dedmiston wrote:
...we never use the pump when we have full hookups. I'd much rather use the silent water service from the camp. We've probably logged a few hundred nights with FHU and I've gone through a bunch of cheap pressure regulators, but we've never had a pressure related failure. I wouldn't hesitate to keep using a regulator and take advantage of the silent water hookup and give the pump a vacation of its own..
Good points as well. Only thing is, the water service from the campground in some cases isn't necessarily 'silent', either. On some RVs I've owned in the past, the city water inlet valve can make a buzzing noise whenever it lets water in.
I'm surprised you didn't mention the other good reason for using campground water service instead of the pump - Water pressuring fluctuating up/down when pump cycles on and off.
With just about every RV I've owned, if you run water continuously (like when taking a shower) with the pump, you will notice the water pressure frequently fluctuate a little every few seconds - goes up slightly when pump cycles on, pump cycles off, it goes down a little, then back up when pump cycles back on, etc. It is typically more consistent, not back and forth like that when hooked up to the campground water supply.
I know some people upgrade their water pumps to models that don't do this as much, or add an accumulator tank that helps with this also.
Anyway....I think this (using water pump vs campground water pressure) is one of those '6 one, half dozen the other' kind of discussions, and everyone will do it their own way, and neither one is necessarily right or wrong. :)