Nemo667 wrote: Jim - Is the problem that the pump is too loud? Or is there a water surging problem? We found that the stock pump is ok after you find and isolate the vibration caused by the pump when it is running. Ours is now quiet and delivers water just fine without an accumulator or soft lines coming off the pump and we were considering both including remounting the pump to another location before we did that. I don't know how loud your pump is, but ours could summon the dead...
Ben
What did you do to isolate? I'm not sure what else I can do to isolate the sound. It's on rubber mounts, it's got soft hoses attaching it to the rest of the lines, and it's stuffed done in the basement. It just sounds like it hammers when it turn on.
As well, the pump has a leak, and my wife wants more pressure anyway.
Jim
Mine was rubber mounted to plywood that was not very solid. So we started out by bracing that. We used Armatex and tie wraps to isolate the lines that were vibrating on the fiberglass under the sink. ...Basically we followed the noise, vibration, and line hammers around and isolated each one until it got quiet. It took several tries...
Ben
2007 F-350 SRW 6.0L Auto CC SB 4X4
2006 Outfitter Apex 8, 220W Solar and 3 AGM's
Half baked idea...
In an RV, since you already have a closed system to work with, why not use air pressure to put the water under pressure.
Here's what I'm thinking. Basically the fresh water inlet (and the overflow tube) would have a valve on it so you could make it air tight when you're not filling. You put an air fitting in the top of the tank, and set a regulator to keep about 30 psi on it all the time.
When you open up a faucet, the air pressure will force water through the pipes with 30psi. Instead of a water pump, you would have a small air pump.
Don't know for certain, but I suspect an ordinary RV tank could handle 30 psi. That's what it would get if you had city water pushing water in until it was full and the over flow hose was clogged. I wouldn't expect that to blow up the tank.
Just seems like a simpler approach, which would be darn near silent, and would not suffer from the sputtering that a typical water pump causes.
I'm with Reddog1 on this one. I've put in the Whisper pump, it is very quiet. I just put in a Watts Expansion tank in the coach. Got it a Home Depot, $35. Now my toilet really flushes great. I havn't taken a shower yet, but they saw it evens out the pressure & temp change.
Brain
If your pump is leaking or if you have a water leak anywhere your pump is loosing it's prime & that would be the cause of the hammering, when you flush or use a faucet. Your getting air in the lines & when the pump kicks in it's having to push the air out before primeing.
fuelhauler wrote: Brain
If your pump is leaking or if you have a water leak anywhere your pump is loosing it's prime & that would be the cause of the hammering, when you flush or use a faucet. Your getting air in the lines & when the pump kicks in it's having to push the air out before primeing.
If that were true, I would expect a constant use of the pump would sound different. That is not my experience.
If I leave the pump on, it will cycle on a for a few secs every 10-20 minutes, so I know there is a leak.
But, let's say someone is taking a shower and has the head turned mostly off. In that case, the pump cycles every 3 seconds or so. But, in both cases, the sound is the same.
Brian, I had my old camper do what you were saying, cycles every 10 to 20 mins...turned out to be the pressure relief on the hot tank not being seated and old...hard to discover as the hot water really never dripped out, it collected in the little well and evaporated. Not until I opened the heater hatch did I see the drip at the valve...new one fixed that...BTW check the anode too!. Capt PJ
JeffP...I think you have a good idea, but here's something to think about! On my old camper when I went around corners the water would sometimes come out the breather hole. So I bought a little cork to stop that. Now the other thing is my filler hose has a fitting that fit snugly but not air tight into the filler hole...makes it easy so don't need to hold it or keep water pressure down while foilling...but here's what happened...I filled as usually with the snug fit and forgot to remove the cork...Next thing I know my sweety is yelling something is wrong...what I yelled....I don't know the electrical boxed popped out of the hole it is screwed into...before I finished figureing it out I shut the water off as it was the only thing different occurring...then I investigated...the front of the step to the bed where the tank is located had bowed out. I went outside and checked the filler...I forgot the cork, so the city water pressure popped the tank and all its angles out of shape...what a messno leaks or cracks...had to take the whole step apart and get a board and use my legs to force the tank back into shape...it was empty...no way could I have done it full.
That is what city water pressure can do even without an airtight fit. So would the 30 psi work...maybe, maybe not!
If your only complaint is overnight flushes are too noisy you could just keep a water bottle in the bathroom. When I had a tent trailer with a porta potti I found the water bottle worked better than the built in bellows.
Happy Trails,
- Warren
Wife, 6 year old boy, 4 year old girl
01 Lance 961 (9'6 with slide out). TorkLift Frame Moutned tie downs, FastGuns, SuperHitch
05 Chevy DRW,LB,CC,4x4,8.1L gas, Alison
78 Toyota FJ40 w/'97 350 Chevy & auto. trans.
87 Honda TRX250R
pjay9 wrote: JeffP...I think you have a good idea, but ... I went outside and checked the filler...I forgot the cork, so the city water pressure popped the tank and all its angles out of shape...what a messno leaks or cracks...had to take the whole step apart and get a board and use my legs to force the tank back into shape...it was empty...no way could I have done it full.
That is what city water pressure can do even without an airtight fit. So would the 30 psi work...maybe, maybe not!
Something to think about! Capt PJ
Interesting! Yeah, guess one would have to engineer some supports to keep the flimsy tank from deforming excessively.
I was just thinking in terms of designing a system this way, not retrofitting your existing TC. Perhaps I should have added a disclaimer. "Don't try this at home".
On the original topic, just to summarize my experience trying to quiet the water system in the Class A that was between my first and my current TC...
1) fancy pumps are overrated
2) I borrowed a technique from Bluebird coaches (twenty years ago) and put two simple pumps in parallel. Works great to get good strong flow with very little hammering)
3) Best way to dampen noise is to put pumps and filter and small accumulator on an auxiliary board, and literally hang that board from two flexible mounts, rather than screwing any of it to the bulkhead.
4) Need flexible hoses for both input and output from the main plumbing to the board holding the pumps, etc.
5) You have to make your own flexible hose assemblies, as those available at HomeDespot/Lowes are always WAY too small inside diameter to work well.
6) Expect going in to this project that it will be fraught with problems and you will wish more than once that you had left it alone.
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