Draining a home run plumbing system

Started by bill2, January 05, 2011, 06:38:37 PM

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bill2

Hi. I am wondering if you can completely drain the water lines in a home run system. I am building a 1-1/2 story log cabin over an insulated crawl space. I put in a home run system with a Manabloc manifold in the middle of the first floor. There is 1 bathroom on the upper floor and the kitchen, utility room and 1 bathroom on the first floor. There is a tankless water heater on the first floor. I am camping out in the house while I finish it, but something has come up and I am going to have to leave for a several weeks. I would like to drain everything out and shut the house down including turning the heat off. It will get down to about 10deg. here at night. I cannot figure out how to completely drain everything because each first floor pex water line comes out of the manifold goes back down thru the crawl and up to it's fixture. Turning off the main line from the well and draining each fixture it seems to me still leaves water in the individual feed lines in the crawl. Does any one have any suggestions? Thanks.

MelFol

#1
I'm a newbie here and face the same problem in the future.   I plan to put in a PEX / Manabloc setup next summer.  For what I can't drain by gravity (I already have a ball valve installed down low for a drain line) my thought is to put a schrader valve (similar to a car tire valve stem) fitting high on the Manabloc on both hot and cold side.  Then, with only one Manabloc valve open at a time, open the fixture valve for that run and use air pressure to blow out the line. Then close that line and go to the next, etc.   I bought Wirsbo/Uponor PEX "A" which the ads say will rarely rupture from freeze even if some water does remain in the line.   For the drain traps folks who leave for the winter pour RV antifreeze down the sinks and toilet to provide protection for the traps.  
I'd be interested in what others do as well.  There might be a better way.


MountainDon

A schrader valve with a pipe thread on the other end can be bought from any place that sells air tank fittings. I've bought them at Napa. Use a compressor with a clamp on tire fitting.

PEX pipe/tubing will safely expand with water freezing into ice but fittings, faucets will not.

If you build it so water in low spots does not coincide with fittings, etc you should be okay if you then blow the lines clear.
Just because something has been done and has not failed, doesn't mean it is good design.