"Weekendizing" rather than Winterizing

We are new owners of a 2009 3355. We winter camp on the weekends and would like to know the best way to ready the RV for possible cold weather while we are away from it. (We are in Texas.)
We have drained the system and sucked pink antifreeze into it. How much does it hold, anyway? 3 gallons?
Then we unscrewed the water heater plug to drain it. Surprise! Lots of pressure and also lots of gunk that I suspect to be lime. The plug has a rod attached to it that goes back into the bottom of the heater. Should we be draining the water heater? Is the gunk normal? What is the purpose of the rod?
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.

Frank

Hi Frank,

Welcome to the Heartland Owners Forum and Family. We have a great bunch of people here with lots of information and all willing to share their knowledge if needed.

Yes, 3 gallons should do it. And the water heater plug you removed is the anode rod. It is a sacrificial rod that deteriorates instead of the metal in the heater tank when using the electrical side of the heater. And yes, the junk you drained out is the junk that happens in all water heaters. Also a lot of folks use air and blow out the lines instead of using the antifreeze and then having to flush the system before you use it. And seeing that you live in Austin or close by I would not think you would need to winterize very often.

Enjoy your new 3355 and the forum.

Jim M

If your 2009 rig has low point drains, open them up while blowing the lines with air. I would agree with Jimtoo on doing that, rather than pumping antifreeze in and out for weekend use. If the anode rod looks like Swiss Cheese, or is nothing more than a skinny metal stick, replace it with a new one. Another note, before removing the anode rod, make sure the water heater has cooled off and then open the pressure relief valve on top of it before loosening the anode rod. That will relieve the pressure so you don't get a bath.

The life of the anode rod is dependent on the incoming water quality. I run my supply through a two filter system and my rod looks like new after two summers of use. Although I turn off the water heater when we're not there, it remains full of water all summer. And there's very little crud in the tank.

ffernandes, welcome to the forum. I moved your thread out of Ask The Factory and into the Big Country General Maintenance as I feel you will get better answers to your questions from people that have actually done winterizing and water heater maintenance on their rigs on a regular basis.
All the above answers are right on.

Peace
Dave

Right on Fred

If you are in the Austin "Hill Country" area you should not have to do much to winterize as you do not get freezing weather that much. We are in the "Piney Woods" of East Texas and get below freezing several times a year as well and might even get snow a couple of times a year but it is not for an extended period. The length of time below freezing and how deep is the freeze are the main consideration. The only things I do to deal with the winter temps are to drain the holding tanks including the fresh water tanks, disconnect the city water and then leave the furnace on set at about 45 degrees. I will also leave the water in the hot water tank with the tank on unless I will not be using the RV for a month or so. If it is sitting for a month or so I will drain the water heater. I have followed this procedure without problems on all of my RVs and have not had any problems. Oh yeah I have also wrapped my low point drains fittings and lines which extend below the underbelly. Last winter it got down to 22 several times and we still had no problems.