Water pump ideas.

[belfert]

Chaz, add an accumulator tank to help the issues with the pump turning on and off.  About $40 at major home improvement stores.

[steve5B]

     Chaz,

   There is some good info from  Fred Hobe, from "BUS CONVERSION CENTRAL, page 3.  He states that if you go to HD and look for a pump Flotec Model

  FPOF 300AC. It's 120 V  2 AMP draw, enough pressure as a home shower.  Hope this will be of some help!

 

   Steve 5B...

[Busted Knuckle]

when the pump comes on and off, so does the radio. I know we have discussed this before, I'm just not sure what to do yet. Think the second pump would hurt or help this?
Chaz

Might get ya a second channel !
  BK 

[Chaz]

Well, I finally have time to start putting a few things I bought on my bus: Pathmaker solenoid setup - Thanx Utah - and the second water pump.
  Here is a question for the water pump situation: Since I now have 2 identical water pumps, could I solve the "hot, cold, hot, cold, hot, cold shower situation, when the pump cycles, if I use one pump for hot and one for cold?? Just curious.
I know a couple of you have mentioned accumulator tanks but in interest of space saving and spending more "cake" I was just thinking of using the second pump. Do you see any problems with doing it that way? Or is there another way to rectify that issue using 2 pumps? I'm not against using the "tank", just that I was trying to use what I already have.

Thanx again,
   Chaz

[JackConrad]

Not quite sure how you would plumb the 2nd pump for hot water? The cold water supply going into the water heater is alreay pressurized by your "cold water" pump and I would not try pumping hot water through one of the RV water pumps.  "our way" is 2 water puimps connected in parallel suppling the entire system.  We normaly run 1 pump and turn on the 2nd pump when using the shower.  Works for us, YMMV.  Jack

[JohnEd]

Chaz,

I went back and read your original post.  You have a blockage somewhere or your pump is shot and needs rebuilt.  A single pump should do it and also should have more flow than your 50 year old.....  I recently put water in a system that has not been run in a while.  Both the kitchen and bath and shower are stopped up with tons of crap.  I think you have the same situation.

Look in the input to your pump.  There may be a screen in there and if so it will be plugged.

With the clean input line hooked up and the output disconnected, run the pump.  You should have enuf pressure and flow to shoot the water "over" the bus.  If not, take your pump apart and see if your check valves are plugged open.  The pump should build pressure quickly and you should have a hard time stopping the flow with your finger.  Secondly, you should get a couple gallons of flow per minute, min.  Try to blow thru the pump in the reverse direction and make sure the check is working.

If you check out the pump then go to the next faucet and turn on the cold.  It should flow at the same rate as the pump did.  If not, remove the little aerator from the faucet and try again.  Remove your shower head and back flush and soak it in CLR for a few minutes.  Make sure the toilet flow is equal to the faucet flow.  The junk that seems to materialize in the water system can come in some hefty chunks that can block anything.

I worry that you don't know positively that your pump is the culprit.  Don't install the extra pump anywhere other than in parallel to the original.  A separate pump in cold and hot is never done that I know of.

Good luck,

John

[Chaz]

I hate to "beat a dead horse" here, but I'm still contemplating putting my second pump in my bus and use it to pump water from the tank to the hot H20 heater. Does anyone know any specifics why this wouldn't work?? The hot, cold, hot, cold, thing is bugging me.
Now granted, I'm not the "slickest slide on the playground" but, it seems to me that if I would have the hot and cold equally pressurized, seperately, the hot would not be as affected. Giving the closest path for the water to flow - the path of least resistance -  to the cold water seems to by why I get the cycles of cold water. Does that make sense??
Like I said, "not the slickest slide on the playground" but it seems to make sense. BUT,  I don't really want to go to all the work of doing it if someone "knows" that it won't work. If not, I'm all about experimenting. 

