I have had my 2012 Rushmore and this is my 3rd year winterizing. I have never had this problem before so I'm asking if anyone else has and what was the solution.
In the past, when I but the hot water heater on bypass, I was able to blow out all lines and winterize with antifreeze after. This year for some reason, I couldn't get any air or antifreeze to wome thru the hot water lines. I changes all the positions of the bypass and antifreeze inlet to the pump switches but it either went thru the how water heater or nothing. I finally just filled the hot water heater to winterize the hot lines and drained the excess antifreeze into the empty bottles for the next time.
I have a 335SS Cruiser, which is similar to the Rushmores, and the only thing that I can think of is that the tubing that actually bypasses the hot water tank is crimped or blocked somehow. Note that you should flush the hotwater tank repeately as soon as possible to get the anti-freeze out of it, but then you would not be winterized.
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Boomer, the Better Half and our Yorkie - Ellie
I would think you would be able to see the pink A/F in the line. At least I can with clear PEX tubing. Maybe a bad valve that is not changing positions?
It is changing positions as it makes a difference as to wether the antifreeze goes into the water heater or not. Must be another reason..... Very strange.
Not sure why your bypass isn't working - some have two valves that need to be turned to do it and I know some only have one.
To other posters here, you should alwaysbypass the water heater and then winterize the rest of your waterlines. You can drain the water heater separately because it is cut off from the rest of the system once in bypass. The drain on the outside at the bottom is fairly easy to remove. It will leave a bit of water in the bottom that does not drain out - according to the manufacturer - this freezing water in the bottom will not harm the water heater. It is designed to be left with some water in it and not have any antifreeze inside the water heater (because it is a royal PITA to flush properly). If you don't like leaving the little bit of water in the bottom of the tank you can remove it with a hand suction gun- same you would use to fill a differential, etc.But buy a clean one and dedicate it for this purpose. This how I used to do it on our old travel trailer every year for winterizing and you could get 99% of the water out of the hot water tank. You can pick up a cheap plastic hand operated suction gun at most auto parts places.
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Scott
2013 CrossRoads Cruiser Patriot CF345RF
2011 Ford F350 Lariat FX4 CC 6.7L Turbo Diesel (Heavily Modified)
Saskatoon, SK
Even though the ant-freeze is non- toxic it leaves a bad taste / odour in the system. This taste odor is very hard to get out of the hot-water heater ( and becomes worse when the hot water heater is turned on and the little bit of antifreeze is inside the hot-water heater). The sooner you flush the hot water heater ( will probably take several flushes as per the method described by Wild above) the better.
I had a friend who put ant-freeze in his hot water heater by mistake and left it their all winter, repeatedly flushed it in the spring but the odor stayed for quite a while.
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Boomer, the Better Half and our Yorkie - Ellie
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