Shutting off the water

[Hammerboy]

Just a curious question. How many of you turn your water off when it's not in use? Example, we camp a lot in state parks where we don't have city water. If we do a day trip we simply flip the switch off. I've heard of stories before of trailers getting flooded because of a plumbing failer of some sort. And we all know the build quality isn't getting any better.

Dan

[BCSnob]

We would forget to turn off the pump in our previous trailer. One day a fitting broke and the pump emptied 40gal onto the bathroom floor. We came in with water flowing into the floor heat vents and the carpet saturated. We managed to mop up most of the water and the dry out the carpet by the end of the weekend.

Earlier this spring we turned on the water pump to find the water heater had developed a slow leak overnight. Had we left the pump on overnight we would have had another wet floor.

[rockhillmanor]

Bobbo wrote:
When on the tank, the water pump is off if we are not actively using water.

When on shore water, the faucet outside of the RV is off if we leave the RV, but not while we are puttering around the trailer.

X10

[doc_brown]

Bobbo wrote:
When on the tank, the water pump is off if we are not actively using water.

When on shore water, the faucet outside of the RV is off if we leave the RV, but not while we are puttering around the trailer.

X2

[pasusan]

imgoin4it wrote:
Cannot believe the number of people who do not turn water off.

I can't believe it either. After reading on this forum how many people have had so much damage...

We have a note over our door that says "Water Off?" so that when we leave we make sure to turn it off, whether it's the city water or the pump.

[fj12ryder]

I don't necessarily think it's a bad idea, but we don't turn off the gas to the house, or disconnect the electricity when we leave for vacation either though.

I consider it a pretty low risk...risk. 🙂

[filrupmark]

I sometimes shut it off and all the time forget to turn it on when we return.

[down_home]

We haven't been turning ours off.
Last year on the road and water pump on a hose fitting on the toilet, a wrong installation finally broke and flooded bathroom. We had to replace the water pump, too. May have been the pump was still putting out pressure when the faucets were closed. A bad switch was the problem.
A few times we have turned off the water, when the campground pressure was 85 lbs or more. As our coach is getting older it would bee wise to turn it off, I suppose, every time.

[jnharley]

We turn the water and water heater off whenever we leave the RV. Our city water connection is always off as we only use our fresh water tank and pump. We will know if we have a water leak because the pump would activate. We also have water leak detectors anywhere there is a chance of water leaking like by the water heater, under the sink, etc.

[imgoin4it]

Cannot believe the number of people who do not turn water off. We turn off water on RV when we leave it. We do the same at sticks and bricks. We had toilet overflow whIle in coach. Never heard it until wife waded in water. Now have a water alarm in bath. Cost me a couple thousand dollars to fix floor and osb sub floor. Had friends who left pump on and left for the day. Pump came on and pumped 100 gallons of water into motor home. Ruined it. They replaced it. Have a neighbor leave for a weekend. Water line at his house broke under garage slab. Cost him to tear out floor fix pipe, fill and compact the sink hole snd replace concrete. Get a bunch of people in same room and ask how many have had a water leak in coach. while gone . You might be surprised. I'll continue to shut water off when I leave and I'll save my money for something other than repair damaged floors

[dwayneb236]

After having the icemaker line come loose on my trailer I always turn the water off when we leave. Thankfully we were in the trailer, just at bedtime when it happened but there was still quite a bit of water to take care of. Still ticks me off that a worker didn't take the time to just tighten up that little nut. Took me 5 seconds to do a job that he was paid to do. I always check it now when I hook up. No more leaks.

[mowermech]

I had a hose break once, in all the years I have owned and used RVs.
Some fool replaced the hose with clear vinyl tubing, the thin-wall kind with no reinforcement. On a hot day, it blew up like a balloon and then exploded. When I replaced it, I got the nylon reinforced vinyl, and it has lasted for years.
No, I don't turn the water off, nor do I turn the pump off. One incident in over 40 years does not justify such actions.
I don't turn the home water off, either. If I did that, the automatic waterer on the garden would not work, and DW's tomatoes and beans and strawberrys would suffer greatly.

[doxiemom11]

We have only shut our water off when we will be gone overnight. We usually have city water connection, but occasionally used the tank/pump at COE parks. We leave the pump on. How will you ever hear it cycling on and off (abnormally) when you are not using the water to know there is a problem?

[ctilsie242]

I don't have much faith in RV plumbing. Right now, for the very few times I do use hookups, I turn the water heater off and water via the valve. I also turn off the water pump if not connected.

Next rig, I plan to just use water to fill the FW tank, otherwise keep it disconnected. This way, a catastrophic leak means 20-30 gallons of water in the rig, as opposed to hundreds to thousands.

[Bobbo]

rhagfo wrote:

ScottG wrote:
I never shut it off.

X2,
I wonder if they shut off the water at the sticks and bricks when they leave on vacation?
Never turn off the propane or H2O.

I do since coming home from a camping trip to a toilet line that had burst. We were lucky, the bathroom has a slate floor, and apparently the slope of the house was perfect to just carry the water to the outside wall where it ran out with little damage.