The dealer quoted us $185 to winterize our fifth wheel last October. We stood there in the service bay staring at the invoice breakdown: $120 labor, $25 antifreeze, $40 “shop supplies and disposal fees.” Our guy explained they would blow out the lines, add antifreeze to the system, bypass the water heater, and drain the tanks. The whole thing would take about 90 minutes, he said. We walked out to the parking lot, looked at each other, and decided right there we were doing it ourselves. That decision cost us $200 in mistakes before we figured out the right process, but learning how to winterize an RV on your own is worth every lesson. Once we got it down, our total cost dropped to $40 and about two hours of work we can now do in our sleep. Learning how to winterize an RV on your own saves serious money once you get past the initial trial and error. We’ve been winterizing our rig every fall since then, and we’re sharing everything we learned the hard way so you don’t have to make the same expensive mistakes we did. If you’re wondering how to winterize an RV without paying a dealer or wasting money on things you don’t need, we’ll walk you through exactly what worked for us after plenty of trial and error.
We Paid $200 to Learn What NOT to Do (And Then Did It Right for $40)
Our first attempt was a disaster we are still embarrassed about.
We bought three gallons of RV antifreeze at Walmart for $12, watched two YouTube videos that contradicted each other, and headed out to our rig with total confidence. The first video said to use an air compressor to blow out the lines. The second one said antifreeze was enough on its own. We decided to do both, because more is better, right?
Wrong. We blew out the lines with a cheap pancake compressor we already owned, then started pumping antifreeze through the system. Except we forgot to bypass the water heater first. Six gallons of pink antifreeze later, we realized we had filled our 10-gallon water heater tank with the stuff. That was $24 worth of antifreeze wasted, plus another $15 for a replacement anode rod we cracked trying to drain the tank in a panic. Then we cracked a fitting on the city water inlet because we overtightened it after reconnecting everything. That was another $18 at Camping World for a brass elbow we had to replace the same day.
We also bought a winterizing kit with a pump wand and hose for $35 because the guy at the RV store said it was “essential.” It was not essential. We used it once, realized it was slower and messier than using the RV’s built-in water pump, and it has been sitting in a bin ever since.
By the time we finished that first attempt, we had spent $104 on materials and supplies. Then we did the whole thing wrong again two weeks later because we were not confident the antifreeze had reached all the fixtures. That second round cost us another $30 in antifreeze we did not need and a bottle of valve lubricant the parts guy convinced us we should use on the dump valves. We have never opened that bottle.
Our total learning curve: $200 in wasted materials, broken parts, and unnecessary purchases.
The next fall, we did it right. Three gallons of antifreeze at $4 per gallon from a farm supply store. One roll of Teflon tape we already had. Two hours on a Sunday afternoon. Total cost: $12. We have winterized the same way every year since, and our cost has stayed under $40 even when we need to replace a water filter or pick up an extra gallon of antifreeze in case.
The Three Things We Bought That Actually Mattered (And Everything Else We Wasted Money On)
RV antifreeze is the only thing you absolutely need, and not all of it works the same. We have used the cheap stuff from Walmart and the name-brand pink antifreeze from Camping World, and honestly, they both do the job. The difference is the pour spout. The Camco antifreeze comes with a spout that does not drip all over your hands when you are pouring it into the water pump intake. The Walmart brand does not have that, and we have learned the hard way that pink antifreeze stains everything it touches. We now buy Camco exclusively, even though it costs a dollar more per gallon, because our hands stay clean and we do not waste half a cup every time we open a new jug.
The second thing that mattered was a clear elbow fitting for the water pump. We installed one three years ago for about $8, and it lets us see when antifreeze is actually flowing through the system. Before that, we were guessing. Now we can watch the pink liquid move through the clear plastic and know exactly when the system is primed. That one part has saved us from overfilling and wasting antifreeze more times than we can count.
Everything else we bought was either useless or something we already owned. The winterizing pump wand kit? Never used it after the first year. The valve lubricant? Still sealed. The fancy brass blow-out plug adapter? We tried it once, decided the air compressor method was more trouble than it was worth, and went back to antifreeze only. We also bought a water heater bypass kit for $22 before realizing our rig already had bypass valves built in. That one still stings.
How We Flooded Our Fresh Water Tank (And the Real Way to Drain It)
The fresh water tank was where everything went sideways our first time.
We thought we had drained it. We opened the low-point drains, let the water run out onto the gravel pad where we were parked, and assumed that was it. Then we started pumping antifreeze through the system, and pink liquid started pouring out of the overflow vent on the side of the rig. We had 30 gallons of water still sitting in the fresh tank, and we were trying to add antifreeze on top of it. The pump could not build enough pressure to move anything through the lines because the tank was full and had nowhere to go.