Can ya help me out here?
    Chaz

[Just Dallas]

Removed

[JohnEd]

Chaz,

I don't think any are saying "you can't accomplish that".  They are arguing that it isn't needed and probably won't solve your problem as you seem to be trying to treat a symptom of a problem.  But, it will relieve some or all of the symptom and will not "hurt" anything and that is a "fix" to most people.

First: Install a tee at the input of your existing pump.  Second:  Remove and cap the input to your water heater.  Third: Connect the output of your added pump to your water heater input that you previously removed.  Fourth:  Connect the switched power source for your original single pump to both pumps.  If you have a small fuse in line with the power you should connected into the circuit "before" that fuse and the new pump should be appropriately fused.  You should measure the voltage at the pump when the pump is actuated and that reading should not be more than a volt less than the voltage at the battery.

Nice to see you back, Dallas.

Good luck with this, Chaz.  You aren't going to hurt anything and it is, in fact, an adventure.  I don't have an accumul;ator and I don't have your symptom.  D is rt, u hve a blkge in the hot line. (Don't read this part Dallas)

John

[Barn Owl]

John and Dallas have said it better than I. I have one pump and it works great. I have also had to clean the screens (Thought my pump was bad, but nope). The accumulator would probably fix your hot/cold problem.

[Marcus]

I got tired of the 12 volt pumps and not enough pressure, so i installed a 120 volt that runs off the inverter.No more issues. I also use a small pressure tank. I use a retricted shower head with shut-off button so as not to waste water. Marc

[belfert]

One advantage of the Flojet pump I have is the large filter housing with window so one can see if the screen is getting clogged.

[bevans6]

What I think will happen if you plumb the two pumps to feed cold and hot water separately is that the hot water tank will act as a sort of accumulator, and it's pump will cycle pressure out of synch with the cold water pump.  This will about garantee that you will varying mis-matched pressure at the shower head, and the mix will vary in temperature even worse than it does now.  I think that the reason the temperature varies now is that when the pump starts up and increases pressure, there is a lag through the hot side (greater volume in the tank, so cold water sees the pressure increase a bit before hot does.  What I am shopping for is a continuous flow variable speed pump that keeps constant pressure all the time, and that doesn't cycle.  I seem to recall reading that idea on the side of a pump box a little while ago.

My current pump cycles constantly, so I suspect a bad pressure switch, but it is also a bargain basement shurflow that doesn't have enough capacity, so rather than trying to fix it, I'm going to go for an upgrade. 

Brian

[Fred Mc]

I'm not making a recomendation but only giving my experience as we have a well system at home with an accumulator tank.

On our water system the accumulator tank has water in it (of course) but is also pressurized with air (some newer tanks have an air bladder that performs the same function).Therefore the pump doesn't come on every time you open a tap as the air pressure forces water out of the tank. The water pump only recharges the tank when the pressure drops below 40 psi. The tank is 50 gallons. When the tank has to be re-pressurized with air (approx. every year) the pump WILL come on every time you open a tap. This is hard on pumps and our deep well pump cost $800.

On our bus the pump activates every time you turn on a tap and it doesn't cycle on and off but rather runs continuously when a tap is on. I did install a 1 gallon accumulator tank at one time but it didn't seem to make any difference. It seems to me that for greater pressure the pumps should be installed in series but for greater flow should be installed parallel. Or perhaps split the pumps for hot and cold.

On a related note I have a Paloma hot water heater(no tank) which heats according to  water pressure. When I had a water saver shower head it just about drove us crazy(not to mention scalding/freezing us) until I figured out that the shower head reduced the flow thereby increasing the back pressure telling the water heater to shut off. This was fixed(after years of my wife cursing it)
 by removing the water saver restrictor.

Hope this helps.

Fred Mc.

[Len Silva]

Fred,

If you installed an accumulator and didn't notice any difference, I would suspect two things.

1.  The accumulator wasn't properly charged or

2.  The check valve has failed, causing the accumulated water to return to the tank.

I can go into my coach after it has been sitting for several weeks unused and get a couple of flushes or wash my hands without the pump even starting.