One Final Fall Blow-Out
Sunday, November 2nd, 2008I hauled our air compressor over to the in-laws today, to help winterize the Airstream. It was kind of sad, since this made it clear that we were done using it for the season, even though we had wanted to do one final fall camping trip.
The first step was to plug in the inverter to top off the battery, and to power the water pump. Then I turned on the pump and the galley sink faucet, and let the water pump drain the fresh water tank. While that was going, I opened the grey tank and let the water drain right out. (the black water tank was already empty.)
After the fresh tank was empty, I shut off the pump, opened all the faucets, pulled the shower hose off the wall and laid it in the bottom of the tub, and attached the compressor to the city water hookup with a short section of hose that has a male garden hose adapter clamped to one end, and the other end with a air-tool quick release fitting clamped to the other end (just using hose clamps.) I was using pre-compressed air at 60 psi; the compressor blows the breaker that leads from the shed to the trailer.
When I attached the air to the fitting, the remainder of the water, plus a lot of air, started blowing out of the faucets and shower. The pipes also started buzzing; I imagined that was the check valve getting blown around inside it’s seat?
While the air was going, I went inside and opened the toilet flush valve until the water was cleared from that too. (I tried the toilet sprayer, but nothing came out, water OR air. I wonder if that will cause problems?)
I closed the faucets back up, re-pressurized the water line, and opened the drain valve on the hot water tank. A surprising amount of water sprayed out, along with some black gunk at the end. (Ew!)
The final step was to pour some RV antifreeze into the drain of the sink, shower, bathroom sink, and some down the toilet. Hopefully, this will be enough to prevent frozen cracked pipes, and avoid having the water lines contaminated with RV antifreeze.
We also pulled out the sheets, games, and some wayward clothes hidden around the camper, and swept it out. I still need to go back with some D-Con traps, since there were mouse “signs” all over, too.