We shut everything down, grabbed a bucket, and opened the tank drain valve under the rig. Twenty minutes later, we were still draining. Our fresh tank holds 60 gallons, and the low-point drains do not touch it. They only drain the lines downstream of the pump. If you want to empty the fresh tank, you have to open the tank drain valve itself, which on our rig is a black plastic gate valve tucked up behind the underbelly coroplast. We had to pull back the coroplast, reach up with a wrench, and turn the valve a quarter turn. Only then did the tank actually drain.
Once the tank was empty, we closed the valve, bypassed the water heater by turning the three valves behind the access panel, and started over. This time, we put the intake hose for the water pump directly into a jug of antifreeze instead of trying to pump it from the fresh tank. The pump pulled antifreeze straight from the jug, pushed it through the lines, and we opened each faucet one at a time until pink liquid came out. Hot side first, then cold. Bathroom, kitchen, outdoor shower. The whole process took maybe 20 minutes once we stopped fighting the fresh tank.
We also learned to leave the low-point drains open the entire time. That way, any water still hiding in the lines has somewhere to go instead of mixing with the antifreeze and diluting it. And we grabbed a clear plastic cup to catch the first bit of liquid from each faucet so we could see when it turned from clear to pink. That visual confirmation meant we were not guessing or wasting antifreeze by running it longer than we needed to.
Our Water Heater Fought Back (Here’s What We Learned)
The water heater was the part we thought would be easy. Turn three valves, bypass the tank, move on. Except our bypass valves were stuck.
We are talking about valves that had not been touched since the rig rolled off the factory floor in 2021. The plastic handles were brittle from five years of heat cycling, and when we tried to turn the first one, it snapped off in our hand. We stood there holding a blue plastic handle with no valve stem attached, staring at the water heater that was now impossible to bypass without replacing the valve.
We called around to RV parts stores and found a replacement valve for $14. Drove across town, picked it up, and spent another hour cutting out the old valve and sweating in a new brass ball valve with a torch we borrowed from a neighbor. That repair added two hours to the job and taught us a lesson we have not forgotten: turn the bypass valves at least once a year, even if you are not winterizing, to keep them from seizing up.
Once we got the new valve installed and the bypass set correctly, the water heater stayed empty and we did not waste any antifreeze filling it. But that first year, before we learned to bypass it, we pumped six gallons through that tank and had to drain it all out through the anode rod port. Pink antifreeze poured onto the ground, and we realized we had turned a $12 winterization job into a $40 mess.
The Washing Machine Wasn’t Even the Hard Part
We were terrified of winterizing the washing machine. Everyone we talked to said it was complicated, that we would need special adapters, that we should pay someone to do it. Turns out, it was the easiest part of the whole process.
Our washer has a drain pump and two water inlet valves. We disconnected the inlet hoses, poured half a cup of antifreeze into each inlet, ran a rinse cycle with no water connected, and let the pump push the antifreeze through the drum and out the drain. The whole thing took five minutes. We did the same thing with the ice maker in the fridge: disconnected the water line, poured a few ounces of antifreeze into the inlet, and ran the ice maker until pink cubes started dropping into the bin.
The only trick was making sure we did not overfill anything. A little antifreeze goes a long way in appliances, and we learned that dumping a full cup into the washer meant we were pumping a full cup out onto the ground when the drain cycle ran.
Before You De-Winterize in Spring: How to Winterize an RV in Reverse
The biggest mistake we made was not flushing the system thoroughly when we de-winterized in March. We drained the antifreeze, filled the fresh tank with clean water, and started using the faucets. Everything tasted like chemicals for a week. We were brushing our teeth with water that had a faint pink tint and a bitter aftertaste, and we could not figure out why until we realized the antifreeze was still coating the inside of the lines.
Now, before we turn on the water pump in spring, we fill the fresh tank, run every faucet for at least two minutes, and drain the entire tank through the low-point drains. Then we refill it and do it again. Only after the second flush do we actually start using the water for drinking or cooking. We also pull the water filter and replace it with a new one, because the old filter is full of antifreeze residue and no amount of flushing will clean it out. Understanding how to winterize an RV properly means also knowing how to reverse the process without contaminating your water supply. We’ve written more about RV maintenance and living full-time on the road if you’re looking for other tips that will save you money and headaches.
If you are getting ready to de-winterize, do not skip the flush. Your first tank of water after winter is not for drinking. It is for pushing out every trace of antifreeze left in the system. Run the water heater on electric for an hour to heat up a full tank of clean water, then drain it and refill it again. Your coffee will thank you.
We spent $200 learning how to winterize an RV the wrong way, and now we do it every fall for less than the cost of dinner out. The dealer is still charging $185, and we are still doing it ourselves in the driveway with Maggie supervising from the front seat. If you have never winterized your own rig, start with three gallons of antifreeze, a clear elbow on your water pump, and two hours on a weekend. You will make mistakes. We did. But the second time, you will get it right, and you will never pay someone else to do it again.
