Water, water everywhere
Well, as the title suggests, we found water where we didn't really expect to. I was taking the skirts off of the old girl (trailer, not wife!) and I was working under the area just in the vicinity of the water heater. Momma was in the shower and I noticed water dripping under the edge of the trailer, just below the WH. I thought at first that the pressure relief valve was weeping or the drain plug was dripping a bit. Opened up the access panel and nope, bone dry in there. Crawled back under the RV and saw that an expose area above the coroplast was pretty wet. I opened up the access cubby to the back of the Atwood 10gal WH and sure enough the floor there, as well as the insulation between the floor and the coroplast was WET!!!. By now the WH had been in it's heating cycle for quite a few minutes and was approaching full pressure. In the light of the flashlight I finally saw it, water oozing out of the hot water outlet port of the WH. I grabbed the fitting and was able to tighten it by hand and then a bit more with some slip pliers. I could tell by the grunge and crusty buildup that the fitting had been leaking for a long time and I cursed at myself for not checking this out more frequently. Can hardly wait to get back home to Alberta and drop the underbelly to discover the extent of the damage done. SIGH!!!
Then my sweet Babboo mentioned to me that the lino in the toilet closet had a fairly large bubble forming from underneath. ****!!! more water problems, where in the @@##$%$%$%&&& is this coming from??? I checked all around the toilet and there were no leaks and the floor was dry. Then I remembered that we had a closet, right beside the toilet, that had a space for the washer/dryer that we didn't get with the RV. I pulled out the three utility drawers under the W/D area and sure enough, the floor had a fairly significant amount of water on it. In examining the fittings for the water supply to the W/D I could see that the cold water outlet was leaking from behind the black cap that was on the tap. At first I thought that the tap was somehow turned on, yet it was definitely in the closed position. I turned the black cap loose by one turn and the trickle became a flow. ****!!! Tightened the black cap as far as I could. Reversed the direction of the tap control and slightly opened the black cap again, only to have the previously mentioned flow become a geyser. ****!!! So then, clearly, this incredibly expensive .50 cent ball valve had failed for whatever reason. If not for the black cap on the outlet the ensuing flood would have been catastrophic. I couldn't really see any way to repair the existing stub of a fitting so I went into the basement plumbing, found the feed line going up to the W/D utility supply and installed a brand new, Home Hardware, Made by BOW Industries, $15.00 shark bite ball valve. No more water going onto the floor from the W/D water supply! YAY!!!
I got a chuckle out of the way the base shelf for the W/D was installed. See the hole in the front right corner? Why? The carry away pipe is in the back right corner. Ooooops, somebody musta put this shelf in upside down or just couldn't be bothered to reach in all the way to the back to hole saw the hole in. Oh well, QC has never been high on the list of most RV manufacturers.
Cheers!
Mike
Then my sweet Babboo mentioned to me that the lino in the toilet closet had a fairly large bubble forming from underneath. ****!!! more water problems, where in the @@##$%$%$%&&& is this coming from??? I checked all around the toilet and there were no leaks and the floor was dry. Then I remembered that we had a closet, right beside the toilet, that had a space for the washer/dryer that we didn't get with the RV. I pulled out the three utility drawers under the W/D area and sure enough, the floor had a fairly significant amount of water on it. In examining the fittings for the water supply to the W/D I could see that the cold water outlet was leaking from behind the black cap that was on the tap. At first I thought that the tap was somehow turned on, yet it was definitely in the closed position. I turned the black cap loose by one turn and the trickle became a flow. ****!!! Tightened the black cap as far as I could. Reversed the direction of the tap control and slightly opened the black cap again, only to have the previously mentioned flow become a geyser. ****!!! So then, clearly, this incredibly expensive .50 cent ball valve had failed for whatever reason. If not for the black cap on the outlet the ensuing flood would have been catastrophic. I couldn't really see any way to repair the existing stub of a fitting so I went into the basement plumbing, found the feed line going up to the W/D utility supply and installed a brand new, Home Hardware, Made by BOW Industries, $15.00 shark bite ball valve. No more water going onto the floor from the W/D water supply! YAY!!!
I got a chuckle out of the way the base shelf for the W/D was installed. See the hole in the front right corner? Why? The carry away pipe is in the back right corner. Ooooops, somebody musta put this shelf in upside down or just couldn't be bothered to reach in all the way to the back to hole saw the hole in. Oh well, QC has never been high on the list of most RV manufacturers.
Cheers!
Mike
