How to Winterize an RV Using Pressurized Air
RV Lifestyle & Repair EditorsThere are a few different ways you can winterize an RV, including the use of antifreeze or compressed air to free the lines of any water that might freeze when temperatures drop. No matter what method you use, you need to fully understand how to winterize an RV to avoid any damage while in storage.
If you are not planning on using your RV during the winter months it is best to blowout the water inside the system using compressed air. To do so, you will need an adapter that screws into the city water fill line and a typical air compressor used in a garage.
Knowing how to winterize an RV using compressed air will ensure you complete the process properly. Set the air compressor at 120 PSI. Put it in place against the adapter attached to the water line and open each of the faucets inside the RV. When using compressed air it might be best to enlist the help of someone who knows how to winterize an RV because he or she may have to be on the inside of the RV watching while you are squeezing the compressor’s trigger.
Turn on the faucet for both the hot and cold water lines to ensure they are completely empty of any water. Some sinks and drains may have water left behind. If so, pour a cup of antifreeze down each drain.
Another thing you will be told when learning how to winterize an RV using compressed air is to remove the water filter. This will prevent it from freezing while in storage.
Once you have learned how to winterize an RV you will discover that this method is the best when the RV will not be in use during the winter. This way you do not have to worry about learning how to winterize an RV using antifreeze and having to drain it when spring comes along.
To winterize our RV using compressed air and blowing the lines out, we're going to start right here at the city water fill. We're going to use an adapter, that will just screw into here. And then we're going to take compressed air and just a typical air compressor that you would have in a garage, something that has 120 or so psi, and I've got this system set up here, since I'm doing it myself. Now typically, you could just take the regular air check, push it on here and hold it in place and then we're gonna have somebody go inside, open each one of the faucets and just basically blow all the air out. But with this, I can actually hook this up.
So I'm just going to wire tie this together right here, we're going to pressurize it. There we go. And then we're going to go inside, and we're gonna open each one of the faucets and let this pressurized air run all our water through our lines. So we just blew the water lines out in the bathroom and the shower. Now we're gonna do it in the kitchen sink area too and make sure that we do our water filtration system as well.
So we got our compressor hooked up. And we want to make sure we do both the hot and cold on a single handle faucet like this both sides and the water filter. This water filter is going to be plumbed separately. So we're going to make sure in this was up the whole time. We take the filter out underneath too we don't want that to freeze as well.
And since we do have a little bit of water in the pee traps here, the only thing we want to do is just pour just a little bit antifreeze, about a cup down there and that'll protect our lines. So now that we've blown all the lines out, put a little bit of RV antifreeze in here. In my opinion, this is the best way to winterize a coach if you're not going to use it if you're just going to store it somewhere so we have no water anywhere in the system, we don't have the antifreeze that we have to clean out eventually. So with that, just your regular air compressor, get your adapter here and open everything up and your coach is ready for the winter.
Are you neglecting the line between the fresh water tank and the city water line? I’ve been using the air method the last few years but this thought occurred to me this year...