You've had a great year in your RV and now it's time to store it for winter. Follow the guide below to properly winterize and prepare your RV for long or short term storage.

Preparing Your RV for Storage

Use Freeze Ban antifreeze for the winterization of your RV. It is safe for fresh water plumbing.

Step-by-Step Guide to Winterizing Your RV.

  1. Disconnect the outside water source. DO NOT DRAIN THE WATER HEATER until after you have filled your pipes with antifreeze.
  2. Bypass your water heater.See Bypassing the Water heater and follow all steps before continuing. Bypass any under-sink water filtration systems.
  3. Open the petcock to drain as much water from your pipes as possible. Open the water taps and flush the toilet to drain any remaining water from the system.
  4. After draining as much water as pissible, it is recommended a Blow Out Plug be attached to the Water Intake Fitting. Apply air pressure from an air compressor to drain the remaining water. Although blowing out the remaining water is not required, the remaining water will dilute your antifreeze. Close all faucets and petcock when complete.
  5. You can add antifreeze either from the inside using the Water Pump Conversion Kit or from the outside using a hand pump. Be sure to check your progress by opening up one faucet at a time, starting from the highest and working to the lowest point in the fresh water system. Begin with the kitchen faucet. Open the HOT side of the kitchen faucet ONLY. Pump antifreeze until flow from the faucet becomes very pink. This will indicate that all the water has been flushed from your system. Close the faucet. Repeat on COLD side. Continue to the next lower fixture. This is normally the bathroom sink, then the shower and finally the toilet.
  6. Pour at least 2 pints of antifreeze into all sink & shower drains. The ice maker, washing machine and external shower will also need to be winterized. Look for this information in your appliance manuals.
  7. Open drain plug/valve on water heater and leave open.
  8. Finally, leave antifreeze in lines until spring. Do not drain.
How To Winterize Your RV | RV Winterizing

Bypassing the Water Heater

  • Bypassing the water heater can save you money by not having to fill the water heater with antifreeze, saving as much as 6 to 8 gallons of antifreeze. Some RVs come with a by-pass system pre-installed but many do not.
  • Before you start,
    1. Make sure to turn off all power to the water heater (the electric water heaters usually have their own power on-off switch)
    2. Disconnect the water supply
    3. Make sure the water heater gas pilot is NOT lit.
  • Make sure your water hater remains full of water. If you have a by-pass system in place go to step 3.
    1. If you need to install a by-pass system, disconnect hot and cold lines going into and out of the water heater.
    2. Connect by-pass. (See package instructions.) Be sure to use 3 to 5 turns of teflon tape when attaching each connection.
    3. Close off hot and cold lines going into and out of the water heater.
    4. Open the by-pass.