Water pump catastrophe

[delicagirl]

yet again i believed someone who said he knew what he was doing..... sighs....

After the winter my main tank water pump failed. i had not used the van for 6 months and did not realise that i should have been operating all the hab systems from time to time.

I had had a new pump fitted in ROI less than 2 years ago by a professional camper repair shop. If memory serves me they fitted the traditional one with a small cylindrical blue pump - similar to the type /www.leisureshopdirect.com/water/caravan-water-pump/reich-pumps - the submersible one.

this latest DIYer bodger has fitted a micro diaphragm pump to the outside of my water tank. it looks like this one www.amazon.co.uk/Vktech-Pressure-Diaphragm-Automatic-Switch/dp/B00EUW28JU and is about the same price he charged me for the pump.

He switched it on before i left his premises and it was very noisy but water came out of the kitchen and bathroom taps.

The first time i used it the noise was much louder and when checking in the bathroom i saw to my horror that water was being forced at high pressure up and out of the wall at the back of the toilet and pouring over the top of the toilet cistern and falling onto the floor of the shower. i could also hear water peeing out of a pipe somewhere behind the back wall behind the drop down sink.

This water is coming out of the underneath of the van at the back through a very small rubber drain pipe (which i had not discovered before) which is directly alongside the much larger grey-water waste pipe and is close to the bathroom. This small rubber drain pipe looks like the same diameter as my main tank overflow pipe but it is definitely not that because that is on the other side of the van..

Any helpful ideas please ?

i am speculating that the new pump is more heavily pressurised than the old one and the increase in pressure has forced open a pipe connector, or jubilee clip ...

Inevitably i am peed off - to say the least

Any helpful ideas please ? thank you

 

[Channa]

It sounds like a whale pump was fitted and your taps run off micro switches which is perfectly normal....It does sound like a pipe has blown or possibly a split cartridge in a shower mixer .....re fastening pipes correctly should sort it out

Channa

 

[Channa]

If you can post a picture where the water is appearing from better advice can be given...it is hard to tell without being able to see it be either a pipe or split cartridge to the mixer tap

Channa

 

[witzend]

yet again i believed someone who said he knew what he was doing..... sighs....

After the winter my main tank water pump failed.
Any helpful ideas please ? thank you

Could the reason your pump failed be frost damage and now these other leaks be caused by the same thing.

 

[harrow]

Could the reason your pump failed be frost damage and now these other leaks be caused by the same thing.

Agreed frost damage from last winter, the only way forward is to get to a repair place, get the repairs done and drain down properly next autumn.

I know that's not a popular answer, sorry.

 

[Fazerloz]

He still should have fitted a like for like pump for that particular system. Not a high pressure pump, rated at 0.8Mpa / 116psi / 8bar. without fitting a suitable pressure switch and adjusting it to reasonable pressure. It has more than likely blown the pipe joints now

 

[delicagirl]

It seems to me that your original pump was operated by switches in the taps. That is a better solution in my view, but a more complicated install.

The pump you have is a different sort: it has a pressure switch built in. This means that the pipes are kept pressurised all the time, with no need for switches in every tap and wires to every tap. It also means instant full pressure when you turn the taps on. And it is entirely legitimate to retrofit such a pump onto a switched system, whether the pump is switched on by the taps or not.

However, there are two snags with a pressure switched system. One is that the battery voltage will affect the pump's output pressure, so if the battery is low the pump may run on, and it ithe battery is high the pump may cycle on and off when a tap is running. But neither of these are show stoppers.

The real snag is that your pipes are pressurised all the time. In general, when a pressure switch is fitted, the advice is to turn the water pump off when the van is not in use, in case there is a leak. It sounds like you weren't aware of this.

I don't think it is fair to blame the person who fitted the pump for deficiencies in your plumbing. The pump he fitted was half the price of a Reich pump, but not necessarily a worse buy. Why have you needed another new pump after only two years? I get the feeling we are only hearing half the story.

When i posted originally on this thread i had forgotten that i had gone away in the van for 2 weeks last month.

So i dont know who else to blame hairydog, as the pump worked when i was away for 2 weeks, in the summer heat, and well past the cold winter, and it has worked fine until this person fitted a new external water pump.

I have no idea why i needed a new pump after such a short time.

My previous system was via an independent switch to the submersible water pump sited on my control panel. After switching on the pump, when i opened bathroom or kitchen taps the water immediately came out. I never kept the switch on unless i wanted water.

 

[edina]

The easy answer is go to a reputable dealer for your repair work, if you don't know enough about it to do it yourself, i.e, Chelston or Highbridge if you still live in Somerset.

 

[delicagirl]

Agreed frost damage from last winter, the only way forward is to get to a repair place, get the repairs done and drain down properly next autumn.

I know that's not a popular answer, sorry.

i had been thinking this was a reasonable statement - and then remembered i had taken the van out for a long trip last month. so i dont see how it can be frost damage.


i have found a local yorkshire man who runs a campsite and repair business and he will replace the pump and the kitchen tap in 4 weeks time for me and investigate the leak behind the bathroom wall.

 

[delicagirl]

The easy answer is go to a reputable dealer for your repair work, if you don't know enough about it to do it yourself, i.e, Chelston or Highbridge if you still live in Somerset.

Thank you ....... i know you're right..... sighs.......

