Water Pump Woes

[Leslie & Nick]

I had never used the on board water pump because we've never been "dry camping", having always used a "city water" connection. Anyway we are going dry camping tomorrow so I partially filled the 20 galllon water tank and decided to try the pump while the camper is set up in the driveway (first trip of the year). Well the pump came on when I hit the switch, but no water would come out of the faucets, as I kept the pump on for a few minutes. It was almost like the pump needed priming (?) I checked the Shurflo manual for possible ideas. In the troubleshooting section I found one point that mentioned an "air block" in the water heater creating a no flow condition. I drained the water heater and again opened the faucets in the trailer, then opened the bottom valves at the bottom rear of the trailer. I'm really not sure which of these things worked, but when I checked the inside of the trailer again, the kitchen and bathroom faucets were flowing. Didn't check the bathtub fixtures, as the tub is full of stuff I didn't want to get wet (or move out of the way). I thought I pass details of this "adventure" on, in case anyone else runs into a similar problem.
Nick

Nick

Sounds to me like the owners manual was correct on this one. I don't have any problems like this and hopefully you got your new pump primed and it will be ok forevermore. You should get water in the pump immediately, but to get flow or to get air out of the lines, you have to open a valve. If your hot water tank was drained (an excellent idea as it reduces weight and eliminates electrolosis corrosion of the tank when the tank is in storage), you will need to let the air out of it by opening a hot water valve. It holds 6 gallons, so it takes quite a while for the pump to fill it. Meantime, you will hear the hiss of air coming out of the open fauscet.

Have fun dry camping. That's nearly all I do.

[Bill]

Nick -

I discovered on our recent dry-camping trip that an empty water heater makes an excellent "accumulator" (i.e., pressure tank) for the water system.

When we arrived at the campground, we had very little fresh water in the storage tank, maybe 5 gallons. As a result, I didn't plan to fill the water heater. As we finished setting up, I turned on the pump, and it ran - and ran and ran and ran. I checked all the faucets and the valves beneath the TM - no water was flowing anywhere. So why was the pump running?

It finally occurred to me that it was trying to pump water into the empty (air-filled) water heater. But since I hadn't turned on any faucets, the air couldn't escape from the heater. What was really happening was that the pump was pushing a little water into the heater, thus compressing the air in the heater. Eventually the pump turned off, meaning that air pressure in the water heater had risen to the cutoff pressure of the pump. I turned off power to the pump - and we had smooth pressurized water, without the noisy pump, for the next two days!

Did that make sense?

The "air block" in the water heater, mentioned in the manual, is nothing more than the time it takes for the pump to fill the water heater. The water heater holds 6 gallons, so this can take a seemingly-long time, especially if you are listening to the throbbing pump and waiting anxiously for water to flow. If you have a hot-water faucet open, and air is coming out as Bob described, it will eventually get there. But while it is filling the heater, the pressure in the system is so low that water may not come out of the cold-water faucets. Patience is the key.

Bill

We had a similar problem. We had recently purchased our 2001, 3023 and had only camped with full hookup. We went out on a partial hookup and had no water pressure. Thank goodness for our 3 gallon portable jug. Anyway, when we got home, I called the manufacurer and they were very helpful. The tech there suggested that I take the unit apart and try and blow it out. If that didn't work a new pump was only $85. Well, sure enough it worked and has continued to work for the past six months. Good luck.