Draining down your holiday home
A winter drain down is key to protecting your caravan holiday home during the winter months when you won’t be using it. It isn’t something that should only done when the park closes. It’s also important to consider a mini-drain down before you go home (from the start of October onwards) when the park remains open and whilst you are still planning to use the caravan holiday home. This also applies when the park re-opens the following year during the colder months.
This is a simple routine that avoids your caravan holiday home pipes freezing and becoming damaged, consequently flooding your caravan holiday home when it thaws.
Our suggested routine
- Turn off the water supply at the grey/white tap under your holiday home. This is generally found under the blue flag or black plastic ‘water’ cover.
- Open all of the 1/4 turn or brass drain-off valves.
- Turn on, and leave on, all your taps (hot and cold) and your shower, and flush your toilets to empty the cistern.
- If possible, take off the shower head and pipe to make sure you’ve got all the water out.
- To prevent any remaining water, which you may not have seen or thought about, freezing, pour non-toxic antifreeze down the toilet and the plugholes. You’ll need a specific antifreeze designed for caravans, which is available to purchase from our park reception.
Check your insurance
It is also important to check your insurance documents as most policies don’t cover water damage during certain periods. This is most likely during the winter months where owners have not adhered to winter precautions. Compass have put together a handy guide for draining down and you can find that here.
We offer the service of carrying out a full drain down on your holiday home when you are closing up for the winter. We provide a number of dates to carry out this process, based on when you think your last visit for the season will be. If you choose to take up this service, we guarantee any damage that is caused when we ‘fire up’ your caravan in Spring, or for your first visit. We’re fairly confident there won’t be any.
Be sure to check our ‘preparing your holiday home for winter’ post that will give you advice on how to prepare the inside and outside of your holiday home for the wetter and wilder months.
Don’t hesitate to ask our team about the process or why it is so important.
