Winterizing hot water heater

Anne Marie · 10-09-2016, 10:40 PM

Why won't my water pump cifan the antifreeze from the fresh water tank? I filled it with over 12 gallons of antifreeze but was only successful in completing cold water winterization. I have a 2004 sunline Solaris T 2199. Please help. What am I missing?

Steve Collins · 10-10-2016, 05:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Anne Marie

Why won't my water pump cifan the antifreeze from the fresh water tank? I filled it with over 12 gallons of antifreeze but was only successful in completing cold water winterization. I have a 2004 sunline Solaris T 2199. Please help. What am I missing?

Your water heater holds 6 gallons of water. To completely replace that with antifreeze will require several dozen more gallons of antifreeze.

This is not the way to winterize!

There are several write-ups about winterizing in the FILES area. They all tell you to drain and bypass the water heater first before doing anything else. That way, you should be able to winterize your whole trailer with 2 gallons of antifreeze.

Please do yourself a favor: download and study the winterizing instructions. We put them there precisely to help new folk to learn how to do these things.

There are also many previous threads here about all the little details of winterizing. I suggest that you look them up and read them. Your basic questions have already been answered here several times over.

Anne Marie · 10-10-2016, 06:16 AM

My camper does not have the hot water bypass and the manual clear states it will require at least 10 gallons of antifreeze to winterize. I have used at least 12 gallons so far and the problem is when I turn the pump on nothing comes out of the hot water taps at all. I have read the forums and have yet to find my answer.

Steve Collins · 10-10-2016, 06:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Anne Marie

My camper does not have the hot water bypass and the manual clear states it will require at least 10 gallons of antifreeze to winterize. I have used at least 12 gallons so far and the problem is when I turn the pump on nothing comes out of the hot water taps at all. I have read the forums and have yet to find my answer.

I believe that the 2004 models all had the bypass. It should be a small valve at the bottom on the backside of the heater.

Even if you really don't have the bypass, draining it first and pumping the antifreeze would have saved you a lot of antifreeze.

You can purchase a bypass kit at any rv dealer. The heater is not a sunline product so it doesn't matter what brand of tralier you have.

Steve Collins · 10-10-2016, 07:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Anne Marie

My camper does not have the hot water bypass and the manual clear states it will require at least 10 gallons of antifreeze to winterize. I have used at least 12 gallons so far and the problem is when I turn the pump on nothing comes out of the hot water taps at all. I have read the forums and have yet to find my answer.

Let me expand on something in my previous post. By 2004, most of the water heater bypasses were single valve. My '99 Sunline had an older two valve style bypass.

This file gives all the info needed to understand bypasses. I wrote it and placed it in the files area six years ago, exactly for inquiries like this. It includes a picture of the back side of the heater in my T-2453 and the valves are very plainly visible. If yours is a single valve bypass, the upper valve is replaced by a brass check valve and the lower valve can be either white plastic like mine or brass.
Sunline Coach Owner's Club - Sunline Owner's Files - Hot Water Heater Bypass Information

In your 2004 T-2499, the water heater is on the street side, and almost certainly under the galley sink. It is possible that it is under the couch, but you will have to look to be sure. Where ever it is on the outside, it's in the same place on the inside. All water heaters are installed in RV's so that the back side is accessible to the owner or service tech primarily so that you can reach the winterizing bypass valve and service the heater if necessary.

Relie · 10-10-2016, 08:07 AM

Make sure your battery is fully charged. You may need to be still hooked up to 110 volt power to get battery fully charged and pump antifreeze thru lines.
Ps....the tank should be under the bed. You can't miss it. It the big rectangle box.
Hope this helps..

Steve Collins · 10-10-2016, 10:28 AM

A correction to my previous post. I finally found a pic of the T-2499 streetside, and the water heater is all the way to the rear of the trailer under the left end of the couch. By lifting the seat portion of the couch, you should be able see the back side of the heater and the attached plumbing. The one in this pic appears to have the single valve bypass. You can tell because there is a brass fitting between the white 90 degree fitting and the body of the heater. The blue pipe that extends straight down is the bypass pipe. At the bottom of it will be a two-way valve. Flip it one way and the cold water goes into the tank. Flip it the other way and the cold water is routed up into the hot water pipes, bypassing the heater. This trailer is a 2006 model, but is just like yours.

Steve Collins · 10-10-2016, 10:45 AM

One final point.

In the spring, you're going to have to flush and deodorize the fresh water tank because of all that antifreeze that was poured into it in the fall. Even if you didn't put in the antifreeze, you'd still want do the clorox treatment and flush in the spring, but the antifreeze makes it more difficult to get the taste and odor out.

The obvious answer is to not have to pour the antifreeze into the fresh water tank in order to pump it out the system. The solution can purchased at WalMart for $12. It's a simple kit containing a two-way valve and length of soft hose. It is installed on the intake line at the pump. Flip the valve one way and you're pumping fresh water from the tank. Flip it the other way, and you've shut off the fresh water tank and the pump is pulling from the hose which is long enough to reach into the bottom of a gallon of antifreeze. Using this method, you should only need two gallons of antifreeze, and that includes enough to pour in the sink and shower drain traps.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/33754537

This is what it looks like installed in an RV and in use to winterize: