Pump Pressure Issues

[Bigmoss]

We picked up our 2015 Jayco 29 RLTS last Friday and brought it home. I have it setup on our cottage property right now with the fresh water tank full.

The first night I slept in it I notice every hour the pump would come on for a split second and then go off. Some times an hour in between sometimes shorter. In the morning I got up and checked every area I could think that would leak, kitchen and bathroom water supply lines, hot water heater, toilet, shower, outside shower, hot water tank frost plug and supply noting is leaking. In case it was a very slow leak I wrapped toilet paper around all the pex lines I could see in order to see if they got wet and they don't.

Does anyone have any other input of things I can check ? The unit is a year old if there was a slow leak where we cannot see it I assume it would be very wet by now somewhere ?

The other thing I find weird is my unit is a rear living floor plan. In the rear I have the two letter seats with a built in table between then. The left hand side of the table slides off and the water pump is in there along with the winterizing valves and the fresh water tank lines go in through there. The water pump is completely suspense in the air with water lines all around it. Not mounted to the floor as there are electrical boxes in there and not mounted on its side just floating mid air. It def came from the factory like this but just seems a strange way to mount it, maybe this is normal practice with this floor plan ?

Any advice on the pressure eak would be appreciated.

[MFL]

The pump on my previous FW did the same as you describe. It started doing this after several years of use. It was just losing a little pressure, and rebuilding about once an hour. I put a new pump in, problem solved.

I saved the old pump to have as a spare. I still use it to pump water into my fresh tank, from 6 gal water jugs, when I don't have water hookup available.

Jerry

[Old-Biscuit]

DutchmenSport wrote:
My water heater is VERY hot. Very hot! Love it though. In 3 years of owning my Outback, we've never run out of hot water for showers and dishes, and it's only a 6 gallon tank. The hotter the water, the more cold has to mix to take a comfortable shower. Maybe I should get a cooking thermometer and see how hot the water really is in my tank?

I think I can call my mystery, "SOLVED!"

Normal t-stat is set to OPEN at 140*F so yes the water is HOT
That is how mfg. extend the hot water use.

Glad to hear you found the leak.
A warp or two of teflon will elp and doesn't interfere with anode rod contact.

[Old-Biscuit]

Bigmoss wrote:
Well I fell better that most of you have the same issue and I did think the pump was mounted like that for noise now most of you have just confirmed it

Low point drains under RV
City water connection check valve
Pump internal check valve allowing water to leak back into fresh water tank

[azrving]

DutchmenSport wrote:
Well,I just checked mine again. I fired up the water heater (It was off all day), and crawled under the camper. It is not the low point drains. BUT, I did check the compartment (outside) where the water heater is, and there is hot water standing on the bottom, quite obvious I'm loosing some water there.

I suppose this would make sense, it's leaking from the anode rod drain hole as I usually drain the water heater after each trip and re-insert it. Maybe sometimes it's tighter than others. I never over tighten, and I don't use any kind of thread tape either. This would explain why sometimes the pump cycles more often than others.

So, to continue my investigation, I loosed the anode rode and re-tightened it and dried the puddle. I'll see if it gets wet again and am listening for the pump to cycle again. So far, I've not heard it go off again.

I suppose when I've checked the water heater outside compartment before, the water might have been so hot, it evaporated before I saw it.

In all reality, I think this IS my problem. Loosing water at the anode rod. Nothing to fret over, as long as it really is this simple, I can live with the pump cycling every now and then for that split second. This would also make sense why it does not cycle with the water heater off and water cold and there is no cycling going on, there is no pressure build up from the water heating up and expanding as water does when it heats. My water heater is VERY hot. Very hot! Love it though. In 3 years of owning my Outback, we've never run out of hot water for showers and dishes, and it's only a 6 gallon tank. The hotter the water, the more cold has to mix to take a comfortable shower. Maybe I should get a cooking thermometer and see how hot the water really is in my tank?

I think I can call my mystery, "SOLVED!"

So, in the RV world we would call that a good leak. A VERY GOOD leak since it's not destroying the interior. 🙂

[fj12ryder]

Is the water pump suspended by the water lines? I don't think I'd care for that, it might isolate the pump for noise and vibration purposes, but I wouldn't care for my pump hanging from the water lines. JMO anyway.

[azrving]

The good thing about actually getting it to stop doing it is that it's an early warning system. If you use it as is and it starts to cycle a little more and you get used to ignoring it and it now also has a leak maybe you could get some water damage.

Mine never turns on unless we use it. A buddy had this problem and it was a hose crimp. My last TT did it and ended up being the crimp right at the pump fitting. My sons TT had the same hose leak. None of them now pop on randomly. As long as it isn't damaging the rv I guess it's fine. If you just cap the outlet on the pump and cycle it you should be able to narrow it down.

[DutchmenSport]

Well,I just checked mine again. I fired up the water heater (It was off all day), and crawled under the camper. It is not the low point drains. BUT, I did check the compartment (outside) where the water heater is, and there is hot water standing on the bottom, quite obvious I'm loosing some water there.

I suppose this would make sense, it's leaking from the anode rod drain hole as I usually drain the water heater after each trip and re-insert it. Maybe sometimes it's tighter than others. I never over tighten, and I don't use any kind of thread tape either. This would explain why sometimes the pump cycles more often than others.

So, to continue my investigation, I loosed the anode rode and re-tightened it and dried the puddle. I'll see if it gets wet again and am listening for the pump to cycle again. So far, I've not heard it go off again.

I suppose when I've checked the water heater outside compartment before, the water might have been so hot, it evaporated before I saw it.

In all reality, I think this IS my problem. Loosing water at the anode rod. Nothing to fret over, as long as it really is this simple, I can live with the pump cycling every now and then for that split second. This would also make sense why it does not cycle with the water heater off and water cold and there is no cycling going on, there is no pressure build up from the water heating up and expanding as water does when it heats. My water heater is VERY hot. Very hot! Love it though. In 3 years of owning my Outback, we've never run out of hot water for showers and dishes, and it's only a 6 gallon tank. The hotter the water, the more cold has to mix to take a comfortable shower. Maybe I should get a cooking thermometer and see how hot the water really is in my tank?

I think I can call my mystery, "SOLVED!"

[Allworth]

Since you can't find a leak I would suspect the check valve that is internal to the pump is allowing a slight leak back into the tank. I don't think it is worth loosing a lot of sleep over! (HA HA Sometimes I'm such a wordsmith that I can hardly stand me.)

Seriously, you could tear the pump down and clean everything good but it probably isn't worth the effort.

[Bigmoss]

Well I fell better that most of you have the same issue and I did think the pump was mounted like that for noise now most of you have just confirmed it

[DutchmenSport]

I'm experiencing the same thing (almost) only when the water heater is hot. See my post and possible solutions here. Click here. FYI, I've not figure it out yet. Now that I'm off work, I'll be checking those low point drains in a few minutes.

[garyp4951]

Mine is just like that, and it made it easy to get to when it was replaced.

[azrving]

It could have a very small leak or internal pump leakage. Maybe they suspended it for noise control. Cap the pump outlet and see if it stops. If it does, you have a leak. If it keeps doing it may be the pump.

[Njmurvin]

Mine does the same thing. I just ignore it.

[agesilaus]

I wouldn't be sure that it is an external leak, it could just be a small amount of leakage back thru a check valve. Just turn the pump off at night. Lots of people turn it on when you need water and off when you don't.

The odd mounting might be a vibration isolation method to keep the pump from vibrating the RV when it runs.

BK