Cold Weather Protection for Waste Discharge Line.

With all the cold weather we had an ice blockage in our discharge line. Hot water flushed from the business end of the line fixed it. Now I am looking for ways to protect and prevent future problems. I know I need to fix the small grey water gate valve leak that fills the line but thats another issue for warm temperatures and time to pull down the corroplast again.

Has anyone used UltraHeat Gate Valve Heaters or elbow heating pads? UltraHeat - RV Gate Valve Heater, For 3 inch pipe gates - AM-GV30A

I installed gate valve heaters for our ski trips. At -15 to -20 (F), my gate valves would freeze on Gray 1 and Black tanks. Unfortunately it turned out that for me, it was a big waste of money and the considerable effort to install them. The gate valve heaters would not thaw the freeze. I think the documentation warned that you can only leave them on for about 15 minutes without damaging the plastic. Even after three or four 15 minute attempts, with cool-down time, the ice would not thaw out. I switched to a heat gun. Later I built a mini-skirt.

If you're in one place for a while, build a mini-skirt out of foam board and put a heater inside. No more freezes.

Take a look at our owner-written Water Systems Winter Usage Guide for more info.

danemayer said:

I installed gate valve heaters for our ski trips. At -15 to -20 (F), my gate valves would freeze on Gray 1 and Black tanks. Unfortunately it turned out that for me, it was a big waste of money and the considerable effort to install them. The gate valve heaters would not thaw the freeze. I think the documentation warned that you can only leave them on for about 15 minutes without damaging the plastic. Even after three or four 15 minute attempts, with cool-down time, the ice would not thaw out. I switched to a heat gun. Later I built a mini-skirt.

If you're in one place for a while, build a mini-skirt out of foam board and put a heater inside. No more freezes.

Take a look at our owner-written Water Systems Winter Usage Guide for more info.

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Thank for the response. That was my suspicion after reading the online info from the manufacturer. I cleared the latest ice blockage by back flushing with hot water, which worked great.

When you have tank heaters, elbow heaters and heated water lines from the spigot, what do you do about the pipe in, coming out of the ground to prevent freezing?

porthole said:

When you have tank heaters, elbow heaters and heated water lines from the spigot, what do you do about the pipe in, coming out of the ground to prevent freezing?

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Duane,

If you're talking about the campground water pipe that terminates in a spigot, you go to a campground that has a heated water riser.

The Raton, NM KOA uses heat tape. Tiger Run Resort in Breckenridge, CO use a heat probe that goes down into the pipe and heat tape on the components attached to the riser; all contained in a heavily insulated "doghouse."

There's a year round park 3 miles from us in Pagosa Springs. They have a freeze proof spigot and riser, but it's not heated. So it temps are above freezing you can run off the spigot. Below freezing you have to disconnect and run from your fresh tank.

Duane, I’ve seen some elaborate setups. Most include a heat tape, insulation (foam or glass) boxes built over the hydrant, foam rose cones, etc. In addition it’s going to come down to whether the park’s infrastructure protects the underground sections and if they turn water off during freezes.
We stayed in 5 different parks until we landed at our first long term destination here in south Texas. FOUR had no water at the site.


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and you probably came close to having no water where you are now !

porthole said:

When you have tank heaters, elbow heaters and heated water lines from the spigot, what do you do about the pipe in, coming out of the ground to prevent freezing?

Click to expand...

Our park the spigot only sticks up about 6" from the ground. We have it, the wye, and regulator wrapped in fiberglass pipe insulation (leaving only the handle exposed) and then have a small foam cooler upside-down over all of it with a small opening for our heated hose to exit. A landscape stone on top keeps the cooler in place. The cooler protects the setup very well. We've used this concept for the third winter now.

When the temp gets very cold (in the 20s), I've taken a "hot hands" hand warmer and slipped it under the cooler, which generates some safe, long lasting temporary heat for overnight.

However, I forgot to add the "hot hands" packet a few nights ago when it was expected to go into the single digits overnight. We still had no issues with the spigot.

Btw, our Big Country 4010rd does not have the yeti package, or anything special for winter RVing. We did push up the low point drain for the fresh tank into the belly, and have a 100 watt bulb hanging behind the basement wall.

And we have our grey 1 tank (bath/laundry) always open.


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