noisy water pump

[zac451]

Anybody know how to quiet down my water pump? When the pump comes on it rattles the plumbing (really loud), Thor told me they put in a cheaper pump and to fix it I would have to put in a better quality pump. Any ideas or should I just replace the pump with a better one.

[Bordercollie]

If the output hose/waterline contacts/rattles against anything, wrap it in soft foam rubber wherever it touches.

[Kit_Carson]

garyhaupt wrote:
Before doing that...and this comes from experience...check at the inlet of the pump to see if you have a screen/filter gizmo, coming off the line>>> to the pump. If so, remove and clean, then see if that makes a difference. If not..then yeah, a pump change. You do it yourself and the pump is along about $75 or so. Shure-Flow.


Gary Haupt

I bought my MH new in 2008. Just the other day I was getting it ready for first trip this year and thought about cleaning the strainer on the pump and the aerators on the faucets. I was surprised to find plastic shavings in the strainer. I am assuming they come from the factory when the tank was drilled for the fitting all hoses, etc. to it. Winnebago should have better quality control than that. My bad for not checking sooner.

[KristinU]

ron.dittmer wrote:

Old-Biscuit wrote:
You can also install a small accumulator tank in discharge line. That will minimize the pump cycling times which helps quiet it down.

I installed a 2 gallon accumulator and it really makes the RV water pressure more like a house. Water pressure is more consistent, especially beneficial when taking a shower. The pump cycles nicely, a much more friendly sound than the on/off groaning all the time.

Total investment was between $40 & $50. If you look close, the brass elbow to the left has the flex hose attached from behind. I also added a ball valve seen in the foreground, for an emergency just in case I had a catestrphic failure of some sort and needed to quickly cut off the supply from the fresh water tank. 5 years so far and the setup is still working great.

Ours looks a whole lot like this. We put a bypass valve in the line and remove the accumulator completely during the winter. Ours ia a 2 gallon from Lowes.

Also the note about bubble wrap of pipe insulation around the areas where the pex is threaded through cabinets and stuff is a good one - that helps a lot!

I remember being mortified the first night we dry camped with our TT surrounded by a lot of tenters, the whole thing was just so loud flushing the potty in the middle of the night! So this issue was one of the first mods we did on our TT. Since we had the bypass in place, we just took our accumulator tank with us when we traded the TT for our C and did the same install on the C.

[Old-Biscuit]

Tireman9

The accumulator pressure should be same as pump turn on pressure.
Standard RV pump has a 45 psi discharge pressure and turns on at 30 psi.
15 pound difference between ON and OFF

So in that case accumulator pressure would be 30 psi.

[mlts22]

Shurflo has a smaller accumulator tank that likely can fit more places than the larger two gallon ones. It may not hold as much water under pressure, but it will stop the short cycling and help somewhat with the noise.

Of course, there is the option of tossing the old water pump and going with a variable speed model.

[Tireman9]

ron.dittmer wrote:

SRT wrote:
Now you can hardly hear the pump inside the coach. If your pump doesn't have rubber feet use a computer mouse pad under the pump feet.

Agreed.

Before the pump and accumulator work, the noise was horrible. Heaven forbid someone flushed the toilet at night.

After the accumulator and related work, the pump turns on much less often and when it does, it's a quiet hummm, running longer to fill up the accumulator tank, ready to meet the next request. No more rapid fire moaning & groaning.

Our 2 gallon tank size seems ideal. I wonder if the little accumulator offers enough of a benefit.

I didn't want to invest in the expensive stainless tank that Camping World offers because beforehand I wasn't convinced of the benefits. Now that I have it, I wished I spent the money on it for the mounting features it offers, both the tank itself, and the mount for the pump on top. That further isolates vibration. The footprint in my storage compartment would have been smaller too.
Here is the stainless Camping World tank. I have found them on-line as cheap as $115. My tank next to it was $30-$40 at Home Depot.

Any advice on how to set the pressure in the tank?. My pump is lower than home pressure (50 psi max. Don't know what the trigger pressure is.)

