Drain your Washer hookup lines occasionally!

[JM0397]

For those that have washer/dryer prep in your rig:
I just winterized yesterday. When blowing out the water lines, they both had a pretty strong sulpher smell.
We do not have a w/d installed, so those are dead-end water lines.

So, reminder to run some water through those on occasion; they can get pretty funky after an entire season!

[JM0397]

On a side note/question:
Has anyone dug into the back of the Nautilus panel and added some cutoff valves at the panel?
Seems like that would save me the time/effort if I could leave those lines completely shutoff, but I don't want to completely remove the water lines, either.

[Gronk1]

I've been winterizing these lines as well. On my 310 it T's off to the curbside water port behind the wall. I've thought about capping the line after that T, that way it could be reconnected with a union if I or the next owner wanted a W/D & it's easy access.
I haven't traced it back to the N panel to see if it Ts somewhere else.

[Second Chance]

We don't winterize since we live in the rig full-time and the lines get used several times a week doing laundry. My thought on the valve topic would be that, unless you had a way to drain the water from the lines after you added the valves, there would still be water in the lines to stagnate. (I guess you could blow them out as you cut them to add the valves...).

Rob

[LMagelitz]

I’m gonna cut into mine right above the pass thru door and use some 1/4 turn ball valves…the type with drains on the valve.

[FlyStar]

I’ve opened the valves for these washer lines when the low point drains are draining. Seems to empty them out and all is well. I think. I did add caps to the outputs incase a DW shoe were to accidentally turn the valve. Yikes.

[traveldawg]

I’m gonna cut into mine right above the pass thru door and use some 1/4 turn ball valves…the type with drains on the valve.

I think @LMagelitz has the best suggestion. I've been meaning to do mine the same way. I've already cut into them once when I installed our combo washer/dryer.

For now we just run the combo on a cycle with it empty just to flush the pipes. But if not using then then the drains in the pass thru area seem the easiest.

[Steven@147]

I intend to do this, put shut off valves in line on the clothes washer lines in the basement, we don't use them. Got the valves just haven't done it yet. In the past I have purged the lines once in awhile just to keep the stinky water out before I get the valves put in. My plan is, when I put the valves in, when I cut the lines in the basement, I'll open the clothes washer valves in the closet and let them drain down into the basement. I have noticed those clothes washer valves in the closet are not very good, the last thing I need is for those lines or shut off valves to start leaking and I don't notice it right away.

I've gotten in the habit once in awhile of turning off campground water and running off pump just to see if the pump runs when all faucets are off, indicating a leak.

I just finished removing all of the red/blue flex hose from the bathroom running down into the basement and then behind the basement wall. The local Home Depot was out of stock on a lot of pex supplies, had to drive up into south Houston to get everything I needed for this job. I ended up buying $100 worth of pex stuff, shut off valves, faucet connections ((90 and straight) & for nautilus connections), unions, Ts, 90s, clamps and blue/red sections of line just to have stuff on hand. Don't what to be caught again without the stuff I need to fix leaking water lines.

[LMagelitz]

Got the two valves installed today. With the stackable washer and dryer, the valves behind them are inaccessible. I think if I need the lines drained, I’ll start a warm water cycle, close the valves, open the drains and suck the water out with a shop vac.

[reubenray]

How do you winterize, de-winterize and sanitize a w/d prep? Per the instruction you are to run the water until pink comes out when winterizing it. It also says to run the water until clean water comes out when de-winterizing it. Where do you run the water to?