accumulator

[sluggo68]

I was wondering what a water accumulator is, and what does it do and how does it work.

[BurbMan]

One of the first mods I made, see thread here. Scroll down a little there are a lot of pictures on that thread.

The hoses attached the pump do the most to quiet the pump...they absorb the shock of the pump pulses so the hard pex piping doesn't bang against the walls.

I bought my accumulator tank online but you can find them at Lowe's cheaper than the PPL link above. The tank just plumbs into the pump output line with a Tee fitting and stores a volume of pressurized water to maintain pressure in the water system without the pump running. So the pump doesn't run every time you flush or open a faucet. I can use a fair amount of water before the pump turns on, then it runs for a while to rebuild pressure in the tank. If you install one be sure to put a valve ahead of it so you can bypass it for winterizing.

[wmoses]

sluggo68 wrote:
So where do you place these and are they hard to install? does this work better then the stainless steel hoses to silence the water pump?

They are installed typically next to the water pump and they are not hard at all to install. They work better than any hoses at spending the pump because the two work differently. Read the post above your last post to see what the tank does.

[ksg5000]

I took most of the noise out of my water pump by 1) placing a few old rubber mouse pads under the pump, 2) purchasing a Shurflo pump silence kit and 3) putting padding between the existing stiff water lines and the body of the RV (dampen any vibration). Reduced the noise enough that I didn't need to purchase an accumulator.

[sluggo68]

So where do you place these and are they hard to install? does this work better then the stainless steel hoses to silence the water pump?

[opnspaces]

It adds a pressurized reservoir of water into the water system. This can smooth out pump pulsations. It also allow someone to flush a toilet at night without the water pump coming on.

[TucsonJim]

Water Accumulator