Drain down or not…that time of year!

For those of us who drain down over winter but then don’t drain down during the normal year, at what point do you fill and not drain down.

For example, I drained down in November. Then on trips over winter I’ve either not filled the tank for a short trip, or I’ve drained down at the end longer trip. But I’m going away the last week in March and I can’t decide whether I need to drain down when I get back, or whether that’s far enough into the year to leave it with water in.

I just wondered what others do; my van is in storage, and does have the automatic drain valve on the boiler.

P.S. this isn’t about whether or not to drain down after each trip during the year, that’s a whole different kettle of fish!!!

We were actually living in the van from October to mid February....plenty heat in the van itself, but the piping under the floor did freeze up one night...was about minus 8 where we were. Minus 18 at home though....

When we got home I drained it down as frost was forecast. Filled up again last week, as we have been up in Caithness over the weekend. Again, below freezing at home, but not on the north coast. Back home now, and I'm wondering....it's not difficult to drain, so I'll probably do it to be safe. Thing is, the water in the tanks is clean, where the water in our taps at home is like cold tea.(full of peat) Shame to waste clean water!

Draining is safer... Especially if it's not sat on your driveway. That being said, end of march you should be safe enough.

Filled mine back up last week and had a heavy frost which tripped the dump valve, filled up again on Friday for this weekends use and have not drained down as will just leave it now between trips

But if you are not going to use the van for more than a couple days you should drain the fresh water anyway - unless you use tank water just for washing up.

I drain down after every trip unless we are going off again in less than a week otherwise the waters not fit for anything other than washing up.

inspiredron wrote:But if you are not going to use the van for more than a couple days you should drain the fresh water anyway - unless you use tank water just for washing up.

I know lots who don’t; they would disagree with you.

I certainly don’t drain down at the end of every trip. Although I don’t drink the water direct, just tea and coffee.

We don't drink the water, we just use it for washing up etc

My thought being if it pours out of the top of the tank when it's full, anything on the road can surely get in. We have two big bottles we fill for drinking water.

2 vans over 20 years and always drunk the water from the tap, never drain down between trips and only sterilised every couple of years, never had any problem or upset stomach’s, -possibly due to all the jabs I was given in the forces 

If you saw our household water supply pre-filtration, you'd wonder why I'm bothered....

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That goes through 5 stage filtration before it's potable, and sometimes it still looks like tea.

It's nice to turn up to a site and roll the hose out and fill the tank with clean water....it's another reason I tend not to drain it down unless I know it's going to freeze. It's also the reason I have bottles for potable water on site, really nice to think "I haven't had to filter that!"

Peatlander 2 wrote:If you saw our household water supply pre-filtration, you'd wonder why I'm bothered....

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That goes through 5 stage filtration before it's potable, and sometimes it still looks like tea.

It's nice to turn up to a site and roll the hose out and fill the tank with clean water....it's another reason I tend not to drain it down unless I know it's going to freeze. It's also the reason I have bottles for potable water on site, really nice to think "I haven't had to filter that!"

I would be towing a small water bowser behind the van to fill up as I left sites

Peatlander 2 wrote:If you saw our household water supply pre-filtration, you'd wonder why I'm bothered....

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That goes through 5 stage filtration before it's potable, and sometimes it still looks like tea.

It's nice to turn up to a site and roll the hose out and fill the tank with clean water....it's another reason I tend not to drain it down unless I know it's going to freeze. It's also the reason I have bottles for potable water on site, really nice to think "I haven't had to filter that!"

Wow, I’ve not seen that before. Is it because of your location.

Aye, it's straight off the hill. The supply is collapsing, but none of the other 3 houses on it are prepared to contribute to upkeep, so we filter it, and will be getting a borehole just for us at some point. To be fair, it usually looks like cold tea, that photo is me purging the pipework, so there's a lot if silt in it at that point too.

Even after the filtration we are using now, it's still often quite brown, but least you can see through it. You learn not to wash white things in it!

That's the main reason I don't fill with water at home! Will sometimes drop the contents of the tank if we aren't going too far, and fill when we get there. Nice transparent clean water!

Incidentally.... Do you know how to make holy water?

Boil the Hell out if it!

We are going away last week March. Will probably put fresh water in a day or two before, as part of getting ready. Probably only half a tank, and fill up when we get there. What we will do when we get back will depend on the weather. If it looks like overnight temp of 2 or 3 I will drain fresh tank and boiler.