Steps to "summarize" the camper

[kavm]

Sorry to ask a dumb question but... we will soon need to bring the camper out of winter hibernation for the very first time . So, I am a bit unsure of the steps involved. Any advice on the what we must do will be highly appreciated.

From what I can imagine from our winterization-

• Check the hot water heater is NOT in the bypass mode.
• Check that the water relief valve is tightly shut.
• Add 3 1/3 fluid oz. chlorine to the water tank. This is where our questions begin.
  • Our storage company will fill the water fully when the deliver the camper, and I am struggling with the sequence of steps.
  • Should we leave the hot water heater on bypass; add chlorine; wait for 24 hours; empty the water tank; and then undo the hot water heater bypass?
  • Should we be turning the water pump on, opening various taps, etc. before we add chlorine?

Any annual maintenance or other items that should be done at this time?

[Upfisk]

I am not a water treatment person but your amount of Chlorine to disinfect seems low. We used closer to 1/3 cup for a full water tank.

In the past we have run chlorine through only the cold water lines. So leave hotwaster heater in bypass, run water through everything. Let things sit for several hours, do it again. Then drain the tank. Fill with fresh water, put HW heater in normal mode and flush again. Make that at least 3 times. We are very sensitive to the taste of Chlorine and it took some time to get rid of that awful taste. This past winter we did the air flush of the system. Then put antifreeze down the drains. When summerizing we just filled with water and ran fresh water through all the lines.

Part of the awful taste was our previous winterizing was filling the water lines with antifreeze using the pump pickup point, not the tank pickup. It took less than 1 gallon of antifreeze to fill the lines. But the taste was so awful after summerizing.. Adding Clorox made the taste worse when combined with the lines saturated with antifreeze.

[Small but Sweet]

3 1/3 fl oz that kavm mentioned is bewteen a third and a half of a cup so it sounds about right.

[Iowa Dave]

Couple glugs, flush till water tastes like good water. Be glad we’re on a well, drain the water into the yard, unlimited water supply with no bill. Put new secondary water filter under the sink, good to go. I sanitize a 2 or 3 times a season. We drink and cook with bottled water, including Jake the wonder dog. I don’t necessarily trust campground site water. I’ve seen sketchy cross connections. University will test our water for free. I just call the county health dept and they come out and get a sample.
Iowa Dave

[Ian and Sue]

Originally Posted by kavm

Sorry to ask a dumb question but... we will soon need to bring the camper out of winter hibernation for the very first time . So, I am a bit unsure of the steps involved. Any advice on the what we must do will be highly appreciated.

From what I can imagine from our winterization-

• Check the hot water heater is NOT in the bypass mode.
• Check that the water relief valve is tightly shut.
• Add 3 1/3 fluid oz. chlorine to the water tank. This is where our questions begin.
  • Our storage company will fill the water fully when the deliver the camper, and I am struggling with the sequence of steps.
  • Should we leave the hot water heater on bypass; add chlorine; wait for 24 hours; empty the water tank; and then undo the hot water heater bypass?
  • Should we be turning the water pump on, opening various taps, etc. before we add chlorine?

Any annual maintenance or other items that should be done at this time?

That is plenty of chlorine.
- water and chlorine in storage tank, hot in bypass
-run all taps till you smell chlorine
-let sit 24 hours
-drain and flush as many times as you need to get chlorine down
-take hot off bypass, fill system, check hw blow off valve

[kavm]

Thank you so so much! That helps a lot. I will proceed with the steps summarized by Ian and Sue:

• water and chlorine in storage tank, hot water heater in bypass
• run all taps till you smell chlorine
• let sit 24 hours
• drain and flush as many times as you need to get chlorine down
• take hot water heater off bypass, fill system
• check hw blow off valve

I don't fully know what / where the hot water heater blow off valve is. Will look into that. But, the rest is quite clear.

We too drink and cook with bottled water. So, it will hopefully go well.

Many many thanks!

[cpaharley2008]

Originally Posted by Iowa Dave

Couple glugs, flush till water tastes like good water. Be glad we’re on a well, drain the water into the yard, unlimited water supply with no bill. Put new secondary water filter under the sink, good to go. I sanitize a 2 or 3 times a season. We drink and cook with bottled water, including Jake the wonder dog. I don’t necessarily trust campground site water. I’ve seen sketchy cross connections. University will test our water for free. I just call the county health dept and they come out and get a sample.
Iowa Dave

If you are on a well water system, your water can change over time. My last well water set up in Maryland was tapped into a New York State underwater stream. Several years later my water source had changed to a West Virginia underground stream. It is amazing how they can pin point your water source.....they actually have maps!!

