How I STOPPED a pulsating water flow...

[egarant]

Well let me first tell you what I had done over the past year to try and stop a pulsating water flow to the kitchen sink and bathroom sink. This pulsating also make the pipe rattle a bit making the whole water pump use a bit noisy.

I installed the Shurflo hose kit on both ends of my water pump.

I replaced a major 90 degree fitting that was 1 ft from the output of the water pump with a straight fitting.

I replaced my Shurflo 4008 water pump.

I had purged all the lines of any air.

What FINALLY dawned on me is that MAYBE the water restrictors in the faucet fixtures were too much for the water pump....

I had replaced the stock sink aerator with one that pulled down to get a different spray. I had noticed almost immediately that there wasn't enough pressure to allow the second spray pattern to stay, it always fell back to the default stream.

My little brain started to think.....I took off both of the faucet aerators and ran the fixtures.....no more pulsating!

I went to Home Depot and changed out the existing 1.5 gpm aerators for the max 2.2 gpm models. They work PERFECT!

I swear to god I did a little jig on the kitchen floor, who would of thought that the back pressure caused by the water restrictors, just like the elbows in the plumbing, would have such an effect.

I HIGHLY recommend trying this out, it worked for me!

Mr. E

[egarant]

Well I went ahead and put in an accumulator on top of already changing out the OEM faucet restrictors from 1.5 gpm to 2.2 gpm. I never had a puslating flow out of my shower head, so I looked up the specs and low and behold it is a 2.5 gpm restrictor....no problems there!

I mainly added the accumulator to see what effect it would have on giving me a stronger flush in my toilet which is the farthest distance away from the water pump.

WOW! Just like home! AND, you can almost NOT hear the water pump, seriously! Before I had to wait for the pump to ramp up to get a good flow to the bowl, not any more!

In the future, I will always do those three things to any RV in the future, no matter what.

1. Change out all the faucet restrictors to 2.2 gpm
2. Install the Shurflo pump silencing kit
3. Install an accumulator

I am one happy camper!

[Bobbo]

Mine has done fine through the Rocky Mountains. I don't know how high I went though. I did cross the continental divide a BUNCH of times.

[Slownsy]

I don't know what make er sise of tank u had. But the one I installed till worked fine true all the mountain passes.
Frank

[BruceMc]

I tried the accumulator tank route. Yep, it works well, when you are not changing altitudes significantly like we do here in the west. We live at 160 feet above sea level, but we travel upwards 10,000 ft. The air pressure is much thinner as you gain altitude, therefore the bladder in the tank expands and renders the purpose of the tank useless.

When we traded the fifth wheel in for the Class C, I decided not to install an expansion tank.

Here's a change I did to our current unit:



New pump and plumbing - it helped a lot. It still pulses, but it's much quieter.

[schwartzworld]

Aside from the faucet aerators, where else may theese restictors be? I'm having a bit of the same problem, mine is mostly just low pressure/flow. I'm wondering if these restrictors are part of the issue.

Thanks

[holstein13]

I'm assuming that these problems with noisy water pumps and pulsating water pumps only occur when you are boondocking, right?

My current RV and my previous two RVs has city water connections and when I was hooked up, I didn't run my water pump at all. No pump noise at all. Of course, sometimes the pressure at the park is pretty weak and it's preferable to run the water pump even if I'm hooked up.

[Bobbo]

goducks10 wrote:
Seems like it's a lot cheaper and way easier to switch flow restrictors IMO. Like it was mentioned above you'll use the same amount of water. It will just take less time to fill the coffee pot if that's what you're doing.

To me, the main benefit, in addition to no pulsation, is flushing the toilet all night without the pump coming on to wake up the other person. You can't do that by removing the restrictors.

[3oaks]

Whatever. When washing my hands, I couldn't care less about dribbling out of a high flow aerator. I guess I am not that fussy when I'm camping. And I don't get much pulsating because I have an accumulator installed. 😉

[Chris_Bryant]

3oaks wrote:

Chris Bryant wrote:
There are a lot of running water uses that are not filling something- like washing your hands. With a limited water supply, using an extra gallon per minute can add up.

Yes, but you don't have to open the water faucet to full flow. We just turn the faucet handle part way to restrict the flow to conserve water usage.

We'll agree to disagree. A dribble out of a high flow aerator is nowhere near as satisfying as full flow out of a low flow aerator, plus you will have the pulsating, so you will turn it up to avoid that- using more water. I wind up using more water simply to rinse. It's the same effect that the Oxygenics shower head has.

Plus, I'll guarantee that people with a high flow aerator will *always* use more than those without.

[FlatBroke]

Took every waster restrictor out of every camper I owned. Did all the pump hose and accumulator mods. Restrictors were the answer. Never had a problem with water conservation.

[3oaks]

Chris Bryant wrote:
There are a lot of running water uses that are not filling something- like washing your hands. With a limited water supply, using an extra gallon per minute can add up.

Yes, but you don't have to open the water faucet to full flow. We just turn the faucet handle part way to restrict the flow to conserve water usage.

[Chris_Bryant]

goducks10 wrote:
Seems like it's a lot cheaper and way easier to switch flow restrictors IMO. Like it was mentioned above you'll use the same amount of water. It will just take less time to fill the coffee pot if that's what you're doing.

There are a lot of running water uses that are not filling something- like washing your hands. With a limited water supply, using an extra gallon per minute can add up.

[goducks10]

Seems like it's a lot cheaper and way easier to switch flow restrictors IMO. Like it was mentioned above you'll use the same amount of water. It will just take less time to fill the coffee pot if that's what you're doing.

[Bobbo]

Chris Bryant wrote:

06Fargo wrote:

Dutch_12078 wrote:

egarant wrote:
In regards to installing an accumulator tank, I called Shurflo and a tech told me that the pump model 4008 did not require an accumulator tank and that it would be a waste of money.

The tech was wrong... If your 4008 was pulsating, an accumulator tank would stop it. The Revolution (4008) bypass pump is supposed to eliminate cycling/surging, but it doesn't always work as well as they claim, especially at low flow rates.

Roger this ^

x3- there is an adjustment for the bypass pressure- it is not always well adjusted. Proper adjustment, or simply adding an acumulator would be a fix. The tech really dropped the ball on this- that pump should not pulsate.

Another vote that the tech was wrong. But examine his phrasing. He said the pump did not "require" an accumulator. He is right. The pump will provide water without. It will probably pulsate, but you have water.

The accumulator tank, if you get a 2 gallon one like I did, has another benefit also. We make sure the accumulator tank is full when we go to bed. Then, our two 60+ year old bladders can send us to the toilet off and on all night, flushing every time, without the pump coming on even once to wake up the other person.