Exterior White Water Line Leaking?

FL-JOE

Well-known member
There are two 6" to 8" pieces of white water line that come out under my living room slide (door side). On my 4006 model they come out of the underbelly pretty close to my blackstone propane hookup. One has a constant stream of water (pencil size or smaller) coming out. If I turned off the city water connection it will end up being only a drip coming out. It is clean cold water. Similar looking white lines, instead of pex, are going in and out of parts of my hot water heater.

For anyone with my model, or anyone with a late model that have a good working knowledge of these water heaters, could this be some type of overflow line? I have no idea how long it has been leaking.
 

chaplady

Well-known member
Does it lead up to refrigerator? Ice maker water supply line?Mine is tied in at kitchen sink cold water line with a shut off valve. I have a big horn model
 

jmarnell

Well-known member
On our 4005, the white water lines protruding from the underbelly are overflow lines from the fresh water tank. One time we had an issue of water coming out of those lines. Turns out the o-rings had gone bad on our Anderson 4-Way valve in the UDC. When we had it set to city water, it was leaking and allowing water to flow into the fresh water tank, filling it up until it overflowed. Sounds like a similar problem to yours, since the stream of water really slows when you cut off the city water flow. I replaced the cartridge on the Anderson valve and the problem stopped. Later, I replaced the entire Anderson 4-way valve with the newer all brass version that is much more reliable.
 

LBR

Well-known member
Either your Anderson valve in the UDC is bad and leaking internally, or the check valve in your water pump is leaking. Figure out which of the 2, then proceed to fix the problem item.
 

FL-JOE

Well-known member
Thanks for quick posts. I’m certain it has nothing to do with my LG ice maker. I have pulled it to hook those lines up after discovering the factory did it backwards. No white lines there.

The Anderson valve could be suspect even though my unit is only about 14 months old. We are FTers and 90% of the time leave the valve on “city”, even when traveling. It makes sense that not exercising it could lead to issues.

Partially loaded and hitting the road in a couple days but at least I know a couple things to investigate. Thanks again!
 

FL-JOE

Well-known member
Checked a couple information videos online reference the plastic Anderson valves. The information on these said you need to shut the city water off to relieve pressure when switching from one setting to the next or you will blow the 0 rings out. I have never done this with any of my 5 RVs over the years. Are they making them these valves that cheap now?
 

david-steph2018

Well-known member
Since your rig is 14 months old, I would think that the Anderson valve is the brass valve. Not sure they started installing the replacements in the new rigs.
In 2019 during the National rally the rep from Anderson was talking about the rebuilt and the supply chain. I ordered a replacement at that time, and it took 8 weeks before we received it.
Mine has leaked by a couple of times and I still have not replaced it yet with my spare. What I do is I turn the water off, relieve the pressure then slowly rotate the handle 3-4 times, sometimes this will allow the O-rings to reset itself. So far this has worked, but I do have my replacement when needed.

When/if you get into it, let us know if it was the plastic or the brass valve was installed, if you would.
 

FL-JOE

Well-known member
I had went out this morning to do EXACTLY what you had done in an attempt to re-seat those 0 rings. It has now been over an hour switched back to “city” water and no running water from fresh tank overflow! Looks like it is fixed temporarily anyway.

Thanks for the info you posted, even though I didn’t read it in time it was spot on for sure.

We will spend about 8 days on the road before an extended break. While we are stationary for awhile I will get into it and order replacement.

Thanks again for all the help guys!
 

LBR

Well-known member
Checked a couple information videos online reference the plastic Anderson valves. The information on these said you need to shut the city water off to relieve pressure when switching from one setting to the next or you will blow the 0 rings out. I have never done this with any of my 5 RVs over the years. Are they making them these valves that cheap now?

One should ALWAYS relieve the water pressure before turning the valve...this includes your comment of killing city water and also includes shutting water pump off if boondocking. Neither of these will help much until you **open a faucet and relieve all pressure on the coach side also.**

I've replace our Anderson cartridge once 3 years ago with a new one. The old one had a ripped O-ring as I suspect yours does. First ascertain it is indeed that valve and not your water pump check valve. If the Anderson, your choice are:

1) Pull the cartridge and verify a bad O-ring.... source out a replacement one.

2)Attempt to locate a dealer that MAY have an old OEM cartridge in stock as ABCO has reportedly quite manufacturing them in favor of their newer brass valves.

3) Buy a new brass valve as I did.

They state it is a 6 week wait, and ours took 5 weeks to ship with another week to arrive to my niece's in Oregon. Coordinating a shipment depot would be near impossible as we move around so often...we don't know where our next stop is, only where we've been, kind of boondocking...lol. We were 4 months away from our summer long-stay area in Oregon, so that was the safe place to ship to without it getting "lost in the mail".

We are FT boondockers and a couple months ago, I filled our tank, then turned said valve to pressurize the trailer when done....pump just cavitated. Tried to remove the cartridge with no luck and was afraid if I did get it out, I would not be able to replace back so to use our pump to continue our 4 month journey back to Oregon.

Long story, but I still have to swap a couple hoses to refill our fresh tank, then swap them differently to have pump draw from tank in order to bypass the defunct Anderson valve.

Good luck with your endeavors.
 
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