winterize brunnhilde

Winter is coming. Freezing nights are coming, and along with the White Walkers that are our mortal enemy. It is time to mount the defense.

I had used different method to winterize the water systems in Brunnhilde which involves the use of RV antifreeze for potable water. The part that I found most difficult is the hot water tank. While it has a drain valve it does not drain even if you open the valve. I also hate the nuisance of having to flush the antifreeze from the fresh water tank each spring before use, and the water is always laced with the bitter antifreeze for the first few tanks.

confronted by adversities, always come out swinging no matter what

This time I use a different technique. I flush out most traces of water in the water system with compressed air. As this is the first time using this method, I use ad hoc improvisation of things that I have on hand. In time I would develop dedicated implements to make the process faster.

The first part of the procedures is to purge the water from the fresh water supply system.

• Remove the lockable fresh water filler cap. Drain main fresh water storage tank by opening the drain valve under  the driver side located midship.
• Close the main propane shut off valve. This prevent someone turning on the DSI water heater by accident. Open hot water tank drain valve. Remove the anode rod from the DSI water heater.
• Use a garden valve to hose barb adapter to apply compressed air into the "city water" inlet. The safe max pressure is 90 PSI for this task. All the water in the hot water tank can be drained with this technique. Close the hot water tank drain cock. Use a special garden water hose attachment to inject water into the depth of the water heater to flush out as much sediment with forceful water jet as possible - this is an optional step that I deem it not that important. Replace the anode rod to the water heater to cap the opening.
• Switch off the fresh water tank pump override switch under the kitchen drain board. This prevent the electric pump from  burning out.
• Open the bathroom faucet by setting it midway between hot and cold. Place the sink drain plug so you can see how much water is expelled.
• Return to the "city water" inlet and inject compress air. You should hear water being drained out from the bath faucet (both hot and cold lines). Shut off the bath faucet.
• Open the kitchen faucet by setting it midway between hot and cold. Place the sink drain plug so you can see how much water is expelled.
• Return to the "city water" inlet and inject compress air. You should hear water being drained out from the kitchen faucet (both hot and cold lines). Leave the kitchen faucet open for now.
• Open the fresh water service port cap behind the bench seat under the kitchen module by first disconnect the water level sensor connector. Carefully lift out the cap together with fresh water level sensor. Inspect the water tank to ensure all the water is drained.
• Slip off the water pump from the PVC hose it is connected to. Invert the pump by hand to drain out any residue trace of water. Leave the pump not connected to the hose.
• Inject compressed air into the pump hose. Max safe pressure is circa 15 PSI for this. Any residual trace of water should be expelled out of the still open kitchen faucet. Close the kitchen faucet.
• Open the bath faucet and set it mid way between hot and cold. Inject compressed air into the pump hose. Any residual trace of water should be expelled out of the still open bath faucet.
• I also purge the water from the outdoor shower nipple by attaching the shower hose to it.
• Now all the water in the fresh water supply should be purged. Leave the kitchen and bath faucet open and set to middle between hot and cold for storage.
• Carefully replace the fresh water tank service cap with the fresh water level sensor. There is no need to tighten the cap as you will have to open it in the spring to reattach the pump. Leave the pump connector disconnected.
• Ensure no more dripping water at the drain cock. Close the fresh water tank drain cock. Loosely replace the copper cap.
• I should add that for extra safety, tip the kitchen faucet spout downwards to drain out any last trace of water. For the bath faucet you can unscrew the shower head from the flexible hose.

Next step is to winterize the cassette toilet and the grey water tank. This only applies to the setup with self contained cassette toilet that I have.

