RV water hookup for cold temperature

[Bird]

Eddie, as an RVer, I sure hated to see that kind of faucet for a couple of reasons: (1) I always put my pressure regulator at the faucet, so it not only protected the interior plumbing of the RV, but also my water hose, and adding anything between the faucet and hose means it sticks up that much further and the hose has a sharp bend to go down, and (2) if they're just a little bit low, I've seen too many male dogs use them for the toilet. The faucet should be installed so the water comes out running straight down, which means a different kind of faucet, or at the very least, an elbow just before that faucet.

 

[EddieWalker]

Sorry Bird, I wasn't very clear. The one in the picture is not for RV use. It's for a flower garden that will be around my sign. It's a totaly differenty type of spicket than what I'll use for the park.

I was hoping the picture would show how I insulate my water lines. 3/4 inch schedule 40 PVC. Then there is pipe insulation around that and the 1 1/2 inch grey conduit slides over the insulation.

It's a cheap, simple way to do it that I've seen in other parks and should work well on a home application. How much cold it can handle is a mystery. It's worked well at my place down to 17 degrees over night, and three days of freezing temps in the 20's to low 30's.

Sorry for the confusion.

Eddie

 

[Bird]

I misunderstood, Eddie. It looks good as far as the insulating and for what you're going to use it for. Of course for any spigot, I do prefer one that shoots the water straight down. To me that's just easier to hook up to and less bend in the hose.

 

[stumpfield]

Here are a couple of pictures of what one of mine look like. This one is on the backside of my sign at my entrance, so it's a little on the low side. I'll be putting sprinklers on the line in the future, and this will just be there for cleaning or maybe washing off the sign.

I'd forgotten about how low it is when I posted ealier, and that it's spicket is actually angled up. This just seemed better for it's future needs.

There is a green circle in the ground that is the access to the valve.

Eddie

Thanks for posting the pictures. Do you have to shut the water off at the underground valve after each use?

 

[EddieWalker]

I leave the water on at the valve all year. The reason for the valve is that these thing get busted. Vandalism or just bad tractoring. hahahaha

There's actually three valves on that line because of a few other lines I may add in the future, but that's another story.

Eddie

 

[Jagmandave]

If there's electricity there, the easiest way to keep water flowing to the spigot is to use heat tape. If no electricity, you'll have to really insulate the pipes and use a frost free spigot assy........

 

[Obed]

stumpfield,
I've been a full-time RVer for the past 10 years. We have had temperatures as low as 7 degrees F and still had water. I took some pictures of our water hose set up and have attached them.

We got heat tape from the plumbing section at Lowes. You plug it into an electrical outlet and it uses a thermostat to keep the water hose warm. We wire-tied the heat tape along the length of the hose, water pipe, water spigot, and camper hose coupling. It's very important that you be meticulous about getting all the exposed sections of the water line in contact with the heat tape. It only takes an inch of missed space to freeze the entire line. We then wrapped styrofoam pipe insulation around the hose and heat tape and used duct tape to seal the insulation. Done right, this setup will keep you water hose unfrozen for about any temps you should see in your area.

When the temps get down to the mid-20's, we open our lower kitchen cabinet doors and bathroom vanity doors so the inside water pipes get heat from the inside of the camper. Note: Our inside water pipes are located inside these cabinets. When the temperature gets into the teens we drip water in our two sinks. We have 2 problem spots inside the camper where the pipes want to freeze in extreme cold weather. One spot is where the water pipe first enters the camper from outside. This spot is accessible through a lower kitchen cabinet door. We've fixed this by placing an electric space heater by the open cabinet door during really cold nights. The other problem spot is where the water pipe that supplies the shower runs through the unheated basement area. We have an access panel to the basement area in our bathroom. We leave this panel off during cold weather to get a little heat to the shower pipes. This works in all but the coldest weather. Occassionally the shower pipes will freeze but not frequently enough for us to do anything about it. At one time I put a small space heater in the basement. Actually, a 100 WAT light bulb on an extension cord near the shower pipes in the basement enough to keep them unfrozen in our case.
Obed

 

[Obed]

stumpfield,
Once it didn't get above 40F for several days and we couldn't drain the black tank. I bungee corded a 100W drop light to the drain pipe valve where the pipe exits the black tank. This keep the black tank warm enough that we could dump it.
Obed

 

[Obed]

stumpfield,
Since you aren't local to the camper, you will need to turn off your water at the water spigot when you are not there. You might need to winterize the camper everytime you leave it. That sounds like a pain though. Drain your camper at the low point drain. Also drain your water heater. You can get a air fitting to connect to the camper's water hose coupling and use an air compresser to blow the water from the pipes before you leave. To fully winterize it you would need to put antifreeze in the sink drains so the traps don't freeze. This all depends how cold it gets.

If you don't want to do all this, you can purchase a big propane tank and run your furnace while you're gone. Or you could purchase a couple oil filled electric space heaters to heat the place when you aren't there. Make sure you have enough amps to run the heaters without throwing breakers. We added an extra 20A breaker in the breaker box and an outdoor 20A receptacle to our RV electric pole. We ran a heavy-duty electric extension cord into the camper just so we could run a third space heater during really cold weather. Thick Red Extension Cord for Extra Space Heater. Don't use a normal extension cord for a space heater because it will get hot, melt, and maybe cause a fire.

If you really wanted to get fancy, there are devices that you can use to remotely control thermostats, water heaters, and water valves either using a phone or using the internet. Search Google for "Home Automation".

Good luck,
Obed

 

[tommu56]

tom

I am in the same "boat".

We just got well drilled this year at my cabin.

I plan to put all plumbing below frost line to cistern and have the solar pump set up to keep that full and pump out of that to cabin.
i am going to use old style presure tank in cabin and have supply line that go's from cistern to cabin drain back when pump shuts off.

We have some plumbing in it now (gravity tank on 2nd floor) every thing is pitched to 2 low point drains.
When ever we are closing up in we drain every thing down, and put rv antifreeze in toilet and sink drains.

This has worked fine for 25 years that we have been carting water up there.

The only 2 times we had a problem if we had an early unxpected frost it pushed the same soldered elbow (3/4 copper) off pipe.


tommu56