water pump check valve

If I read this correctly, your by-pass valve also leaks. If that is the case and you switch to it and remained hook up to city water, water will leak through your by-pass valve also. So depending on the location of the by-pass valve hose you may end up with water in the belly of your RV.

You need to either replace the check valve in the pump or get a new pump.

The by pass valve is ok, but when it is closed and the pump is off, water is coming through the bypass valve hose. When it is open it goes into the fresh water tank and filling it up. So the pump check valve is broken, it should prevent water from backfilling.

Once your fresh water tank has filled (check the control panel or just wait till you see the overflow) try just turning off the city water and running your pump to pull water from the fresh water tank. Whenever the tank has reached empty, turn the pump off and re-open the city water inlet. See if it still is diverting to the fresh tank. Sometimes doing this a tank or two and the check valve will release itself.

If that doesn't work for you, changing out the pump is fairly easy. If you need a visual there are dozens of youtubes that show you how to do it. Once you locate the pump behind whatever partition (mine is behind the partition that's in the front storage bin) it's a simple plug and play of 2 or 3 wires.

If your trailer is still under warranty, the mfg may just send you a new pump for free (Forest River did that for me when I had your same problem)

Save yourself future aggravation and go ahead and get a new water pump. You can try to band-aid it, but you are just looking for more failure in the future. I replaced my pump that intermittently cycled when no water was running about 3 weeks ago. I messed around with the old one for almost 3 years trying to figure it out. Sometimes, you just need to go ahead and bite the bullet and "do it!" and get it over with.

I replaced the exact pump in my camper. Total cost was about $125 from my local dealership parts store. They had other models, that ran less than $50, but I wanted to keep the same identical pump. I'm one of those "crazies" that believe in keeping everything fixed with factory replacements. But you may be a bit more sensible, and opt for the less expensive one.

Either way, save the headaches and switch out the pump. It really is not difficult at all. It took me about 30 minutes to do it. The biggest problem I had was moving lines around a little, because I wanted to reposition the pump for a little easier winterizing access. I also added a longer winterizing hose and new clamps (part of that $125).

Thanks, I will just replace it.

balesfam wrote:
Thanks, I will just replace it.

Replace just due to check valve :H

Lot cheaper/easier to do as suggested by 'hbillsmith'

Use the pump. Check valves can leak due to lack of use.


Next cheap/easy fix----install a barbed in-line check valve on pump suction line ($15)


Then of course one could actually disassembly pump (4 screws in pump head) and CLEAN up the drive diaphragm assembly and the check valve diaphragm for just a LITTLE of your time.
Cheap/easy and you get to learn how pump works too.


Society is such a 'throw-away, disposable, remove/replace' culture :S

My pump is 11 yrs old and Still functions like new and is always used even when city water is available.
Turn it ON---use it

Rather than replace the pump I put a nice brass check valve in line that will far outlast the cheesy one in the pump. We full time and after the second check valve took a dive that was my solution. BTW, the first pump was replaced under warranty. Haven't had a problem since!

Brian

I agree that replacing the pump is not always the way to go. I had the same problem that did not go away for long even after replacing the pump. A check valve was what worked. I also did what the OP asked about. The winterization hose can be routed outside so the water leaking back through the pump can go outside on the ground and not in the tank.

huntram wrote:
Rather than replace the pump I put a nice brass check valve in line that will far outlast the cheesy one in the pump. We full time and after the second check valve took a dive that was my solution. BTW, the first pump was replaced under warranty. Haven't had a problem since!

Brian

Hey Brian, where did you get the nice brass check valve from?

Abn1SG wrote:

huntram wrote:
Rather than replace the pump I put a nice brass check valve in line that will far outlast the cheesy one in the pump. We full time and after the second check valve took a dive that was my solution. BTW, the first pump was replaced under warranty. Haven't had a problem since!

Brian

Hey Brian, where did you get the nice brass check valve from?

Picked it up at Home Depot for about $5.00 in April of 2015. Can't remember the part number or size now, Bill Gehr from Trailer Life and Motorhome Mag's is the one who gave me this fix and it has worked flawlessly since!

Brian