mids Posted October 13, 2014 Share Posted October 13, 2014 Sorry to sound stupid, but people talk about lubricating or spraying toilet seal where is the seal and where do you spray the blade? Just round the edge of it? Only had a motorhome a month will be glad when l have mastered everything and can relax and enjoy it. Apart from emptying all water anything else I should do before winter? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sshortcircuit Posted October 13, 2014 Share Posted October 13, 2014 Like yourself I question why people spray/lubricate etc. Over the 9 years I have had the motorhome never had that palaver and just let the flush do its work and had absolutely no problems. Just tick it off the list of things to forget about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tracker Posted October 13, 2014 Share Posted October 13, 2014 mids - 2014-10-13 6:22 PM . Apart from emptying all water anything else I should do before winter? It pays to be paranoid about water emptying as frost damage is expensive and inconvenient to rectify and motorhome water systems tend to be very fragile. Make sure in particular that as well as water tanks and hot water boiler drained as per instruction book all taps are open and empty of dregs of water, the loo and the flush tanks are empty and run the flush pump empty for a few secs (no more) to clear any dregs. That ought to sort it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Joe90 Posted October 13, 2014 Share Posted October 13, 2014 mids - 2014-10-13 6:22 PM Sorry to sound stupid, but people talk about lubricating or spraying toilet seal where is the seal and where do you spray the blade? Just round the edge of it? Only had a motorhome a month will be glad when l have mastered everything and can relax and enjoy it. Apart from emptying all water anything else I should do before winter? Youtube is a mine of information, this link below is specific to the lip seal and this website covers a multitude of other items you may wish to find out about. http://www.motorhomechannel.co.uk/?cid=7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
malc d Posted October 13, 2014 Share Posted October 13, 2014 mids - 2014-10-13 6:22 PM . Apart from emptying all water anything else I should do before winter? Once you have emptied the water tank - open the taps to help clear water from the pipes but make sure all the taps are " centred " i.e. halfway between hot and cold. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted October 14, 2014 Share Posted October 14, 2014 Lubricating a Thetford toilet’s ‘blade’ used to be much more important for the original bench-style models, as their blades opened and closed by sliding horizontally across the bottom of the rubber seal and, if the blade became dry, could lead to the seal wearing. With later Thetford toilets the blade closes using two distinct actions - moving horizontally until it is below the rubber seal and then moving upwards. Opening is vice versa - the blade moves downwards before moving sideways. This minimises the likelihood of seal damage/wear, though it’s still worth keeping the seal clean and lubricated to prevent any chance of it adhering to the rubber seal. Regarding preparing a motorhome for winter, there are some links in this earlier thread that may be useful http://www.outandaboutlive.co.uk/forums/Motorhomes/Motorhome-Matters/Chausson-Flash-02/33078/ You’d be very lucky to drain a motorhome’s water system via ‘gravity’ to a point where it will be impervious to ultra-cold temperatures. The “Floe” system described here http://www.keepfloeing.com/products-motorhome.html uses compressed air to blow water out of the pipework, but a DIY equivalent should be strsaightforward enough to install. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tracker Posted October 14, 2014 Share Posted October 14, 2014 Talk about making a simple job complicated! How ever did we all survive before good old Floe arrived? I have always found that a good pair of mark one human lungs will give me all the suck and blow that I have ever needed! Others may of course have different needs! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Joe90 Posted October 14, 2014 Share Posted October 14, 2014 Have to agree, a plumber once told me that as long as water has somewhere to expand too if it freezes it will do no damage, dunno if that's true but I for one won't be fretting this winter after my usual drain down, or buying another gadget. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pepe63xnotuse Posted October 14, 2014 Share Posted October 14, 2014 RE: Draining down.. If it's easy enough to access an onboard fresh water tank(or the feed pipe leading from it)then it's easy enough to pressurize and blow through, without buying anything... All I did, after the usual drain down, was to unclip the feed hose from the top of the tank and the just jubilee clip a 12v pump to it and then just clear each tap in turn... Even though it was supposedly "fully drained" , it was surprising just how much water still came out.. Now that may well have been water just sitting in clear pipe runs but some of it could've also been sitting trapped in push-fit "T"s , tap bodies etc (..prior to trying this, I had frost push the small gauze, filter things from out of the "fully drained down, open and centred" taps..). Also, a plumber will probably be used to working with components far sturdier than the brittle, flimsy fittings which make up the average MH.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colin Posted October 14, 2014 Share Posted October 14, 2014 Joe90 - 2014-10-14 11:19 AM Have to agree, a plumber once told me that as long as water has somewhere to expand too if it freezes it will do no damage, dunno if that's true but I for one won't be fretting this winter after my usual drain down, or buying another gadget. To a large extent I agree with this, also use of plastic pipes usually helps. For us, it's open the drains and taps, then a quick blow on end of tap in case body is still full, I've always been a bit concerned over feed to Thetford, but -16c couple of winters and no problems. At 'work' 25 years of freezing pipes and only once had a leak due to plastic, but on loco with copper pipes it will burst the bottom feed pipes which trap water. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sshortcircuit Posted October 14, 2014 Share Posted October 14, 2014 It is when ice thaws it expands and burst the pipes. As far as I can see the plastic fittings used in the MH are no different to those used in a domestic installation although the drainage is different Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
