Thursday, January 8, 2015

Winter Rving - Update - Our Pipes Froze

Our RV life is getting cold!!  This morning it was -5 degrees here.  We knew it was going to be cold.  And, despite our latest additional preparations, our pipes still froze last night.  Chad even got up during the night and turned the propane furnace on.  So between that and the electric heaters, it stayed 65 degrees in the RV all night. However, this morning, when I got up and turned the faucet on, no water came out.  The pump didn't even run.  So, our first step was to check things out under the bed, which is where the water tank & pump are.  We placed a heater under there to warm everything up.  It didn't seem like the pump was actually frozen, though.  So, in a very short time, the water was running on the bathroom side.


The electric heater under the bed
On the other side of the RV, we opened up the cabinets and placed a heater under there.  And, a couple of hours later, the water was running again.  We will be opening the cabinets up from now on when it's this cold and see if that prevents any further freezing in the future.

Fortunately, no pipes burst and we have no water leaks.  We are so glad that we replaced all of our water piping back in September with PEX tubing and shark bite fittings.  That will hold up a lot better to freezing than the polybutylene pipes that were in the RV before.


2 comments:

  1. Having no water could be a real bugger, so I’m glad you managed to fix that right away. It was a good thing you upgraded your pipes then, so you don't have to worry much about leaks. Thanks for sharing this with us. Have a great day!


    Liza Pilon @ Prairie City RV Center

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    1. Thanks so much for your comment. Yes, we would highly recommend upgrading the plumbing if you're planning on camping through a harsh winter.

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