Draining freshwater tank on H33

[Jim Logan]

How do you folks with H33's drain the freshwater tank? I believe in Peggy's method of commissioning the freshwater tank in the spring, but have never found a way to drain the tank without pumping it dry, which causes me tohave to reprime the pump when I fill, not to mention run the pump a lot to move the 35 gallons or so of water - anyone got a way to just let the water run out or siphon into the bilge (I'd rather run the bilge pump) instead of pumping out with the pressure pump?

 

[Don Bodemann]

Just like my camper

I used the presure pump to run it dry and then added the RV type antifreeze and ran the pump some more until I saw pink water coming out of all the faucets. In the spring I plan on rinsing several times followed by a little clorox (bleach). I understand the bleach thing is not good for alluminum tanks, so I plan on using just a little. I'll be watching for others with good ideas myself.Don

 

[Ed Schenck]

Gravity into bilge??

My H37C has two tanks with the hoses running to a manifold in the center of the bilge. I simply disconnect the hoses there and let them drain into the bilge. I have the same priming problem. I fill the hose from the manifold to the fresh water pump before reattaching it. Now with water in the tanks and in that hose it pumps right away.

 

[Peggie Hall/Head Mistress]

You can't just dump the tank, Jim

If you reread the Freshwater Maintenance article, it emphasizes that it's the plumbing which needs recommissioning at least at much, if not more than, the tank. Just dumping all the water out of the tank into the bilge doesn't flush out the plumbing.It may be a bit of a pain to reprime the system, but I don't think it'll kill you to do it right once a year. Besides, once you've flushed all the bleach solution out, you don't have to completely empty it again..you can stick your hose in the deckfill and add water as it's going out until all the bleach solution--and the crud in the lines--has been completely flushed out. It won't hurt your pump to run for an hour...that's the beauty of a diaphragm pump.. And btw, 35 gallons is actually a pretty small tank.And when you're done with the freshwater system, clean your bilge--really CLEAN it, which means hosing all the dirty water out of it too.

 

[Peggie Hall/Head Mistress]

Don, if you're only gonna use just a little bleach

You might as well not bother to use any. Read the article "Fresh Water Maintenance" in the Head Mistress forum library.

 

[Nate Shawl]

pump priming on H33

I also had problems priming my pump after running the tank dry. I thought the pump had a bad diaphragm or something. When I took the pump apart for a rebuild, I found a lot of junk plugging the input filter. After the rebuild I put an inline strainer in front of the pump. It has a clear screw-on cover for easy inspectioncleanout. Haven't had a problem since.