malc d Posted October 14, 2014 Share Posted October 14, 2014 sshortcircuit - 2014-10-14 3:22 PM It is when ice thaws it expands and burst the pipes. When water freezes it expands and bursts the pipes - when it thaws the water leaks out. That's what happened in my van ! ( Because one of the taps wasn't 'centred' ) ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted October 14, 2014 Share Posted October 14, 2014 Tracker - 2014-10-14 10:42 AM Talk about making a simple job complicated! How ever did we all survive before good old Floe arrived? I have always found that a good pair of mark one human lungs will give me all the suck and blow that I have ever needed! Others may of course have different needs! I know it goes against the grain to read earlier postings before commenting but - as I explained in one of links referred to in my posting immediately preceding yours - my Hobby’s quite complex water system included a number of “X-FIX” connectors of the type shown here http://www.comet-pumpen.de/en/products-rv/water-supply-system/x-fix.html If these fittings are not adequately drained there’s a strong chance that water freezing within them will either result in damage to the fitting or push its sections apart. Although I had taken as much care as I could to remove the water from the Hobby’s system by time-honoured methods (including using the sucking/blowing technique you mention), after one of the very cold winters that the UK experienced a few years back, when I came to bring the Hobby back into service I found there was a major water leak. The component sections of one of the X-Fix connectors had been forced apart by water freezing inside it: fortunately the connector itself was undamaged and accessible and I was able to make a better job of securing it in place than Hobby had when they built the motorhome. There’s no chance that a human, even one with the lungs of a professional trombone player, will have the physical capability to force all the water from the type of system fitted to my Hobby. I subsequently did something similar to pepe63, in my case pressurising the system via the shower-hose using a 12V tyre pump. As he says, it’s startling how much water will be expelled from the taps when compressed air is employed and, if the toilet takes its flush-water from the motorhome’s freshwater tank, the water in the feed to the toilet can also be completely removed. Neither of the ploys pepe63 and I used to protect our motorhomes’ water system from frost-damage cost anything and both are much more effective in removing water than gravity + blowing/sucking. The compressed air method advocated by the Floe company will do a more complete water-removal job than gravity + lung-power and a similar-principle DIY alternative to Floe can be implemented with a little thought. As you rightly said earlier "It pays to be paranoid about water emptying as frost damage is expensive and inconvenient to rectify and motorhome water systems tend to be very fragile.” All of the advice given in this thread has merit but, if easily removing as much water as possible from the system is considered top priority, I believe compressed air is the best route to follow. As malc d says, water expands when it freezes. That’s when damage to water systems takes place, but the damage caused often does not become evident until the ice in the system starts to melt. The science is simply covered here http://www.iapws.org/faq1/freeze.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Joe90 Posted October 14, 2014 Share Posted October 14, 2014 “X-FIX” connectors Progress eh. Thought I'd save him the trouble. ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martyn22 Posted October 22, 2014 Share Posted October 22, 2014 Don't forget when going abroad for the winter sun have you drained down your central heating radiator's ? And turned off water outside your house ? Also turn off gas and electricity Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tracker Posted October 22, 2014 Share Posted October 22, 2014 Martyn22 - 2014-10-22 11:35 AM Don't forget when going abroad for the winter sun have you drained down your central heating radiator's ? And turned off water outside your house ? Also turn off gas and electricity Not me! Better to leave it all on than come home to a cold damp home - just get sons to argue over who checks it every few days - after all it will one day be their inheritance so it is in their own interests to look after it for us - in theory! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Joe90 Posted October 22, 2014 Share Posted October 22, 2014 Martyn22 - 2014-10-22 11:35 AM Don't forget when going abroad for the winter sun have you drained down your central heating radiator's ? And turned off water outside your house ? Also turn off gas and electricity Blimey, I've never drained down a radiator in my life, and considering they should be full of anti rust inhibitor doesn't sound a very good idea, but I do turn the stop valve off under the sink, and leave the boiler and rad valves on their frost settings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PJay Posted October 22, 2014 Share Posted October 22, 2014 Leave ours on when away in winter, on a low setting. Turn off the electric?? then the heating/freezer/fridge , fire alarm, etc would not work! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lennyhb Posted October 22, 2014 Share Posted October 22, 2014 Some insurance companies stipulate that if the house is unoccupied for more than 28 the heating must be set to continue at 10deg. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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