A water pump that can survive freezing? - Page 2

adventureduo · 12-23-2008, 02:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jage

You can drink engine antifreeze too, it will just kill you.

LMFAO!!!!!!!!

PeasBugs · 12-23-2008, 08:07 PM

Somewhere on this board someone posted that they used a gallon of cheap vodka as their antifreeze in the poly water tank.

**BroncoHauler** · 12-23-2008, 08:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PeasBugs

Somewhere on this board someone posted that they used a gallon of cheap vodka as their antifreeze in the poly water tank.

That's what Alan Feld recommended to me.

Herb

geoffff · 12-23-2008, 10:12 PM

I'll try the vodka trick next time!

For now I've ordered a replacement pump to be shipped to me along my upcoming trip route, so I can do a field replacement if the squealing one dies out there.

jage · 12-28-2008, 10:42 AM

My pipes froze again and the damage was the same as last time- the gray fill valve under the seat (city water to tank connection) again failed. It starts with an air leak that makes the pump run, and the pipes hiss, then the pump runs again.

I put a new one on this summer and it fixed all the problems, but once it froze it failed again. I tried to use a city water connection instead of the pump, but it wouldn't close the other way either and so just trickle filled the water tank to over flowing.

After messing with it while the city water was turned on the whole thing gave out and now it doesn't seal at all.

I found it in an RV shop, but seeing as how easy it fails I'm going to have to find a brass replacement that won't fit as well, but also won't get ruined with the first bit of cold.

Railvan · 12-28-2008, 08:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by geoffff

I'll try the vodka trick next time!

For now I've ordered a replacement pump to be shipped to me along my upcoming trip route, so I can do a field replacement if the squealing one dies out there.

Geoff,

Yeah, this recent cold snap was no fun! Luckily I had the van inside most of the time and escaped any damage, at least none I have seen so far anyway. I did try to drain the fresh water poly tank during one of the cold days and it just started to drain and then the drain outlet pipe froze up. The drain is over the top of the fuel tank so there was no direct way of reaching the outlet side of the drain to unfreeze it. I had to put the van back in the garage, put a 500 watt shop light under the van for a couple hours, run a space heater in the garage as well, and then, with the garage door just open an inch to not let in too much cold air, I finally got the tank drained!

Now we are back to our usual rain pattern here...

Brian

adventureduo · 12-29-2008, 04:32 PM

Just back from -7 degrees at the Grand Canyon. Pump didn't want to work in the AM,.. but by lunch was working fine. Weird. We had antifreeze in our system beforehand too. I just don't think they like low temps. Our 16 gallon poly water tank did just fine. No freezing with 4 gallons of winterize antifreeze.

JoeyNick · 12-30-2008, 09:24 PM

I'm worried about my system, too. We had a cold snap about a week ago and I thought I had drained the system. Nope, there was half a tank of water. Or should I say, half a tank of ice.

I was able to drain a lot of the remaining water in the mostly frozen tank but the tank had the first few inches of water frozen on all six sides.

It finally warmed up and the rest of the water has drained.

Now I'm worried about what damage might have been caused. Thankfully, the system hadn't been run in a couple of months so with a little luck, there won't be much damage. I haven't refilled the system but there's no obvious signs of damage.

How hard is it to replace the PEX lines if they are damaged? How much is that PEX crimping tool?

jage · 12-30-2008, 11:20 PM

My pex lines have been frozen solid with no noticible damage- one of the advantages of Pex as far as I know. It's the pump for some people, and the gray fill valve for me that can't take the cold temps.

Greggd · 12-31-2008, 10:05 AM

Something that you all might want to try to prevent the malfunction of your Water Pumps and interior water lines from freezing is to insulate all outside plumbing with foam or fiberglass materials of your choice .I have done this on several Trailers and Motorhomes that we have owned and found that it always gave me at least 10 degrees more leeway . Almost always your freezing problems will begin at any of your exposed outside sources . And remember that our House Battery's become less efficient the colder it becomes and our pumps while not being juice hogs Do Use A Fair Amount Of Electricity .
Greggde