1. Winter Draindown 1-2-3 for your Dethleffs Vital Know-How Prevents Expensive Problems in Spring! :It is that ‘Motorhome Draindown’ time of year again!! Scotland is really cooling down. Unless you can leave your van with frost protection heating in…..here is what we have to do:
1. Empty the fresh water tank by unscrewing the big red screwcaps on the top of the tank (Usually under the bench seat), reaching in and pulling the plug out. Caravan owners also do the next couple of steps….
2. Next to the heater and water boiler there is a red button or blue butterfly. Push the red button down / turn the blue butterfly.
3. Open all your taps/shower on warm and FLUSH THE LOO (Many forget this bit). The taps will be spitting. When they have all spat their last drop, Leave the taps open and switch off your pump /or switch off your 12v at your door or dashboard control panel. This avoids droplets of water/ice splitting your taps at a cost of over £100 per tap.
4. Esprit and Globetrotter XLi also have two drain taps which are cunningly concealed, one under the kitchen next to the pump. Yellow flap flip upwards to drain. two just next to the wall in front of the water tank undo the ‘tap’.
5. 2017/2018 models have a new draindown blue circular handle/tap on the top of the fresh tank (A MAJOR IMPROVEMENT!!). This has three positions: Closed, 25% full, and Empty. Turn this fully to empty and it will drain the tank without the need to reach into the tank. (The 25% setting is really useful as a ‘quarter full for a weekend/ ‘Splash & Dash’).
6. If you need to use the main lights in the rear but don’t want the pump to be running, reach under the LHS front cab seat and take out the 12v ‘PUMPE’ fuse. Winter pack vans have a switch to do this.
With such tiny pipes and delicate plastic valves (taps) , as mentioned, if you don’t leave a thermostatic controlled heat source running in the van BEWARE of costly repair bills .