Have you started draining down yet?

Drain down as completely as possible after every trip and 2 oil filled radiators on low setting if frost forecast. Mind you it was -7degC here overnight last night so despite all above precautions I hope everything’s ok. Will soon find out when I start prepping the van ready for Moffat next week!
 
Frozen pipes are now fluid again without any apparent problem.

Phew!
 
-4c here last night. Did I drain the van down? Noooooo! Forgot to look at the weather. Im sure it will be fine. Its a Kontiki so any water that bursts out will just leak out anyway. :love:

The only thing I will be mad about is if the plastic shower head has bust again. I always take it off now as it traps water and they split open. Ill go and check. Once it gets a bit warmer.
 
Hi I'm new and have read thru all of this. I'm staying in the van 3 nights most weeks and have drained everything once, and left it once during the nights I'm not here. I check the weather and drain if it's gonna be minus at all or if I'm not in it for more than 4 nights.
I am wondering whether the heat insulation for the hot water shouldn't protect it from frost too?
Just a standard '06 Autotrail.
 
Hi, and welcome :)

Like many other topics I'm sure that there are differing views on this.

The 'belt and braces' view would be to drain everything down (boiler and fresh water) all the time between Oct - Apr...just in case of early/late frosts. You can even get gizmos which blows out any residual liquid in the pipes too (as advertised in MH magazines)

I do something similar to you though: I am draining down my boiler now but tend to leave my fresh water tank UNLESS there is talk of a heavy, frost/freeze...then I would drain down the fresh water too. If we do get a 'beast from the east' scenario I would probably plug mine into the mains and get some heating on inside it plus I have a fresh water tank heating element which I can switch on. I've not needed to do that yet mind.

If in doubt, I'd drain and air on the side of caution. The previous owners of our last MH didn't drain and they severely damaged the boiler which packed up on us in Poland about 4 years ago! Frost damage had damaged the heating fins internally and ruptured the outer casing to, which meant water escaping inside the MH (under the bed!!).

I am assuming that your grey water is empty also?

We have our MH on our drive so can respond quickly if required plus we tend to be away in it every 2-3 weeks throughout winter and also go to Spain for 2 months in Jan, so escape the worst of the weather.

Graham :)
 
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GMJ said:
Hi, and welcome :)

Like many other topics I'm sure that there are differing views on this.

The 'belt and braces' view would be to drain everything down (boiler and fresh water) all the time between Oct - Apr...just in case of early/late frosts. You can even get gizmos which blows out any residual liquid in the pipes too (as advertised in MH magazines)

I do something similar to you though: I am draining down my boiler now but tend to leave my fresh water tank UNLESS there is talk of a heavy, frost/freeze...then I would drain down the fresh water too. If we do get a 'beast from the east' scenario I would probably plug mine into the mains and get some heating on inside it plus I have a fresh water tank heating element which I can switch on. I've not needed to do that yet mind.

If in doubt, I'd drain and air on the side of caution. The previous owners of our last MH didn't drain and they severely damaged the boiler which packed up on us in Poland about 4 years ago! Frost damage had damaged the heating fins internally and ruptured the outer casing to, which meant water escaping inside the MH (under the bed!!).

I am assuming that your grey water is empty also?

We have our MH on our drive so can respond quickly if required plus we tend to be away in it every 2-3 weeks throughout winter and also go to Soain for 2 months in Jan, so escape the worst of the weather.

Graham :)
Click to expand...

as do we, belt and braces, quite interested in your winter trips, wheres Soain ??? (LOL)
 
Saw the clear sky when walking the dog this afternoon so I drained the water and put the oil radiator on.
 
I was away yesterday on my regular trip up to Inveraray for a meeting today.
Had a gloriously sunny trip up but temp dropped overnight.
I woke to find it had got down to -5 so the tanks got emptied and will stay that way till i reckon it warms up enough in the spring.
I have a big water container with tap that will do me over winter.
 
Don't drain because we go away regularly.
We keep a f fan heater in the van on a thermostat
 
We got down to minus 5 overnight here...
eek.gif


...so I drained our fresh water tank today just in case.

Glad I did the boiler after our recent trip last week!

Graham :)
 
I have only drained our van down once, at the beginning of November when it went for its first year hab check, otherwise we keep the fresh water in the tank and boiler with heating on low if it looks like it’s getting cold. We use the van all year round and just got back from a 3 week trip round France, then, off again on Friday for Christmas away.
It horrified me the amount of water wasted when fresh water isn’t used wisely and run down before the end of a trip. I see so many people ( usually caravaniers) emptying full aqua rolls and boilers before they set off home.
 
The amount of water we waste draining down (even if we do it to ensure staying legal when travelling) is nothing in comparison to what we'd use at home flushing toilets instead of using our cassettes.
 
I don’t drain cos I am in the van but had ice on the inside of the windows a few times when I get up. I don’t like the heating on when I am in bed so just shiver til it warms up :)

One bonus of a cold van is I can get to drink my first cuppa sooner, I can’t drink things hot and it cools quite quickly :)

Just one point, if folks are draining down fresh and leaving for months are you going to clean your tank when it comes time to use again? Isn’t it when you stop using empty them they get that algae?
 
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