Fortunately today i found Southfork at Martock - a campsite and repair shop run by a lovely yorkshire guy who seemed to know exactly what the problem was. He thinks it is because of the new pump and that the additional pressure caused by the new pump has forced the bathroom tap tails off and that is where the water is coming from. He agrees that fitting a similar submersible pump will be much better.

 

[delicagirl]

Does anyone have any experience of Southfork repairs in Martock in somerset please ?

 

[edina]

Submersible pumps are really a consumable item that often fail you are lucky as we have had them fail in as little as 3 months on a brand new van , my preference is definitely for a pressurised system as the pumps are normally better quality but more expensive.
Messing around with micro switches in taps that are renowned for failure is not my idea of fun .
Having pretty much lived in vans full time for over 10 years whichever type of pump we have there is always a spare , brand new Hymer but we still bought a spare before collecting the van .
Unfortunately the plumbing systems and pipe work in most vans is total rubbish and prone to leaks.

+ one, we also carry a spare pump

 

[delicagirl]

Submersible pumps are really a consumable item that often fail you are lucky as we have had them fail in as little as 3 months on a brand new van , my preference is definitely for a pressurised system as the pumps are normally better quality but more expensive.
Messing around with micro switches in taps that are renowned for failure is not my idea of fun .
Having pretty much lived in vans full time for over 10 years whichever type of pump we have there is always a spare , brand new Hymer but we still bought a spare before collecting the van .
Unfortunately the plumbing systems and pipe work in most vans is total rubbish and prone to leaks.

thank you. i carry a large bag of various spares, but now i have had to replace the pump twice in 3.5 years i am going to take your advice. i am also going to ask him to replace the taps while he has access to the tails in bathroom and kitchen. The kitchen tap looks 25 years old !!!

 

[yeoblade]

Does anyone have any experience of Southfork repairs in Martock in somerset please ?

I almost went there, then used a mobile dent repair man to respray the Fiberglas/damage I needed fixing.

I would definitely try them and being very local to you hopefully they will, see you as a potentially loyal customer and do you a good service.

 

[delicagirl]

I had to replace the pump on mine three years ago. It was the original and lasted 16 years. I replaced it with the same Reich dual pump (Hymer don't make pumps: they fit Reich ones)

The rather cheap pump you linked to would be entirely suitable (if noisy) provided that the pressure switch was adjusted to a suitable pressure. Perhaps he did t do that, or perhaps you had got away with loose connections by using a weaker pump. We can't tell without knowing what pressure your pump is set to.

The snag with that sort of pump is that they are not good at self priming so they need to be piped at the bottom of the tank. Bottom outlets are a possible leak point.

This is something i don't understand could you explain please. is the pressure switch an integral part of the new noisy pump, or an integral part of my van i have not come across before ? Thanks

 

[Fazerloz]

He fit the wrong kind of pump for her system. The hose will not have " fallen off " it will have been blown off . End of story.

 

[Asterix]

thank you. i carry a large bag of various spares, but now i have had to replace the pump twice in 3.5 years i am going to take your advice. i am also going to ask him to replace the taps while he has access to the tails in bathroom and kitchen. The kitchen tap looks 25 years old !!!

If there's nothing wrong with the taps then you might be better to leave them,replacing with new is usually replacing for lesser quality... the fact that they've lasted 25 years is a testament to that.

 

[delicagirl]

If there's nothing wrong with the taps then you might be better to leave them,replacing with new is usually replacing for lesser quality... the fact that they've lasted 25 years is a testament to that.

thank you.... my kitchen tap is a plastic mixer and has been very very wobbly at the base for a while and is also now leaking at the base since the new pump was fitted. It is a strange tap - with the mixer pipe in the middle and 2 vertical switches one on either side, but whenever i operate one switch the other one moves as well in exactly the same way. i think it needs replacing.

i looked at some new taps in the Martock repair shop camping shop yesterday and the guy was telling me some of these items have tripled in price this year. £54 for a VERY basic tap.

Since the repair man will need to check the underneath of the kitchen sink for leaks from the taps we can decide then if it is repairable or needs replacing i guess. Thanks

 

[delicagirl]

We don't know that is the case. It may be true, but it may not. Unless someone tests what pressure the pump is set to, we cannot tell.

I have had a pipe drop off the sink tap half way through the year. I suspect it had been loosened by frost, but it actually fell off in Summer, half way through a trip. However it was very easy to reach inside the cupboard under the sink and fix it on again, making sure the clip was tight this time.

With regards to the bathroom - it is not possible to do this without taking the sink off the wall in the bathroom. three people have felt under the kitchen sink and no one has found a loose tap pipe connection under the sink. Access to it is very difficult indeed.

how do you suggest the pressure in the new water pump is tested ?

 

[delicagirl]

hi everyone.... i got a submersible water pump fitted at "Southfork - martock camping" - my local camping site/camping repair garage yesterday in double quick time - and yes the pipes to the bathroom sink had been blown right off due to the wrong high pressure pump.


So if anyone wants a micro diaphragm pump DC12v 60w 0.8Mpa pressure, 5l flow - used once - they can have it for the price of the postage - but you will need to be double quick as i am off in a weeks time..... or collect from my home near Martock - address to follow by PM if you are interested.

The original guy has agreed to give me my money back... lets hope he does.