[Gene_in_NE]

ron.dittmer wrote:

Gene in NE wrote:
I was going to put in an accumulator tank, but could not figure out an easy way to keep from filling the tank with RV antifreeze when winterizing.

When there is no water pressure, the tank is empty, regardless if orientation because it has a rubber bladder (like an inner tube) that remains pressurized....

Good answer Ron. Never gave it that much thought. I was associating the accumulator tank as being the same as the water heater. I forgot that after you pump the pink stuff in the pipes, if you open any one of the faucets the bladder will empty the tank for you.

zac451 - I had thought about a shut-off valve on the inlet of the tank, but space would start being a problem. Ron's answer enlightened me that the tank will not take on the pink stuff unless I run the pump for an extended time with all the faucets closed. I get by with about 1 gallon of pink stuff the way I have been doing it - would have to remember when the last faucet is running pink, shut off the pump. :B

[zac451]

Thanks again everyone I'm printing all these out and will get it working properly.

Thanks everyone
zac451

[ron_dittmer]

SRT wrote:
Now you can hardly hear the pump inside the coach. If your pump doesn't have rubber feet use a computer mouse pad under the pump feet.

Agreed.

Before the pump and accumulator work, the noise was horrible. Heaven forbid someone flushed the toilet at night.

After the accumulator and related work, the pump turns on much less often and when it does, it's a quiet hummm, running longer to fill up the accumulator tank, ready to meet the next request. No more rapid fire moaning & groaning.

Our 2 gallon tank size seems ideal. I wonder if the little accumulator offers enough of a benefit.

I didn't want to invest in the expensive stainless tank that Camping World offers because beforehand I wasn't convinced of the benefits. Now that I have it, I wished I spent the money on it for the mounting features it offers, both the tank itself, and the mount for the pump on top. That further isolates vibration. The footprint in my storage compartment would have been smaller too.
Here is the stainless Camping World tank. I have found them on-line as cheap as $115. My tank next to it was $30-$40 at Home Depot.

[SRT]

Old-Biscuit wrote:
Exactly....the pump discharge line should be a flex hose vs rigid pipe.
Also secure the piping so that is doesn't move around banging on inside of cabinet.

You can also install a small accumulator tank in discharge line. That will minimize the pump cycling times which helps quiet it down.

Pump should be mounted on rubber feet....if loose or too tight it will be nosier.

Added a circle of hose before and after water pump to help isolate the pump pulsations. Added a accumulator tank. Plus had rubber feet on the pump. Now you can hardly hear the pump inside the coach. If your pump doesn't have rubber feet use a computer mouse pad under the pump feet.

[ron_dittmer]

Gene in NE wrote:
I was going to put in an accumulator tank, but could not figure out an easy way to keep from filling the tank with RV antifreeze when winterizing.

When there is no water pressure, the tank is empty, regardless if orientation because it has a rubber bladder (like an inner tube) that remains pressurized. The rubber is seen tight against the screened opening of the tank at the fitting. There is no concern of water freezing inside. No plumbing pressure means no water, so don't worry about winterizing.

They recommend 10 to 20 psi in the tank when there is no pressure in the plumbing. The shrader valve is behind the 2" plastic dome on the opposite side of the fitting. In my picture above, it is that blue cap up top. It unscrews off the valve. In my case I access that valve by removing the bed platform. During installation, you need to consider access to the valve.

[zac451]

Gene in NE
Wonder if you can put a shut off for the accumulator tank to keep the anti freeze out of it.
zac451

[Gene_in_NE]

zac451 - I can get to my pump fairly easily. It is under the dinette seat. I turned on the pump and opened one of the faucets to a fast drip. Then got close to the pump to see where the noise was coming from. Most of it was from the flexible "pex" tubing vibrating against the wall of the RV. Some small bubble blister packing wrapped in the correct place made it reasonably quiet.

I was going to put in an accumulator tank, but could not figure out an easy way to keep from filling the tank with RV antifreeze when winterizing.

[Pauljdav]

You can make it quieter. You might even be able to make it quiet enough. I was able to make mine quiet enough with the kit and I also used pipe insulation to stop the rattling.

That being said I also will not shed a tear when this pump pukes and I have a valid reason to buy the much better one.

Paul