Water pump and Dry winterizing

[kbatschke@gmail.com]

I've drained and blown out all the lines/faucets in my Chateau 28Z. Drained the FW tank and water heater (which was bipassed). Antifreeze in black, grey and p-traps and toilet bowl. I ran the water pump for a couple of minutes after everything was drained. I've had some folks suggest putting antifreeze in the water pump but that would defeat my purpose of dry winterizing so that I don't need to flush antifreeze next spring. Do I need to do this to protect the water pump?

[DavidEM]

On my trailer which I dry winterized like you did, I would remove the strainer on the suction side if the pump (a screw on cap with a strainer element inside), break the discharge connection on the pump and run it for a few seconds to blow all of the water out. Works fine.

Another thing to be concerned about with dry winterizing is the tubing from the toilet flush valve up to the rim of the toilet. That often won't get blown out, settles inside the flush valve and ruins the valve when it freezes. So I disconnect the tubing at the flush valve on both the supply side and the toilet rim side to let all of the water drain out. Push the flush lever up and down w few times to make sure there is no water in the valve. Then reconnect the tubing.

David