Rv storage question help please!

[Livyroses20]

Hello all, so I have been storing my rv outdoors and have accidentally left fresh water in the water tank. I live in new England and it has been getting cold at night. Im a first time owner and was not sure if I should try to put antifreeze in the fresh water tank or if its too late! Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, thank you!

 

[TJ&LadyDi]

Welcome to RVF, @Livyroses20; glad you are here.

If your RV will be exposed to freezing temperatures, you most definitely need to winterize it. That involves draining the fresh water tank (rather than putting antifreeze in it), draining the water heater tank (be sure to turn off the electric heating element before draining) and either running antifreeze through all of the water lines or blowing them out with an air compressor. You also need to put a couple of cups of antifreeze in each sink and shower drain. And, of course, gray and black holding tanks should be flushed with water a couple of times and fully drained.

An alternative, if you have a source of reliable electric power is to keep the RV heated with a space heater to about 50 degrees to prevent freezing. Just realize that if you do it this way and you have a power outage, things can start to freeze up within a few hours without heat.

TJ

 

[Esther32]

Welcome to RVF, @Livyroses20; glad you are here.

If your RV will be exposed to freezing temperatures, you most definitely need to winterize it. That involves draining the fresh water tank (rather than putting antifreeze in it), draining the water heater tank (be sure to turn off the electric heating element before draining) and either running antifreeze through all of the water lines or blowing them out with an air compressor. You also need to put a couple of cups of antifreeze in each sink and shower drain. And, of course, gray and black holding tanks should be flushed with water a couple of times and fully drained.

An alternative, if you have a source of reliable electric power is to keep the RV heated with a space heater to about 50 degrees to prevent freezing. Just realize that if you do it this way and you have a power outage, things can start to freeze up within a few hours without heat.

TJ

I take mine to an RV repair shop to have all the water drained and then ask them to winterize it. Then I rest easy all winter.