Morco EUP11 - WINTERISATION

WINTERISATION
Winterisation of Holiday Homes That Have a Water Heater
Fresh water freezes at 0°C and expands by 9% with a significant force that will destroy:
• Pipe work
• Water heater components
• Taps, and shower valves
DRAIN DOWN
If you leave fresh water in your caravan system over the winter you will run the risk of damage. This can only be avoided by
removing the fresh water from the system – we call this a “drain down”. You may wish to drain down the fresh water system
yourself using the procedure in the next section but we STRONGLY RECOMMEND that you have this carried out by an
experienced engineer as many caravan systems can only be completely drained by blowing the water out and this requires
specialist equipment. View the £50-£60 charge for a drain down as a mini insurance policy and always ask the engineer if he has
equipment to blow the water out. The two most common parts to be damaged by frost are the shower valve and the water control
assembly in a water heater and the costs to replace these are around £100 each.
Drain Down Procedure – without specialist equipment
• Turn off the fresh water supply stop cock outside the Holiday Home
• Disconnect the fresh water feed outside the home if possible as this protects from flooding due to stop cock failure
• Open all hot and cold taps and shower valves and place the shower head in the tray
• Use the Holiday Home Owner’s Handbook to locate all the fresh water drain cocks under the van – some of these may not be
obvious
• Open these drain cocks
This procedure does not guarantee that all the fresh water will leave the system. Most modern homes have double check valves in
the TMV2 shower mixers and these trap fresh water and stop the flow of water around the system once the drain cocks and taps
are open. It may appear that all the water has left the system, but beware! This pitfall can be avoided by removing the shower
mixer valve/valves from the system after the cold water supply has been switched off and the drain cocks opened. Many
manufacturers provide access panels and these may make the removal of shower mixers easier. Removal of some shower mixers
requires the use of special tools.
In addition, pipe work layouts can cause air locks leaving water inside vulnerable components such as the water heater or shower
mixer.
Re-commissioning the home is a reverse of the above procedure.
This drain down procedure may work but the only way to be sure is to blow the water out using compressed air at 3 bar maximum
pressure.