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Water pump and drainage weirdness


stig

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Hey y'all, hope today is treating you well.

Just picked up a Sunrader yesterday and I'm stoked! She's in pretty good shape for being 32 years old. Right now I'm trying to troubleshoot some issues with the water pump and plumbing. 

When I turn the water pump on, it will run until it has built up pressure (I suppose?) and then stop. Then as soon as I turn the kitchen sink on it kicks on again. If that's normal, cool, but I really have no idea since this is my first RV of any kind. But what doesn't seem normal is that it will at times shut off and I get no flow out of the sink. I'll flip the switch to off again, wait a while, then turn it back on and it will work, with water coming out of the kitchen sink. 

The hot and cold  work on the kitchen sink, but only the hot on the bathroom sink and it doesn't seem like the shower works.

The folks I bought it from winterized it and I seem to have run most of the pink antifreeze out of the cold line, but not the hot line. I left the sink running on hot (not sure if the water was actually hot) and it was quite pink. I opened the door to the bathroom and saw some pink bubbles coming up from the shower drain, as shown in the picture below. 

Could it be that the black water tank is full? Or the gray water? I don't think I ran THAT much water through the lines.... 

Thanks for your help!

20180831_170048.jpg

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The water pump has a pressure switch. If the lines are pressurized "enough" it should shut off. You are seeing normal behavior if no taps are on and pump turns itself off. The pressure switch gathers crud over time causing abnormal behavior where pump doesnt come back on. Recycling power cause it to reset. Pressure switches can be cleaned by pump disassembly. 

Winterising can be taken too far to the point where lines can get clogged if not cleaned, they are only 3/8th. You should clean pipes any way.

Holding tanks are not large, can and will backflow. If they are white plastic you can look at empty/full by peeking underneath the truck. Shine a light. Black tank can be visually inspected by looking down the toilet hole too.

A dollar store bucket to collect water and controlled low pressure external water connection works best for cleaning lines. No point in needlessly filling the tanks with relatively clean water only to have to dump it.  Water a garden with the full bucket.

Remember, old lines can and will leak. Best to control water supply carefully until water lines are well inspected/cleaned. It doesnt take much moisture to get mold going in old wood.

Edited by neubie
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Awesome. Thank you so much! That all makes sense. I'll clean the pressure switch and inspect the pipes for clogging as well as empty the tanks and use the water bucket method you describe. 

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1 hour ago, stig said:

Awesome. Thank you so much! That all makes sense. I'll clean the pressure switch and inspect the pipes for clogging as well as empty the tanks and use the water bucket method you describe. 

the water bucket method is only good for cleaning water lines using a low regulated pressure house water line. You collect the output of the faucets in the water bucket instead of filling up the tanks.

If you have water in the holding tanks you have to dump properly at a dump station. Do not try to empty them elsewhere.

Cleaning the lines may solve your pump issue too. Disassembly requires empty freshwater tank and lines, disconnecting the pump, disassembly, reassembly, proper reconnection to prevent leaks. Not rocket science but not trivial. At least watch a youtube video of the process first.

Edited by neubie
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There is no air space in the water lines from the pump so it has nothing to push against but a tiny bit of space as soon as you open a tap the pump will come on no matter what the condition of the piping is. The pressure switch works fine if it shuts off after delivery there is no cleaning it, it is a sealed micro switch if it does not come back on then yes it's possible the switch has failed. The pumps are generally factory set in the 25 psi range. Hot water tanks  often have a water heater bypass system added as an option to make winterizing easier if there are two valves and extra piping near the back of the heater that is a bypass system some have 1 valve others have 2 make sure they are not turned off.

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In the old shureflo designs, the pressure switch comes off relatively easily and can be cleaned. If I recall right there is even an adjustment screw somewhere that changes how often the pump cycles, but not in a terribly useful way. If its a shureflo, replacing the switch isnt terribly hard either.  There should be youtube videos aplenty, its a relatively common problem.

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