help me winterize with pex

[jbinbi]

In the past, my boats all had regular hoses for water.

To winterize, I would disconnect water tank hose that went to water pump.

I then disconnected the cold water inlet to the hw tank and the hot water outlet , then connected both of these together. Then I opened valve on hw tank to drain it.

finally, I had a hose that i connected to the inlet of the water pump, put the other end the bottle of anti freeze, and ran the water pump to suck antifreeze into the pump, then opened each faucet to run antifreeze all the way thru the lines. very simple, used maybe 2 gallons.

Now on my 2012 e33, all the hoses are pex. I think i can detach the pex coming from the water tank to the water pump.

However, pex into the hw tank goes into a bronze fitting of the tank. not sure how this comes off.

Any suggestions from those who have winterized with pex? I can brute force this by getting like 10 gallons of anti freeze and dumping it into the main water tank and then just running all faucets. I like my method as i usually just put a gallon of anti feeze into the water tank as it is empty, and disconnect the line from the tank. I live in NE, so I need antifreeze. Since I use little antifreeze, there isn't a ton in the tank in the spring, and it's easy to get anti freeze water taste out.

 

[Mulf]

Handling pex conneectors is no big deal....

This link contains an explanation of how to connect & disconnect the fittings:

http://www.whalepumps.com/marine/si...library/Whale_quick_connect.pdf#search="quick connect

be sure to use the whole thing including the word connect

 

[Lost Parent]

Re: Handling pex conneectors is no big deal....

are they crimp on pex fittings?

 

[Dan Johnson]

jbinbi...

I installed a siphon and valve unit obtained from my local RV store. It's connected between the tank feed and the water pump input. It permits you to close off the tank line and feed through its siphon hose the pink stuff antifreeze to winterize the water system.

I also installed a bypass valve system (from the same source) that bypasses the hot water tank so that you can drain it and not have to run antifreeze into it for winterization.

For the water tank itself, I simply run all the water I can out of it first before starting the above antifreezing. I added an access port so that the last remaining water can be sponged out so that antifreezing is not necessary.

Note pics attached...the brass thingie next to the white water filter canister is the siphon valve. In the water heater pic, the brass thingie with the white hose connection is the upper bypass valve.

 

[jbinbi]

good stuff. I used to do this. But not simple with Pex. You have old style hoses with 'regular' hose connectors, not pex connectors.

 

[RichH]

are they crimp on pex fittings?

If these are standard PEX fittings, just unscrew them and let the tankage and piping drain.
If the problem 'bronze' (probably brass) fitting is a 'sharkbite - PEX adapter' either cut it off and apply a new one in the spring; or, cut the PEX hose a short distance from the 'bronze' and install an intermediate (extra) PEX connector/union in line. You can get PEX connector at most RV supply shops and/or RV dealers). Youll need to take a small sample of the PEX tube with you ... just in case its the 'old style' PEX.