RV Water Heater

Hello, this is Chris with Hilltop Camper and RV. Today, we're going to be doing a de-winterize on a tank-style water heater. First thing you're going to want to do is anytime before you remove the plug of the water heater, you're going to want to open the pressure and temperature relief valve so that you can verify there's no temp no pressure in the water heater. Then, you'll remove the plug. On an Atwood or Dometic-style water heater, it is generally a 15/16 socket to remove the plug, and it's going to be a plastic plug. And you'll make sure the plug is out for flushing the water heater. On a Suburban water heater, it will have an anode rod in it. The anode rod is a 1 and 1/16 in nut to take it off. This anode rod in the condition it's in still has plenty of life left in it. It can get worn all the way down to the small rod that's in the center. The original equipment ones are a bi-metal anode rod. They have a weld mark in the end of them designating that, and you should use the majority or all of it up before you switch to an aftermarket anode rod.

Okay, and we're going to connect our city water supply with our water pressure regulator on it to the unit.

Going to turn our water supply on.

And then, we are going to turn our water on to the unit.

This unit has the low point drains on the inside. I generally start with the low point drains first when de-winterizing, and we will These pull up to let the water out. And I just run a a fair amount of water through each one before you move to the next one. And that will start your winterization.

After the low point, we can go to each hot and cold faucet in the unit and run until the pink turns to clear water on each faucet and each fixture.

Make sure to get the shower head also.

All right, there's the other handle on this one. And that one.

All right, and then after I do each each faucet fixture in the unit get clear water running through it, I go through a second time to verify that all the antifreeze is out of the city water side. From there, we will go to winterizing the pump side.

With the RV antifreeze that it that is in these units, it is a non-toxic antifreeze. If there's a remainder in there, it is not going to hurt you. It might have a little bit of an odd taste to it for until it's flushed out, but it it is safe to consume.

And for our pump, we will de- detach the hose from our city water connection.

And we will go to our tank fill.

And we will use a tank fill hose so that you are not placing the threads of your hose into your water hookup because that can create excess pressure in the tank and it can rupture the tank and damage the trailer. So, you always do want to use a tank fill hose when doing a non-pressure fill water tank.

And we are going to turn our water on and run a couple gallons in. We're going to verify that there's some water in the tank, the valve is open, and we will close the valve, let it fill some.

And when you're filling your tank or running water into your city hookups, uh it's best to use a food grade or a drinking water safe hose. Uh natural rubber garden hoses can have debris in them, uh the the chunks of rubber. They can have uh algae and bacteria in them more likely. So, just make sure to be using a uh drinking water safe hose. After you have water in your tank that's enough to run the pump, we can shut our water off.

And we will go inside the unit and turn the pump on. Where is the

We'll turn the water pump on and go through cold and hot faucets again. It will take a little bit to get some water, but wait for the shot of pink to come out and then move on to the rest of the fixtures.

There is our antifreeze out of the pump, and now we would go about each fixture in here making sure that the water is clear out of every fixture in the low point.

And before turning the pump on, we will make sure that the pump is set to the water tank use rather than winterize by going to the valve at the water pump.

And making sure that the antifreeze suction line is turned off and that the tank is turned on. Then we can turn the pump on and run water. After de-winterizing the city side and the pump side of this unit because it is a tank style water heater, it will have a water heater bypass on it and the water heater is still bypassed on this unit. So, on this three valve system, the first thing I will do is I will open the top or the hot bypass. That'll allow to flush the top line. Then I will close the bypass and I will open the cold. Now the water heater is ready for use. It's on bypassed and with the plug out, you can flush a gallon or two of water through it to make sure that the water heater is clean. Your pump will be running, your water heater will flush some of the water in it that's been in over the winter, and after you've flushed a little bit of water through it, you can go back inside and just turn the pump off.

Once the water system is turned off, pump's off, city water is disconnected, we can close our pressure and temperature valve so that that isn't left open. And we don't need to have the water heater plug in the water heater. We'll let it drain.

And we will also open our low point drains and our faucets inside the unit.

We'll open our low point drains and our faucets and allow the water to drain out of the trailer.

And the final thing to do would be go out and open your water tank drain and make sure that your fresh water tank is also drained.

All right. Thanks for watching winterizing your tank style water heater. Uh if your trailer has other options on it, always make sure to check your owner's manual. Or if you want us to take care of it or have questions, see us at Hilltop.