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quoteDraining down your motorhome is an important step when preparing your vehicle for winter. To remain fully covered, Caravan Guard motorhome insurance customers need to drain down water and sanitary systems when they’re not using their motorhome between November 1st and March 15th.
Draining down means removing as much liquid as possible from the various water tanks and pipes on board. It’s an important step to take when the motorhome is not in use during those colder winter months, as freezing water or even frost damage can cause a surprising amount of damage to your motorhome’s pipes, fixtures, fittings and taps, leading to an expensive repair bill.
If you’re not using your motorhome over winter, it’s best practice to drain down at the end of your last holiday before winter sets in. If you’re using your motorhome in the winter months, you’ll need to drain down after every trip.
In this video we go through the steps to take to drain down a motorhome for winter:
To drain down your motorhome, first empty your grey waste as usual over a motorhome service point.
We then want to empty the fresh water and hot water tanks too.
So switch off the water pump, then locate and open the yellow drain down tap. This is usually positioned near the water heater. On some motorhomes this might be a blue tap. This will empty the hot water tank.
Close to your on-board water tank, you’ll find a yellow drain down tap. Turn this tap to the open or drain down position to allow the fresh water tank to drain too.
On some models this might be on the outside of your motorhome, so again turn this to the open position.
Depending on how much water you have on board depends on how long this can take. To help the water drain out of your motorhome, open all the taps inside your motorhome. In the case of mixer taps, open them halfway.
In the shower, remove the shower head and leave the pipe in the bottom of the shower cubicle to allow air to enter and water to leave.
Again, leave the shower tap up and halfway between hot and cold.
On some motorhomes, there are separate toilet flush tanks too. This should also be emptied, to again remove as much liquid as possible.
Get a bowl or a bucket and remove the plug on the end of the drain down pipe, which is usually found in the toilet cassette locker. This will drain down the toilet’s water tank.
A top tip is to run the flush pump to remove any last liquid out of the pump. Flush the loo until no more water comes out and make sure to empty your toilet cassette and leave the blade in the open position.
You don’t need to add any anti-freeze to the on-board tanks. And if you have Alde wet heating, you don’t need to drain the glycol out of the system.
Once all liquid has been removed from the fresh, grey, hot and flush tanks, you could take the motorhome for a drive, leaving all the drain down taps open. This will shake the last few drops of water out of the pipes and their connections.
A great gadget to remove nearly all the water from the system is the drain down kit from Floe. This blows air into the motorhome water tanks and allows you to remove even more liquid out of the pipes.
Finally, you could put plugs in sinks and the shower cubicle to prevent any nasty smells or little creatures coming through the plug hole.
Remember, draining down is just one of several winter checks you’ll need to make on your vehicle. See our video on getting your motorhome ready for winter storage for more information on other winter checks.
If your sinks have u bends installed it can be worth adding food safe antifreeze in these to avoid the risk of these splitting. Or empty them by taking them apart.
Very good, I have already drained down my van,but was unaware of the toilet drain.
Very good, practical advice. I already do most of those things, although I will now remember to leave the toilet valve half open and remove the shower head. Thanks also for the tip about the Floe kit.
For the novice motorhomer this is an excellent article in draining the system. With a new or newish motorhome you shouldn’t have a problem but, there’s always a but. I’ve motorhomed c20 years with 3 Motorhomes, my current one is 11 years old, never had a problem with refilling systems after winter drain down. 3 years ago after refilling the system the pump wouldn’t switch off, every one told me that the pump being 11 yers old it probably needs replacing. A new pump was around £60 – £80, but I said the pumps pumping it just not stopping with taps closed. I was advised the problem will be the pump pressure switch, for which there’s a replacement kit for £20 – £40, then someone said have you tried adjusting the pressure switch. Where’s the adjustment I asked, was told, it’s right under the pressure switch housing, you need a very small Alan key (hex key), and if the pumps in situ you can’t see it you have to feel for the adjustment hole and the key engaging. I did as instructed and lo and behold got the pump to stop, then adjusted it back until I got the flow I required, and it switched off on closing the taps. It cost me nowt, just a grazed knuckle. I’ve attached a YouTube video (not mine)so you can see what’s involved. Apparently the problem is scale film builds up in a piston that operates the switch which loses lubrication when it dries out from draining, very slowly but over time it stops the piston operating
https://youtu.be/jtjssFGWA-I?si=I1WByPUasGJ1h7BM
One has to understand where the big risk comes from. Water will only damage the system in completely closed and filled chambers. So what I do is to open all drain cocks and then take the shower head off. Now open the hot water tap on the shower and the bathroom sink. Blow through the shower hose (You may need to push the coupling out of the way!) This may be quite hard to start with but persevere and soon you should hear the water gurgling. Do the same with all the other hot taps in turn. Now go through the same process with the cold taps. The gurgling indicates air in the various chambers and even if it freezes there should be enough air in there to allay the compression caused by water freezing.
This has worked for me for 30 odd years.
Very helpful, having previously had frozen and damages taps/pipes the article is most useful especially the section on driving afterwards as much internal pipe work is installed with loops and bends and will not drain purely through gravity.
Some motorhome pumps have a water filter attached to the side of the pump pipework. This can stay full of water despite draining down and if it freezes, the plastic will expand and break it. They can be replaced for £20 (approx) but worth the effort to put some kitchen towel under it and unscrew it, keeping it in the sink to remind you to put it back on before use.