How cold is too cold ?

[UHAULER]

I live in the Sacramento area and have a Northstar tc650. Normally the lowest temps we get are 30-32*, but recently it is getting down to the mid 20's.

It seems a little impracticle to drain everything everytime the temps drop. Say if you were camping near the coast one night and then went up to Tahoe and spent the day up there with temps in the teens.

How low do the temps have to get before you start worrying about freeze damage ?

 

[zidaro]

if your water is stagnant then anything below freezing after a few+ hours. It should be fine during the day while our out skiing, nice thing is we have purdy simple systems in the TC650. Only real damage that can happen with a soft freeze would be your water heater if it was cold to start. You P trap, if you still have one might pop. Heat your water up before you go out for the day.
I live in the E. Sierras (Mammoth) and i always drain and blow out my system on my way home in the winter(or right when i get home). Potential for a freeze just about every day and if you combine that with the night temps its a guarantee. I leave my hot/cold valves at the sink and exterior shower open halfway so they can breathe after i blow the lines out.

 

[Ozarker]

My water tank will set on top of a low voltage water bed heater, gets cold, flip a switch, shouldn't be a problem. Now, the beer that's stored is another matter.

 

[UHAULER]

I went out today and drained the tank and pulled the plug/annode on the water heater, good thing i did, a lot of white calcium type crud came out. I also blew air through the lines using the pressurized freshwater hookup. The owners manual is very vauge on how to blow the lines out so I did it with everything opened up, fawcet valves, outdoor shower valves, water heater drain and pressure relief valve. then I closed the water heater valves to redirect more air through the other lines. air pressure was about 40 psi. There was some moisture/water in the refridgerator compartment and some under the sink area, it appears to be coming from the water heater area. it might have came in by running into the electrical outlet door while flushing out the water heater. This definatley needs to be checked out.

 

[LuckyDan]

A common practice for those with a hot water heater that needs to be drained regularly for freeze protection go to something like this:

http://www.adventurerv.net/anode-ro...urce=Froogle&gclid=CN7118uVn7sCFcdgfgod8QwAKg

Or This:

http://www.campingworld.com/search/...Ntpc=1&Ns=p_sort_default&N=1000104&Ne=1000003

I always had a problem with errant water show up like your fridge issue when draining the water heater on my old motorhome. While it couldn't work for me I've seen several others go to a petcock plug and get enough "Stream" to clear their RV and not have water run back into it. After that a little compressed air through the lines just like you did and a little RV antifreeze down the drains and I never had freeze damage.

Good luck...

 

[craig333]

Here in Sac I don't bother to drain my rig. When I am in cold country the heater is going and so far, I haven't had any issues with freezing other than the petcock outside. If I were to leave my rig without heat in cold country I'd drain the water.