[Ron in BC]

Originally Posted by kavm

[LIST]
[*]Check that the water relief valve is tightly shut.

I think it'd be great if the PTR valve was hidden and not able to be touched.

There's no need to disturb it. I see some folks that, for some reason or other, open it etc.

If you've ever pulled one out of a junked hot water tank you'll see why that's a bad idea. It has loads of crud on it. If you touch it there's a good chance that it'll get crud on the valve seat and turn it into a leaker.

Pretend it doesn't exist. End of rant.

Personally all I've ever done is drain and blow out the system. Then at the start of the season put a couple of tablespoons of bleach in and fill the tanks, run the pump until I smell bleach out the taps and then drain. Then repeat to flush. Works for me.

Ron

[kavm]

Originally Posted by Ron in BC

I think it'd be great if the PTR valve was hidden and not able to be touched.

There's no need to disturb it. I see some folks that, for some reason or other, open it etc.

If you've ever pulled one out of a junked hot water tank you'll see why that's a bad idea. It has loads of crud on it. If you touch it there's a good chance that it'll get crud on the valve seat and turn it into a leaker.

Pretend it doesn't exist. End of rant.

Personally all I've ever done is drain and blow out the system. Then at the start of the season put a couple of tablespoons of bleach in and fill the tanks, run the pump until I smell bleach out the taps and then drain. Then repeat to flush. Works for me.

Ron

Thank you so much Ron!

Perhaps I was mistaken. I was looking at what we did in winterization details and remembered something incorrectly.
- We turned water heater valves to bypass
- Opened the pressure release valve to relieve pressure
- Drained the water heater by removing anode
- Screwed the anode back after inspecting it (looked bad to me but the forum readers assured me that it was normal)

I don't remember how tightly we screwed the anode back in and to recheck that it was tight. I mis-stated that step as tighten the pressure relief valve.
e opened some type of relief valve (outside) to relieve the water pressure before removing the anode rod from the water heater. I have forgotten the different elements there and was confusing the anode with the pressure relief valve.

[Civilguy]

Originally Posted by Ron in BC

I think it'd be great if the PTR valve was hidden and not able to be touched.

There's no need to disturb it. I see some folks that, for some reason or other, open it etc.

If you've ever pulled one out of a junked hot water tank you'll see why that's a bad idea. It has loads of crud on it. If you touch it there's a good chance that it'll get crud on the valve seat and turn it into a leaker.

Pretend it doesn't exist. End of rant.

No rant here, but a hearty second to that! I've seen another recent mention of operating the pressure-temperature-relief valve in the forum, but I did not take the time to post about it.

The PTR valve is basically a safety mechanism designed and intended to relieve excessive pressure caused by expansion that occurs during heating. I have heard that it's not uncommon for PTR valves to weep a bit in RVs.

This is another good (maybe great!) reason to add an accumulator tank to your water system. The accumulator provides an air-pocket (enclosed within a bladder) that serves as a "cushion" to absorb expansion.

Without a cushion of air in an accumulator tank, expansion caused by heating basically has no place to go but to expand the piping, or to discharge through the PTR valve.

The PEX piping in our trailers allows very little expansion. While the vinyl tubing located in the pump connections perhaps allows a bit more expansion, there's very little vinyl tubing in the system so its impact in mitigating expansion is limited.

So, this lack of an significant available expansion volume in the system piping leaves it to the PTR valve to manage the excess pressure.

[kstock11]

My thoughts on the chlorine/RV antifreeze taste after winterizing. I put a Y at the water feed for the first few trips after winter. I draw my water from the outdoor feed into my Brita filter until I feel confident that the odd flavor is finally gone.

[Great Eggstrications]

Originally Posted by Civilguy

The PEX piping in our trailers allows very little expansion. While the vinyl tubing located in the pump connections perhaps allows a bit more expansion, there's very little vinyl tubing in the system so its impact in mitigating expansion is limited.

So, this lack of an significant available expansion volume in the system piping leaves it to the PTR valve to manage the excess pressure.

Still haven't gotten around to installing an accumulator, so for the (likely long-term) interim, we try to remember to crack open the faucet once in a while as the water heater is doing its thing to relieve the pressure.

[Mike G]

Here's how to summarize an Escape:





You're welcome.