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Friday, December 21, 2018

22 - Winter Water Woes

We planned our annual departure from Colorado to Yuma for early December. The Orion had been in storage since our October trip except for one outing for dealer service. We had some very cold freezing weather and I found out how good my winterizing procedure was. Answer: not good enough.

In prepping the coach for travel, I connected to city water to flush the system and fill the tank for the trip. I immediately had a flood of water coming out from the cabinet under the kitchen sink. So an emergency mop-up and analysis. My first discovery was that I had forgot to remove the drinking water filter under the sink, which froze and split open. Not having a spare filter, I was glad to find that the water would bypass directly to the filter faucet through the filter unit without a filter being installed. But then when I turned on the sink faucet, water flowed from the head and base as well as the nozzle. Turns out that particular type of faucet head retains a considerable amount of water, and the air I had blown through and the meager amount of anti-freeze pumped through it was not enough to displace all the water. The plastic waterway inside the faucet extension was cracked. I smeared some epoxy glue on the crack which helped to get most of the water to the end with minimal side drips.

Once we got past the water woes, we had a good trip to Yuma. We used the kitchen sink sparingly. Fuel mileage was good for being well-loaded and towing the Smart at 13.3 mpg, with one tank at 14.6. I had more water woes in our Yuma house, but that's another blog. After getting settled, I ordered a filter and a new Peerless faucet from Amazon. Received them in two days and installed in an hour. I opted for a plain high-rise faucet with no spray which my wife said she didn't need in the RV. Less parts. All metal unlike the cheap plastic OEM faucet. And I have added two more steps to my winterizing procedure. Hopefully next year will be less dramatic.


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