Antifreeze intake tube- where is it on a 2008 210 WBS?

[Kallard]

Everything I read says that there should be a tube that draws in the antifreze when winterizing? I didn't see it near the water heater.... Any ideas thanks much!

[webslave]

You'll have to move your slide out (well you don't have to, but, it makes it a darn site easier) and remove the flat panel held on by two screws in the bottom of the "cabinet" where the television sits. The end of the "cabinet" has the fuse box in it... Behind that panel, you will find the water pump and the "winterizing" adapter...should be short piece of clear hose and a valve. I winterize with air and haven't ever used mine, but, it is in there buried in the rat's maze of wires and hoses...

[Kallard]

Thanks again! It's so nice to have someone with the same RV to talk to. I Never would have found it there.... Isn't there some where we can get a schematic of the plumbing, elect, framing etc? So we don't have to guess?

This year I just used a compressor to blow out the lines, and poured some NT antifreeze in the 3 traps ....

I hope I did the right thing.... Is that how you do it with air?

[Jim T]

Not only is it hard to find, but there is a valve that must be turned to get the pump to pick up the anti freeze from the container. I have used antifreeze two years and the hose works good.
Don.t for get to do the water heater bipass thing so you don't end up with antifreeze in the water heater.

[webslave]

I've gotten frame schematics from CruiserRV for my 210WBS, but, I can't get them to release wiring or plumbing schematics...probably because they do a fair amount of "ad libbing" in their color codes and routing, much as the Brits did with their cars (had an Austin Healey once, sheesh, what a wiring nightmare...)

I've been "airing" my system for years...no problems, but, you must be thorough in the process, but, then again, you have to be thorough with the pink stuff, too. This is my process, on my 210WBS:

Your fresh water tank has a drain valve in it...you'll need to crawl under the TT to see it, but, first you should open that and let your FW tank drain out onto the ground. There may be a little water left in it, but, the volume in that big tank, if frozen, won't do any damage. When the FW tank is drained, run the water pump for a bit with a faucet open...it will clear the pump lines of water and it won't be damaged if run dry for a bit.

Next, go to the water heater (relieve the pressure in the tank first by opening a hot water faucet or pulling the relief valve). Throw your water heater bypass valves to take the tank out of the system. Remove the anode rod and plug assembly and let the tank's water drain onto the ground. While it is draining, open both the cold and hot water low point drain valves up. Go inside and open all of the faucets and hold the toilet flush valve down...this allows most of the water in the system to drain out onto the ground through the low point drains (that's what they are there for). By now, the hot water tank is drained...you either leave the little bit of water in there, or, I flush clean the tank with my garden hose and special curved "flush wand" for water heaters (you can get one at any RV shop). You'd be amazed at the amount of "crud" that accumulates in the tank. When I'm done with that, I've got that trusty syringe (I've actually got a bunch of them for use in my shop) and vacuum line hose and I suck the remaining water out of the bottom of the water heater. While I'm cleaning the water heater, the water has been draining out of the low point drains. When done with the water heater, I install the drain plug / anode assembly and it is good to go. I then close the low point drains, close all the faucets and hook up my air compressor using the adapter (again available at most RV supply houses; get the "no hands" type, your air hose from your compressor can hook up to it with a quick connect). Set air compressor for 45-50 psi and turn on. Go inside and starting with the faucet closest to the the shore water hook up, open it up and let "run" for a minute or so. Hot and cold. Close those, go to next faucet and repeat. Do the toilet and then go outside and do the "optional" outside shower port. For added "safety" I do a quick once around again on the inside faucets. Then I open the low points and let them run for a couple of minutes. While the low points are blowing the last vestiges of water out, I go inside and put 1 cup of the pink stuff down each drain (for the P traps) and a cup in the toilet to keep the seal supple. Turn off the air compressor and put it away. Close the low point drains and I'm done. I've also installed tank rinsers (one for the gray and one for the black) and give a short "squirt" of air to each to blow any residual water out. If you have Tornadoes installed (brand of rinser), lower the air pressure on the compressor to ~25 psi...doesn't take a whole lot of pressure for those short lines and the Tornado head is susceptible to damage from too high a pressure, both water and air.

Sounds, complicated, but, once you've got the routine, it can be done almost as quickly as using the pink stuff; you've got to cover the same ground to put the pink stuff in as I do blowing the water out. A gallon of the pink stuff lasts me about 3 or 4 years, no pink stuff left in any lines next spring.

That's the way I do it. There are many that fear that there may still be enough water left in the system to cause damage...I've not had that problem. There are many that believe and trust in the pink stuff...that's fine, too, as I never had a problem with it back when I did the "traditional" winterizing, but, I could taste it, no matter how many times I flushed the system for the first couple of trips. The only time I couldn't taste it was when I "overdosed" the system with chlorine trying to get the taste to go away. I must say, I don't like the taste of chlorine any more than I liked the taste of the pink stuff...

[tonhop]

Webslave - this was one of the best description on how to winterize a rv, you made it very simple and easy to under stand. I am goning to take this and make me a list of what to do next fall.

I use to do a air drain only till I had a broken T in a water line because of a small amount of water that was in a low point in the water line. Now I add the pink to the water lines.

Could you also describe how you start up next spring ?

tonhop
XT200 Toy Hauler
Harley Road Glide

[webslave]

Sure...

The beauty part of the air system, is there really is no "start up" in the spring.

I take my white water hose and mix up 1/2 gallon of a bleach and water mix. 1/2 cup bleach, balance water. Pour that into the hose, hook the two ends together and let sit for about 4 hours. Kills any potential bugs.

Put in two fresh water filters, one in the outside "whole" house style and a new one in the Pur unit on the kitchen faucet.

I take the water hose, drain the water/bleach mixture out and then hook it to the house's faucet and run clear water through it for a minute. Then hook the hose to the city water inlet on the TT.

Inside, I open the hot water valve on the kitchen sink (make sure that your by-pass at the water heater is set for having the water go into the heater) and let the tank fill and water flows freely out of the faucet.

Then I fire up the water heater to make sure that it works, along with the refridgerator and I'm basically done. At that point, I just coil the water hose back up, stow the whole house filter back in the storage bay and call it a day. For the first few years I would bleed the air out of all the water lines at each faucet, now, I just go camping and bleed the lines as I use each faucet or the toilet.

There isn't any need to bleed the air out...if you would feel safer before going on a trip by doing it, just go to each faucet and let it run until water flows freely. Then you could, if it would give you peace of mind, check all the lines for leaks. I don't bother any more and I don't start a trip with several gallons of water already in the gray tank.

Nothing to flush out, no volume of water in your tank(s) at the beginning of a trip. No funky tasting coffee because you didn't get the last little bit of anti-freeze out...just load and go.

[Kallard]

Oh boy, I am sure I didn't do half of this.
I did drain the hot water heater by pulling the rod
I did drain the lines by pulling what I thought were the low drains (near the hot water heater)
then I blew the lines with a compressor while the faucets were all open
Then I just poured the pink stuff in the traps
I did bypass the hot water heater...for some reason...
I hope its not a disaster come the Florida trip...

I will print your explanation for future use, thanks very much !