Just happened - super low water pressure in bathroom

[back2nature]

Water pressure was fine this morning when I woke up at 24 degrees outside. It's 66 degrees now, so things are warming up (3 p.m.). Hoses and outside faucet are wrapped. Then about 11 a.m. I noticed there was hardly any water when flushing the toilet. Kitchen sink is fine. Checked the shower and vanity sink faucet, they are super low too. So it's just the bathroom, not the kitchen. It's low for both the hot and cold water. Not really enough to take a shower in or flush. When using the water pump, pressure is great, but with pump off it's super low. Any thoughts on what it could be? Don't think it is a chill factor since it happened when it was warmer.

I took a flashlight and opened the wall in the basement and looked behind the UDC, nothing leaking, looks normal to me. No kinks. We've been in the same site for six months, so we haven't been moving. Also, I disconnected the outside hose from the UDC to check the flow, all is good, put it back on. I know people have been having problems with the check valve on the hot water heater, but this is the cold water too. We checked that last week and hubby said it was okay.

By the way, hubby is on a trip 3,000 miles away for the next 2 1/2 weeks. So I am on my own with this. I've done a bunch of plumbing in my stick house (change faucets, water hoses, traps), but I don't really want to change any valves or such down under and screw something up in the Rv, because I don't have other two bathrooms to use if there is a problem and Rvs just seem a bit more delicate (things break easier).

Thanks,

 

[danemayer]

Hi Laurie,

The city water and the output of the water pump are tied together with a tee pretty close to the pump. Given that everything is ok with the pump, it would seem the problem would be between the city water input in the UDC, and the tee near the water pump. But if there's a problem there, it's not obvious why you're getting city water to the kitchen.

I'd suggest tracing the city water in from the UDC to the tee near the pump. If you then follow the cold water downstream to where the kitchen line takes off, and also to where the bathroom lines take off, you might be able to localize the problem between those tees.

A bit mysterious, but maybe trying to localize it will shed light on the cause.

Good luck.

 

[TandT]

Laurie, is it possible that there is a leg behind the UDC (vinyl hose)that either iced up or is kinked?

I have had pressure regulators go bad and restrict flow, but since the kitchen is okay that is probably not the case. Trace

 

[back2nature]

Laurie, Is it possible that there a leg behind the UDC (vinyl hose)that either iced up or is kinked?

I have had pressure regulators go bad and restrict flow, but since the kitchen is okay that is probably not the case. Trace

The pressure regulator is at the post. And I did unhook the hose from the rv and ran the water from the faucet at the post and it worked great. Since we were anticipating colder weather, hubby moved the blue filter cartridge from the post to the inside of the UDC before he left.

The weird thing is the kitchen is normal. So problem has to be inside the rv. And probably not the blue filter.

 

[back2nature]

Hi Laurie,

The city water and the output of the water pump are tied together with a tee pretty close to the pump. Given that everything is ok with the pump, it would seem the problem would be between the city water input in the UDC, and the tee near the water pump. But if there's a problem there, it's not obvious why you're getting city water to the kitchen.

I'd suggest tracing the city water in from the UDC to the tee near the pump. If you then follow the cold water downstream to where the kitchen line takes off, and also to where the bathroom lines take off, you might be able to localize the problem between those tees.

A bit mysterious, but maybe trying to localize it will shed light on the cause.

Good luck.

Dan,

That's what I did with the flashlight. Luckily we have the black wall on Velcro. I looked behind the UDC to where city water comes in and followed the hoses. Followed where they teed. Didn't see anything unusual. We were in there just last week with the flashlight and hubby was pointing out to me just where everything was going. Saying "this goes here and that goes there". How funny. He always like to have my prepared when he leaves, because he knows I'm such a "Tim the Toolman".

I wondered if there was a chunk of ice in the bathroom line, but most of the day a 66 degrees, it shouldn't be, huh?

 

[danemayer]

Just a wild thought. Try opening the bathroom sink faucet and then also open the kitchen faucet. Also the reverse.


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[TandT]

I agree it should be thawed out if it froze last night.

I have a lot of heat behind my UDC if the furnace is running so I would think yours is the same.

If you have a small portable heater, or a clip on reflector type lamp, you could CAREFULLY position it behind the UDC for a while to see if it makes a difference. I kind of doubt that it will.

This is a real stumper. Sounds like there is a blockage of some kind in the bathroom leg.

Maybe we are being misled by the cold idea and something just worked loose and plugged up the line. Trace

 

[back2nature]

Just a wild thought. Try opening the bathroom sink faucet and then also open the kitchen faucet. Also the reverse.


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Okay, I did that. Let it run about 20 secs. for each way. Don't see any difference.

Been on the phone with hubby, he's at a loss as to what the problem is. Every time he came up with something, I said yeah, but the kitchen works fine.
Wondering if something, from somewhere, broke off and is restriction the flow? It's like the whole bathroom (hot and cold) is reduced to 1/4 of normal flow.

 

[cookie]

Laurie. sometimes the kitchen faucet may have smaller holes so that will require less pressure to produce a good spray.
Try and unscrew the shower head from the hose and check the pressure without the head.
You could also do the same with the kitchen faucet sprayer and compare the two flows.

Peace
Dave

 

[danemayer]

I'm wondering about the filter placement. If the filter is clogged, and the placement of the filter in the system allows an alternate path for city water to the kitchen, that might explain everything.

If it's a canister with disposable filter, you can probably remove the filter cartridge to see if the problem goes away. If not, a spare hose might allow you to bypass the filter altogether.

 

[TandT]

I know you are saying it is the hot and cold, but this sounds very similar to a problem I had in the bathroom.

My bathroom pressure was very bad.
When I was in the shower and I flushed the toilet or ran the sink, the water in the shower would come up very strong when the second source was shut off. It was forcing the check valve to open to where it should have been all along.
Don't know why, but it was effecting the cold side also.

It turned out that the check valve at the top of the water heater was bad. I replaced it with a plain 1/2" brass nipple, as a quick fix and I have had no other bad side effects from it, so I just left it that way. Water flow was much better after that.

FWIW, I also added a 50psi regulator. Trace

 

[back2nature]

Dave,

Thanks for the idea. So maybe the kitchen has the same flow as the bathroom, and the faucet makes it appear different? That would make more sense.

What I didn't do was remove the inline filter because I thought if the kitchen was okay then that wasn't the problem. But maybe it is. Tomorrow I will remove the filter and do some more testing. Meanwhile, tonight I will use the pump for my shower.

Thanks.

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[jhardin]

Just a suggestion, when you take your blue filter out look in the end of it and you will see a washer with a screen in it ( also in your water pressurer reducer also there is a screen). Be sure they are not stopped up or have some sediment in them. I isolated my water problem to the screen in blue filter and water pressure reducer when I had my water problem. Good Luck!

 

[TandT]

Laurie, Just curious, did you ever find the problem? Trace

 

[back2nature]

Hi Trace,

Yes. It was the the inline water filter. It just seem to plug up all at once. Dave got me thinking when he said that sometimes the kitchen faucet appears to have more really than it really does. Before that, I had ruled out the filter. But I removed it from the line and everything was good. Got a new one the next day and I'm good to go.

Thanks.

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