Broken Pipes and Parts from the Cold Weather!

While Denisa was already playing pickle ball just hours after we arrived, Mark was the responsible camper. He was de-winterizing the motor home after its 50+ days in the frigid north. It's harder to protect all of our pipes and water connections than some RVs. We have a washing machine in the back, with all its water lines. We also have our kitchen sink in a slide, so all the water pipes there have to be flexible enough to shift three feet when the slide is out. Shortly after we got set up, Mark noticed a puddle forming under the motor home, with water dripping from the frame. The cold weather had obviously damaged some of our water pipes.

It's a good thing that Mark is such a handy man, because diagnosing and getting this fixed could have cost us hundreds of dollars. It could have also left us homeless while our motor home waited in line at some RV dealer for repair. Denisa is so glad to have a husband that could recognize the problem, and more importantly found a way to fix it. It took unscrewing panels that led to the bowels of the plumbing, and then contorting into spaces to make the plumbing repairs. The cold weather caused the connection between the flexible pipe and the rigid pipe to fail. After buying plumber glue and working his magic, Mark squeezed a camera into the tight space to take a picture of the finished project. Denisa is glad to have him along for this adventure!

But the worst appliance to winterize is our residential refrigerator with its ice-maker water lines. Those water lines are right against an uninsulated wall. Two winters ago, Mark added a splice that allows him to drain this water line to make winterizing the ice-maker easier.

But the solenoid further down the line is almost impossible to get to, and the terrible cold caused it to break.

It was quite a job taking out all the screws and pulling out the refrigerator to get to the solenoid. After pricing the new part, Denisa was content to live without an ice-maker. But Mark found a better deal on-line and got it ordered. One good thing about staying in one campground for a while is that we have an address where we can get packages like an ice-maker solenoid.

Mark bent the metal on the back of the refrigerator in such a way that the solenoid would now be visible and more readily available. The next time we have to winterize, it can be removed to avoid breaking this plastic valve.

The saga continues, as the new solenoid isn't working correctly with our ice-maker. Another one is on the way, as Mark is still fighting the battle to get everything back in working order. During our long stay in Oklahoma, we were excited that we didn't get mice in the motor home like last time. But the cold weather pipe damage was more costly than the rodent damage. Just like us, our motor home definitely prefers warm weather!