Tuesday 18 April 2017

To De-Winterize or Not?

This time of year one’s thoughts turn to all of the wonderful things you can do now that you are not living in a deep freeze (at least I do).

One of those things is to actually have running water in your taps and . . . shocker of all shockers . . . actually have a hot shower in . . . my own shower.

In order to do this, one needs to de-winterize. What that means is I need to get all of that special water-pipe-safe antifreeze out of the waterlines and get the freshwater system up and running.

It is always a start when my toilet actually springs to life and . . . you know flushes on its own the first time. (Other than the manual way of pouring water down the toilet.)

While it is warm enough to de-winterize there are a few things to consider. 

The first is where you plan to get fresh water from in the future. For me there is one place and that place doesn’t turn their water on until the first of June.

I have learned the hard way that just because I have de-winterized does not mean anything unless you can get fresh water to fill said fresh water tank with.

There is a place in my neighbourhood that does have an RV Dump station but their fresh water lines have been broken for a few years now with no sign of them fixing them anytime soon. 

The other thing to consider is if you wish to gamble on the weather. As we all know the weather at this time of year can be unpredictable and readily take a turn for the cold.

This is not a problem if you have winterized but if you have fresh water running through your pipes, it is because now you have to worry about pipes freezing and cracking said pipes. 

So, for me, mainly for the first reason I will wait to de-winterize until the May Long Weekend where I will also do my spring cleaning and other minor bits of maintenance.

While I don’t know if it makes sense for any of you to de-winterize yet, I can assure you that somewhere in the province of Alberta, it will snow on the May Long Weekend (it always does).

As always: Keep your head up, your attitude positive and keep moving forward!

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