Fresh Tank Filling on City Water

[avarusbrightfyr]

Hello all,

I'm new to this forum and wanted to start by saying hello and I'm glad to be here!

I've been living in my travel trailer for nearly a year now in a trailer/RV park and haven't really been able to use it for the "recreational" part because I don't have a truck yet. Because of that, I've been on city water exclusively since I've had the trailer. A few days ago, I wanted to make sure everything on the boondocking side of things still worked, so I switched over to the RV side on the water selector and filled the tank and ran water through the pump to test things out. Everything seemed to work fine, so I emptied the tank and switch back over to city water.

However, now my fresh tank is continuing to be slowly filled while city water is selected. The rate of fill is much higher when RV is selected and much lower when on city water, so my assumption is that the selector valve is not sealing properly, but I'd like to get some input from more experienced RVers to make sure I'm not oversimplifying. I've read some things about faulty backflow preventers on the pump causing the fresh tank to fill, so I don't want to discount that just because it hasn't been used much at all.

Any input would be much appreciated!

[avarusbrightfyr]

So as a temporary fix, I decided to adjust the plumbing to bypass the tank select valve completely so that way whatever is causing the problem is also bypassed and the city water won't leak into the tank. Turned out to be way harder than I thought. The factory setup had permanently affixed connections to most of the fittings in that area, which makes absolutely no sense to me, but whatever. I'm going to order parts to make all the connections in that area screw on connectors so I can easily pull out parts for cleaning, o-ring replacement, and whatever else might be needed. If the pump still has issues after that, which I'm sure it will because of that one screw, I'll replace it as well and see if that rectifies the issue. At the end of the day, though, I just don't want water leaking out of my trailer.

[Second_Chance]

Old-Biscuit wrote:
FILL Valve....leaking thru

This... again...

Rob

[Old-Biscuit]

FILL Valve....leaking thru

[LadyRVer]

My last travel trailer did that and it was the check valve in the pump. The dealer ended up installing a turn-off valve so the city water would not run into the fresh water tank. Fine, except when you wanted to fill the fresh water tank, you had to turn that newly installed valve on. But, it did fix the problem.. for the time being.

[ScottG]

Second Chance wrote:

ScottG wrote:

avarusbrightfyre wrote:
Ok, so I was poking around in my water intake area trying to figure out getting the valve out, and now I'm noticing that my water pump is kicking on every few seconds for like a 1 second burst, which I assume means it's losing pressure somewhere?

Yes, it's leaking backwards into the tank. Do as I posted earlier or I guess just learn to live with it.

Don't think so. When there's an O-ring problem, the lines don't get up to pressure to shut the pump off - it just keeps pumping water back into the tank.

Rob

Not sure what O-rings your talking about but the issue the OP is experiencing is related to the diaphram area. I have fixed three different pumps that failed in this way just by cleaning.

OP, Since cleaning it didn't help and one of the screws is stripped and keeping that diaphragm from sealing internally, the pump needs to be replaced. Or you can install a manual valve before the pump but you risk the pump developing an external leak in the future.

[Second_Chance]

ScottG wrote:

avarusbrightfyre wrote:
Ok, so I was poking around in my water intake area trying to figure out getting the valve out, and now I'm noticing that my water pump is kicking on every few seconds for like a 1 second burst, which I assume means it's losing pressure somewhere?

Yes, it's leaking backwards into the tank. Do as I posted earlier or I guess just learn to live with it.

Don't think so. When there's an O-ring problem, the lines don't get up to pressure to shut the pump off - it just keeps pumping water back into the tank.

Rob

[Lwiddis]

Bucky, and if upon arrival no water is available? I never leave home or a campground without a full fresh water tank if available. If a TV and/or TT can’t handle the weight, someone bought the wrong TV and/or TT. Lots of beautiful DRY campgrounds in the West.

[avarusbrightfyr]

ScottG wrote:

avarusbrightfyre wrote:
Ok, so I was poking around in my water intake area trying to figure out getting the valve out, and now I'm noticing that my water pump is kicking on every few seconds for like a 1 second burst, which I assume means it's losing pressure somewhere?

Yes, it's leaking backwards into the tank. Do as I posted earlier or I guess just learn to live with it.

I took the pump apart as suggested, rinsed everything out and then put it back together. Still has the same problem. I did notice that one of the screw threads is stripped so one of them isn't tightening down. It's one of the middle ones, so I don't know how much that would affect the seal.

[ScottG]

avarusbrightfyre wrote:
Ok, so I was poking around in my water intake area trying to figure out getting the valve out, and now I'm noticing that my water pump is kicking on every few seconds for like a 1 second burst, which I assume means it's losing pressure somewhere?

Yes, it's leaking backwards into the tank. Do as I posted earlier or I guess just learn to live with it.

[avarusbrightfyr]

Ok, so I was poking around in my water intake area trying to figure out getting the valve out, and now I'm noticing that my water pump is kicking on every few seconds for like a 1 second burst, which I assume means it's losing pressure somewhere?

[bucky]

I always fill the fresh tank upon arrival. It only took once to learn that lesson when the park shut the water off to fix a leak or whatever. The older the park the higher the chances.

[All_I_could_aff]

Report back with the outcome

[Lwiddis]

Did you sanitize the fresh water tank after filling but before running its water through your water lines?

[avarusbrightfyr]

Second Chance wrote:

Old-Biscuit wrote:
FILL valve.....if swapped from City To FILL with water supply on the o-rings in the FILL Vlave can get disloadged.....LEAK thru filling fresh water tank

I haven't used City Water connection since 2008
Always fill tank and use the pump
Consistant pressure/flow PLUS if pump short cycles you know you have a leak
(City water just continues to run until RV is flooded by unknow leak)

Using the fresh water tank/pump isn't just for boondocking!


Course with FILL Valve leaking thru the PUMP may continue to RUN because system pressure not high enough to shut pump off
Water from pump 'round-robin' thru Fill valve---low pressure depending on how bad FILL Valve leaks thru

It sounds like what Old-Biscuit is saying about the O-rings is what has happened. It's important to turn off the city water and depressurize the system by opening a faucet before turning your water selector valve. Not doing this is a common cause for losing an O-ring. Sounds like you'll need to disassemble the valve and replace one or more O-rings.

Rob

I believe that might be what happened. As I stated, I'm not used to using the tank side of things, so I think I probably just switched the source, turned on the pump, and started running water. I'll check the O-rings in the three way valve and see if any are missing.

Thanks for the advice!

[Johno02]

Discussed the water with a tech from our local water dept. He told me not to worry too much about water in the tank, just empty it and refill with city water every month or two, as the clorine content in the city water here is plenty high to sanitize the tank and plumbing. So I just leave about half tank of water. then flush occasionally. usually empty and refil before leaving for trips. Another trick, when showering, when connected to shore water, if you turn the pump on, it gives much better pressure in the shower.