How do we remove the screen from the city water inlet, so we can depress the anti-backflow valve in it so water can be purged and allow antifreeze to go through the valve of the city water inlet?
Last year was our first year with the MH and we bought it knowing that city water inlet was broken. We winterized it with the pink nontoxic antifreeze anyway (as we did throughout the MH), and were able to directly push the valve with a finger to get the antifreeze through – no screen in the way. We replaced it this year before the season started. The rest of the MH is safely winterized with pink antifreeze, but we can’t remove the screen on this replacement city water inlet.
We don’t have an air compressor to blow air through the valve and I think it would be safest with antifreeze in it anyway. We have a Class C: 1998 Winnebago Minnie, and live in Colorado, so we are going to have freezing temps, likely this weekend.
You can use a screwdriver, finger nail or most any other item to simply pop out the screen and it's attached rubber washer. Make sure you have released all of the pressure on the water system when you depress the valve or there's a pretty good chance it'll blow out it's OWN O ring and require replacement in order to seal the system again.
Not sure how you winterized the rest of the MH. I've never fooled with depressing the spring on the anti-backflow valve. After draining my TT's water system with the low point drains, I use a kit installed at my water pump, and hook up a clear plastic hose to lower into the antifreeze containers, close the valve to block off my fresh water tank, and then pump antifreeze through the system, one faucet at a time, until no left-over water, only pure antfreeze, is coming out. If you drained the water system before pumping antifreeze through the system, any water behind the anti-backflow valve at the city water connection should have drained out. Then when you pumped antifreeze into the system, it should have pumped antifreeze up to the valve. At least that's the way it's worked for me with our last 5 TTs. My city water connection has never frozen--yet. Do MHs have an extra valve somewhere that would prevent the water from draining out of the city water entrance line when the drains are opened?
2003 GMC Sierra Crew HD; 6.0L; Prodigy
2006 Thor Tundra 30RL-DSL; Reese Strait-Line & Dual-cam HP
2001 Honda Elite Scooter
Jim & Gayle Bryant
Murphy's Law: "Anything that CAN happen, WILL."
Bryant's Law: "31 years of RVing? Probably already HAS."
Thank you all so much for your timely and complete explanations. We evidently just needed to be a little more forceful with our extraction of the screen. A flat head screwdriver did the trick of popping out the screen and attached rubber washer, where our fingers had not. Letting the pressure off, we then depressed the valve a touch and could see the pink pretty much right away.
We had drained all the water thru the low point valves/drains, before the pumping the antifreeze throughout the system faucet by faucet. We really wanted to make sure by seeing with our eyes that antifreeze had risen all the way through the city water inlet to the point of running out so the valve itself didn't have water left inside to possibly freeze.
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