• With an empty toilet cassette flush out the water in the toilet water storage tank by engaging the flush pump. Hold the flush button until the pump run out of water.
• Add about 1/2 gallon of RV antifreeze into the flush water storage tank.
• Carefully slip off the top end of the water level sight glass and rotate the sight glass about the bottom flexible rubber joint to drain out some water until you see antifreeze. Replace the sight glass and reattach the top side to the rubber fitting on the top side.
• Go to the bathroom and flush the toilet until you see antifreeze. Close the toilet cassette door.
• Remove the toilet cassette and empty all the water. Replace the empty cassette into the toilet.
• Drain the grey water tank and leave the drain valve open for storage.

my garden hose to hose barb adapter

I use this portable air tank

this is an ad hoc method for now; in time I would make up specialize purge implements and add a pressure regulator to the air tank

drain cock for the DSI hot water tank

my home made plywood water tank service cap removal tool; handle the assembly with care

as there is no hose clamp the pump slips off the hose easily; I inject compressed air into the pump hose to purge the water from the hot and cold water lines on the inside water branches

The inside of the fresh water storage tank is always slimy, and I never get too hung up on it. As long as the water is filled at home, I drink the water out of the faucet all the time and I am still alive and kicking.

leave the fresh water level connector detached as you will have to open the tank in Spring.

next is to dress the elephant with the winter coat; Brunnhilde gets a new coat this year

all buttoned up

Update 18/11/28:
I took a trip to get a low cost pressure regulator for the compressed air tank. I chose to make it detachable so I use quick disconnect fittings on both inlet and outlet ports.

Thanks to Rob I decided to remove the anode rod of the water heater to check. I was shocked by two things:

1. When I removed the anode rod from the heater, there was at least 2 gallons of water still inside the tank. This would not be good if the water body ever freeze hard.
2. I was shocked to see how much the anode rod has sacrificed itself. In the tank was full of crystalline or salt like particles as well as attached to the anode rod. 

To make sense of these these are my thoughts. Because of (2) my attempt to drain the water heater using the well-intended drain cock provided by Westfalia proved to be futile, even by pressurize the "city water" inlet. I suspect that the crystalline/salt like sediment soon clogged the bottom port the drain cock is connected to. This is the inlet to the water heater (as it is the lower of the two ports). To this I declare this drain cock useless despite the well intention and an excellent 3 way cock (that is impossible to find in this country) that Westfalia provided.

The only foolproof way to drain the water heater is by removing the anode rod. Looking closer the height of the anode rod and the water inlet port, the anode rod sits much lower than the water inlet port. The inlet port sits so high even if it is not clogged it will still leave may be 1 1/2" of water in the tank when drained.

I am not one that is too hung up with the sediment in a water tank, especially I see no sign of rust in it. What I am puzzled is the pink and white crystalline/salt like particles. I did a bit of search and found out the usual suspect replacement anode rods are sold by many manufacturers. The quality ones has magnesium while the cheap ones are aluminum. When I removed the original water heat when installing the DSI replacement I saved the anode rod. It show no or little sign of it sacrifice itself. This lead me to suspect that it is either made of aluminum alloy instead of magnesium; or the one in this DSI heater is "cost-reduced" and made of some funky composition that falls apart easily.

As I intended this post for my own future reference I modified the procedure above with overstrike and italicized text.

this drain cock is useless for draining the water heater - Westfalia, you failed in this well-intension design; you get a pass from me as the Suburban heater is a NAFTA "upfitted feature" deemed necessary by Airstream; I'd be the first to advocate US (and you Canada too) merge with the EU to make the world a better place ;-)

the bolt head anode rod in the DSI water heater turned out to be 1", instead of 1 1/8" as expected; I used a 27mm socket that is close enough for government work

I notice the typical flakes of rust from the combustion chamber - totally normal

the crystalline/salt like sediments consists of pink and white granules; note that the anode rod is so used up that it almost breaks into two pieces at the hex head end

there were at least 2 gallons of water that failed to drain

my $5 low cost compressed air regulator that I made up for the portable air tank

I managed to find the anode rod that I removed from the old light-with-match water heater. It too has a 1" hex head. I am unable to tell if its made of magnesium or cheap aluminum due to the oxidation and scaling on it. It certainly did not erode like the one in the DSI heater. I would rather see an eroded electro given the choice.

anode from the old light-with-match water heater