How Do I Get The Antifreeze Out Of My RV?

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Published Date: December 29, 2020

Last Updated on November 29, 2022 by Camper Front

If you have kept your RV in storage over winter for months, you will need to flush your RV water system. If you winterized your RV before storing it, then when you take it out of storage, you will need to make sure the water system is clean for freshwater.

And if you winterize your RV with antifreeze, you will want to flush it out completely. But how do I get the antifreeze out of my RV? If you have antifreeze in your RV plumbing, this article will show you how to get it out easily!

Let’s get started!

How Do I Get The Antifreeze Out Of My RV?

Follow the simple steps below to learn how to get antifreeze out of your RV:

1. Flush Your Plumbing

This is a very simple procedure to carry out, simply hook your clean water hose to your garden tap, or if you are at a campground you can connect to the city water tap.

Connect the other end of the hose to your RV clean water intake connection and open your grey tank then turn on all the faucets.

Flush the entire system until the water runs and tastes clean. You can use a bucket to catch the outflow if you don’t have your grey tank hooked to a sewer or a proper sewage/gutter/drainage outlet.

Repeat this process with your holding tank. Simply turn on the pump and run several tank-fulls of water through it to flush out the antifreeze completely from the tank and pipes.

If you can still taste the antifreeze, it’s nothing to worry about if you made use of the non-toxic antifreeze and the taste will eventually fade away after some time. But you can also flush your system by adding some baking soda sprinkled up between the various drains.

You can decide to either sprinkle the baking soda directly into the pipes and then run some water to dissolve it and spread it throughout the drains or you can mix the baking soda with water before pouring it down the drain.

Either way, allow the baking soda to sit for a couple of hours before thoroughly flushing your pipes.

2. Disinfect Your Water System

Regardless of whether you used antifreeze to winterize your RV before putting it into storage or not, you will need to disinfect your water tank to make it safe for use.

This is because a freshwater tank that has been left sitting for months has the tendency to become ridden with mildew and molds which can be deadly, especially some strains of black mold. So disinfecting your water system is very important.

To disinfect your water tank, add one cup of liquid bleach for every 20-30 gallons of water then flush this through your system and allow it to sit for a couple of hours.

However, you should be careful not to let the bleach “over sit” as it could cause synthetic seals to disintegrate if left for too long.

Using chlorine bleach to disinfect your water tank is very effective as it kills bacteria, molds, mildew, and viruses.

After allowing the chlorine bleach to sit for the appropriate time you will need to flush it out thoroughly, to remove the taste of chlorine, you can flush with the system with a baking soda solution.

You can do this before heading out for your trip so you don’t have to undergo the whole stress when you are supposed to be enjoying your trip.

>>> Read Also: Blowing Out RV Water Lines Vs Antifreeze

How To Keep Your RV Water Fresh

How Do I Get The Antifreeze Out Of My RV

There are different ways to keep your water fresh, many RVers tend to add water filters to their RV water system. You can also add a couple of tablespoons of bleach to your holding water tank so it remains clean and drinkable.

There are also alternative water purification solutions like powders or liquids which you can get at camping departments or online outlets.

When out boondocking, ensuring that your water remains fresh throughout your trip is very important and this can be difficult to do especially if you are camping out in a very hot region. Water placed in a dark area creates the perfect environment for the growth of bacteria and mildew.

Once you notice your water doesn’t taste fresh, it would be best to stop drinking and source for ways to purify it or get another source of drinking water.

Once camping season is over, ensure to completely drain every single drop of water from your RV’s water system and go ahead with your winterization process.

And when you bring your RV from storage you will need to repeat this process. Drinking stale water isn’t recommended and could make you sick no matter how little there is.

Finally, ensure you have lots of drinking water in your reservoir before heading out on your trip even if you plan on staying in a campground. Accidents happen and you can break down at any time or have a flat tire.

Even if you are staying in a campground the water might be shut off for different reasons so always be prepared.

If you happen to camp near a flooded area, there might be a scarcity of freshwater or even bottled water and your filled water tank might just save the day for you.

Conclusion

Depending on how your RV was winterized before it was put into storage, it will need to be completely de-winterized, but you have to ensure that the freezing temperatures are over for the season before you do this.

If you have been wondering how do I get the antifreeze out of my RV? Hopefully, this article has been able to answer your question and tell you what needs to be done to flush all of the non-toxic RV antifreeze out of the RV plumbing system.

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