Water in the Winter

We wintered in our first Airstream for two full winters.  The first location we wintered had a heated post and the second location did not have a heated post.  They both had their challenges, but at least having a heated post helps tremendously.  Let me explain…..

Our firstwinter the campground had heated posts for your water.  We had a heated hose, but the spigot was notprotected/heated and it froze – solid. We had to take a blow dryer to get it to release.  Lesson learned.  How do you fix this???  Take a Lowes or Home Depot spackle bucket, ametal light clamp that contractors use and a bulb that is heated for yourreptilian pets.  Put the bucket over thepost, clamp the lamp under/inside the bucket with the heated bulb and turn iton.  The bucket will automatically tilt,no worries.  Your spigot will not freeze,thankfully.  You might have to replacethe bulb so I would highly recommend buying several of them.  The wind bangs the bucket around a bit.  You can weight the spackle bucket by tying itdown, but it will still bounce around a bit with the wind. 

Our secondwinter the campground did not have a heated post for the water.  It was more of a challenge, but we didalright with it.  We bought a big bluerecycling bucket at Lowes, with the same metal light clamp and several bulbsthat are heated.  We put a small hole inthe “bottom” of the recycling bucket so that it would fit over the top of thepost to stay put.  We clamped the lampunder/inside the recycling bucket with the heated bulb, remember to buy severalof the bulbs.  We took losemulch/dirt/stones and lightly secured the “top” edge of the recycling bucket tothe ground and turned the light on.  Ourpost never froze.  We did have a heatedwater hose.

Our biggestchallenge was keeping prying eyes out of our set-up.  Some would wait till we left and take a lookand broke several bulbs in the process. We would have gladly shown anyone our set-up if they had asked.  We were the only camper in the campgroundthat had running water the second winter. 

On a sidenote:  your heated hose is very heavy andwe used a standard hose bib (shown in the picture) that goes into the ground tohelp keep the heavy heated hose from putting too much stress on the side of theairstream water inlet connection.  Justour 02 cents. 

Stay warm and enjoy your water for the winter!!

Charlene (TIBS)