To dump or not

Campervanannie

Campervanannie

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Now the cold weather is upon us my system dumped all my water the other day I refilled it after having to tie the valve up using a fishing hook and line until I could fill it and get the boiler going then all was well.
Now it is on my drive
Do I drop the water
Do I keep the water heater on on EHU from the house
What do you guys do to stop your tanks especially the hot water tank from freezing
 
I open all taps (and leave them open) drop shower head onto a flannel on the floor, and run the pump til no more water comes out, not sure where the tank dump is on this van yet 01 Mohican???
 
But do you guys do this every time you come home at this time of year or do you not travel at this time of year what do you do if you are only home for short periods say 2 weeks max.
 
As soon as it drops below 5c I do it, filling up doesn't take long if we decide to go off.
 
Even though our van has got tank heaters I still dump ours in November then leave it empty until spring , in the meantime we use 5tr water containers and it has not been a problem
 
Can you still use your blown air heating if you travel with empty water tanks?
 
If you have an ALDE boiler then only the fresh water needs draining in winter when not in use

The central heating circuit will have a solution of antifreeze so doesnt need draining

As a result you can still use the ALDE boiler for heating even with fresh water drained down

NOTE there is a service routine to change the antifreeze solution either every 2 or 5 years depends on the antifreeze used
 
Campervanannie said:
But do you guys do this every time you come home at this time of year or do you not travel at this time of year what do you do if you are only home for short periods say 2 weeks max.
Click to expand...
I always dump the water when I get home from every trip, all year round - always have. Doesn't take a more than few minutes to put enough back in when I set off again to fill the boiler and tide me over for the first day or so. Once temperatures drop, I also leave the taps open and put a little heater in the van on the drive.

Once I wasn't in the mood to be thorough and left an inch or so of water in the washing up bowl for a couple of days. The temperature plummeted and it froze solid. Had to wait for it to defrost to rescue the teaspoon that's somehow always in the bottom :oops:
 
Been dithering all day. Do I? Don't I? This post has made my mind up. Just got back indoors from doing it. Thanks for the motivation Annie.

As this still my first year, and I've learned loads, I'll run by you what I've done.

1, Water pump off.
2, Truma water heater valve in "down" position.
3, I've blown down the mixer taps, Wash room shower hose, kitchen tap, they were in the middle position. Left open.
4, Drained water holding tank. When I go out in the van next time I'll remove the bung. Because of the steepness of the drive, there will always be some water in there.

Have I forgotten anything ?
I'll take 15 litres of fresh water in containers with me when I go out next time. Shouldn't be a problem, I'm told only dirty people wash.
 
Pudsey Bear said:
I open all taps (and leave them open) drop shower head onto a flannel on the floor, and run the pump til no more water comes out, not sure where the tank dump is on this van yet 01 Mohican???
Click to expand...
If it's anything like my 01 Scout, the fresh dump is at the end of a blue hose clipped up out of the way just behind the offside, rear wheel. Hot water dump is a yellow lift-up lever on the floor adjacent to the hot water tank, which on my Scout is under one of the offside bed boxes.

FWIW, we checked the forecast while we were on the way back to our storage site this morning and above-zero temperatures are forecast for the next couple of weeks. We'll be using the van next weekend, so we decided it isn't time to dump just yet.
 
As soon as we hit the frost season we drain down and blow out the pipes. Haven’t done it yet but will do after our trip next week even though we are back out again two weeks later. If it’s only a few days between trips then providing the forecast is reasonable we just leave an oil radiator on low at night. Keeps the van aired and is enough to deal with moderate minus temperatures, but we are lucky, the van is on the drive and can be hooked up when necessary.
Dave
 
Trotter said:
Been dithering all day. Do I? Don't I? This post has made my mind up. Just got back indoors from doing it. Thanks for the motivation Annie.

As this still my first year, and I've learned loads, I'll run by you what I've done.

1, Water pump off.
2, Truma water heater valve in "down" position.
3, I've blown down the mixer taps, Wash room shower hose, kitchen tap, they were in the middle position. Left open.
4, Drained water holding tank. When I go out in the van next time I'll remove the bung. Because of the steepness of the drive, there will always be some water in there.

Have I forgotten anything ?
I'll take 15 litres of fresh water in containers with me when I go out next time. Shouldn't be a problem, I'm told only dirty people wash.
Click to expand...

How do you blow your pipes out ?
 
Come this time of year, every trip home, I open the drain valves. Remember that if you have a non-return valve on your pump, which is normal, you have to have a system to get that last section of water away from the pump, otherwise it can be expensive. I am fortunate that I can reach into the tank and turn the pump upside down.
 
I not only dump all the water and leave the taps open but also leave a heater with thermostadt to prevent the temperature falling below freezing just in case some water remains.
 
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