Winter brings snow, freezing temperatures, and plenty of reasons to stay indoors. But when warmer weather arrives, it’s time to start thinking about getting your park model ready for another season.
If your park model has been winterized for the colder months, you’ll need to reverse that process before you can start using it again. This is where dewinterizing comes in.
In this guide, we’ll walk you through 8 simple steps to dewinterize a park model, including what to check before turning everything back on and how to make sure your park model is ready for the season ahead.
What does it mean to dewinterize a park model home?
Dewinterizing is the process of preparing your park model’s plumbing, utilities, appliances, and interior for regular use after it has been shut down for winter. This includes checking utility connections, inspecting plumbing and water lines for damage, reconnecting the water supply, and making sure your appliances and other systems are ready to use again.
1. Inspect the Exterior
The first thing you should do is inspect the exterior of your park model.
Walk around the entire home and look for cracks, leaks, damaged siding, roof issues, or other signs of damage that may have developed during the winter because of ice, snow, or freezing temperatures.
If you find a crack or leak, address it before moving on to the rest of your dewinterizing checklist.
This is also a good time to check the connection points for your water, sewer, and electrical services. If you notice any damage, contact a qualified local professional to make the necessary repairs before reconnecting your utilities. Damaged utility connections can cause problems for your park model and the surrounding area if they are not properly addressed.
2. Test for faulty pipes
After checking for any exterior damage, it’s time to test your park model for leaks. This is the step that makes many people a little anxious because, if it isn’t done correctly, a small leak can quickly turn into a much bigger problem.
Connect your tasteless, odorless drinking water hose to a water pressure regulator at the water source. This should be the garden hose hookup at your site. Once everything is connected, slowly turn on the water and allow the system to pressurize.
Open each faucet and let the water run for 30 seconds. Then shut the faucets off and check around your plumbing fixtures for any signs of leaking. Pay particular attention to the areas underneath sinks, around the toilet, and anywhere plumbing connections are located.
If you notice a leak, shut the water off as quickly as possible to prevent water from getting into your floors, walls, cabinets, or other areas of the interior.
Small leaks can sometimes be fixed yourself if you are comfortable working with basic plumbing connections. If you aren’t sure where the leak is coming from or don’t feel comfortable making the repair, it’s best to call a qualified professional.
3. Flush the Water System
When you winterize a park model, you typically put a non-toxic RV and marine antifreeze solution into the water system to protect the plumbing from freezing temperatures. Now that you’re ready to use your park model again, you obviously don’t want antifreeze coming out of your faucets. Before using the water system, you need to flush it thoroughly.
Start by reconnecting your park model to its water source. Turn on the water supply and run fresh water through the system. Open your faucets, showerheads, and sinks, and run any appliances that use water, such as a washing machine, according to their normal operating instructions.
Let the water run until it is clear, and you no longer see or smell any traces of antifreeze; this should take about 20 minutes. You should also flush the toilet several times to clear any remaining antifreeze from the toilet and plumbing lines.
Once you’ve finished, turn off the water supply and faucets.
There is one more part of the water system you need to address: the water heater.
If your water heater was placed on bypass during winterization, you can leave it on bypass for now and move on to the next step. If it was not bypassed, you’ll need to drain and flush the water heater before returning it to normal operation.
Important: Drain the water heater before reinstalling any water filter cartridges. To learn how to safely drain your water heater, watch the video below.
Sanitize the Water System
Sanitizing the freshwater system is one of the most important parts of dewinterizing your park model. Even after you’ve flushed out the winterizing antifreeze, you want to make sure the freshwater lines are clean before you start using the system again.
Because your park model does not have a freshwater holding tank, you’ll sanitize the plumbing lines directly using a meter on your garden hose.
First, shut off the water supply to your water heater. Then connect a garden hose to your park model’s freshwater connection and use a water meter to measure the amount of water entering the system.
Add 1 cup of bleach to 50 gallons of water. One way to do this is to add the bleach to the hose before turning on the water, allowing the water to carry the diluted solution into your plumbing system.
Turn on the water supply and open each faucet, showerhead, and toilet. Continue running the water until you can smell bleach coming from each fixture. Make sure the bleach solution reaches both the hot and cold water lines.
Once you can smell bleach at each fixture, turn off the faucets and allow the sanitizing solution to remain in the plumbing for 12 hours. This gives the solution time to sanitize the water lines.
After 12 hours, flush the plumbing with fresh water. Open your faucets and other fixtures and allow the water to run until you can no longer smell bleach. Once the chlorine smell is gone, continue running the water for approximately 5 minutes to thoroughly flush the lines.
Once the water has been thoroughly flushed and there is no noticeable chlorine smell, your freshwater system is ready for normal use. We recommend that you sanitize your water systems once every 3 months for the best quality.
4. Check Propane Systems
Some park models rely on propane to offer heating and a source for cooking.
If your park model does not, then you can skip this step.
It is important to keep your propane system properly maintained and make sure the propane supply is up to date. An undetected propane leak can also be dangerous, so inspect the system regularly and address any signs of a leak right away.
Start by putting the propane tanks and hoses back. When you go to attach the hoses to the tanks, apply a bit of soapy water on the attachment point. When you attach it and turn on the propane, if there are bubbles, this may indicate a gas leak. Tighten the attachment and try again. If the bubbles persist, it would be a good idea to purchase a replacement propane hose and start the process again.
After you have reinstalled everything, test the appliances to make sure they work. (ie, turn on the oven, furnace, and stove) If they do not work properly, schedule an inspection. As mentioned earlier, propane leaks can be very dangerous. Make sure to check the date on all of your propane tanks and swap them out for new ones if needed.
5. Check Electrical Systems and Generator
Winter can affect the electrical systems of your park model exponentially. Test to make sure that everything works fine by turning on the electrical appliances. These include the radio, microwave, refrigerator, AC units, lights, etc.
Then, move on to the generator. If your park model has one, this part is for you; if not, you can skip this step.
Make sure to check the generator’s oil levels before testing it. If the oil is low, make sure you get it serviced by a professional. Then, check the exhaust system. If you operate the generator with a faulty exhaust, it can cause damage to the generator and a lot of smelly fumes to linger around your site.
Now, you can test the generator. Start it up and let it run for a few minutes. After this, run it under a load of a few appliances and listen for any weird noises.
6. Check the interior
Take a look around the interior and make sure the rest of the appliances are working properly. Make sure there isn’t any interior damage. Then, move on to checking the safety devices. These include smoke alarms, carbon monoxide alarms, and fire extinguishers.
Make sure everything is up to date and has new batteries. Test the alarms and check to make sure the fire extinguishers are not expired, and if they are, buy new ones. This is also a great time to check your first-aid kit and make sure that you have everything you need in the event of an emergency.
8. Cleaning
Now that all of the main de-winterizing tasks are finished, you can move on to cleaning. This step is most important if you plan to have guests stay in your park model. Cleaning can help keep your park model feeling fresh all season long.
Start by washing windows and screens. Then move on to cleaning the floors, including sweeping, mopping, and vacuuming. Then move to the exterior. It could be dirty with snow and ice, possibly having built up on the outside of your park model.
Try soft washing the dirt off. Soft washing uses a mixture of cleaners and low pressure to remove dirt, while pressure washing uses high pressure to blast the dirt away. After this, your park model should be ready to go.
Conclusion
De-winterizing is an essential part of owning a park model. Now that you have completed the steps outlined above, your park model should be ready for all the upcoming adventures. Also, keep monitoring your park model to ensure there isn’t any damage during the season. I hope this article helped ensure your park model is ready for the season ahead.