Water Pressure getting lower and lower over time.

[randes]

We have a 2008 Bighorn, model 3055RL.

Due to some surgery on both my wife and myself, we have been treading water since last Nov 14th here in the Tampa Bay area.

Over the past few months, we have noticed a significant drop in our water pressure. The inlet hose pressure is 40psi, but coming out any of the faucets, it looks like about 15psi. (The pressure here has always been around 40psi) It's getting hard to take a shower.

The first time we experienced anything like this was when our house water filter clogged up and had to be replaced. Since then I have kept the filter changed regularly. The most recent change was just several weeks ago with no noticeable change in water flow. So I don't feel that is the problem. All water entering the coach is filtered about 4' from where the outside hose screws on.

The park office said I am the only one complaining.

Anyone got any ideas what I should look for?

 

[branson4020]

Have you removed your water hose from the coach and checked the screen on your city water inlet?

 

[JohnDar]

Check the little aerator screens in the faucets in your rig, as well. You say you have a water filter on your coach, but what is the micron size and flow rating?

I had a similar problem towards the end of our first season at our seasonal site, even though the water is pretty good. I had my regulator upstream of the filter system I use and the screen in it became clogged by particulates in the CG water. Moved the regulator downstream of the filters and no more clogging. My filters are rated for 0.5 microns.

 

[Ray LeTourneau]

Ditto on the screen at the connection in the UDC.

Which brings up an interesting question. What if we put a screen at the hose end connected to the standpipe? Another problem I noticed is that if I use the cheap brass lookalike quick connects, they seem to cause more corrosion over time which adds to the junk collected on the screen. I've started using all brass and have had better luck.

 

[JohnDar]

I'm going to guess that anywhere you put a screen ahead of a good sediment filter, it's going to eventually clog up. Using something like a simple in-line filter (like the ice maker types) invites clogging at the input end of it, if it's the first restriction in the system. At least with a canister style sediment filter, it takes a while and you can see it change from white to whatever (usually reddish/rust) as it becomes clogged.

 

[cookie]

Are you using a good adjustable regulator? If you are using the Wal Mart variety, I would suggest a new one.

Peace
Dave

 

[Rickhansen]

Ditto on all of the above. Also, change your filters regularly regardless of how they look. The water in Florida is terribly hard with dissolved limestone. It settles out of the water and collects in the sediment filter without discoloring it.

 

[Invizatu]

Roy.... Ditto what Dave said. I went thru 2 of the Camco (wal-mart) regulators & had the same issues you are talking about. After reading suggestions on this forum, I bought a watts N55B w/gauge for $69.95 from www.rvwaterfilterstore.com . I also replaced my shower head with an inexpensive one from Lowes.
Wow, what a difference. Keep in mind the cheapo from wal-mart might be 40#s of pressure (if it's working properly), but only flows about 2.5 gallons per minute. The watts will flow 6-9 gallons per minute and you can adjust to 50 psi. I would clean the areators also. Good luck and let us know your outcome.

 

[hoefler]

I went to my plumbing wholesaler and bought a real regulator for $40, bought the needed fittings to connect to the hoses. I get full flow through the regulator and can adjust it to any water pressure I want.

 

[olcoon]

I'm having a similar problem. I'm hooked up to the hydrant with a "Y" fitting so I can have 2 hoses connected if I desire. When I turn on the side with no hose I seem to get plenty of pressure. But inside the 5er, I've hardly got any pressure, can't hardly flush the toilet. I've taken off the pressure regulator, and filter, and hooked up the hose directly, and it doesn't seem to make any difference. I've got water in the tank, and when I turn on the pump, I've got plenty of pressure. I'm kind of wondering if I took out the screen at the city water connection if that would make any difference, and what kind of junk I'll get in the system.

 

[rebootsemi]

We have a 2008 Bighorn, model 3055RL.

Due to some surgery on both my wife and myself, we have been treading water since last Nov 14th here in the Tampa Bay area.

Over the past few months, we have noticed a significant drop in our water pressure. The inlet hose pressure is 40psi, but coming out any of the faucets, it looks like about 15psi. (The pressure here has always been around 40psi) It's getting hard to take a shower.

The first time we experienced anything like this was when our house water filter clogged up and had to be replaced. Since then I have kept the filter changed regularly. The most recent change was just several weeks ago with no noticeable change in water flow. So I don't feel that is the problem. All water entering the coach is filtered about 4' from where the outside hose screws on.

The park office said I am the only one complaining.

Anyone got any ideas what I should look for?

You state that the inlet pressure is 40 psi,,,how do you determine this reading? Is this a static reading or are you getting 40 psi with water running in the trailer? You could have 40 psi static and squat when the water is running which would indicate either a blockage (filter, screen or?) or the regulator is not opening up with flow. If you are at 40 psi with water running in the trailer I would make a guess that you have a blockage in the street water plumbing before the Tee to the pump.

 

[randes]

Thanks for all the reply’s. When I got up this morning, the water pressure was even worse. So after several appointments were out of the way, I got into trying to determine the cause.

I am not using a regulator in this park, because the pressure, measured by a standard water pressure gauge from Ace Hardware, only showed 40 psi to begin with at the water spigot. I have a 25-75 psi regulator bought at the RV Water Filter Store which I use when the pressure gauge indicates a pressure higher than 60 psi. With my sink faucet wide open, I also noticed that when I turned on the fresh water pump, that my water flow increased noticeably.

Since all of my faucets and shower appear to have the same low pressure, I felt that the problem must lie between where I connect my hose to the water spigot and the inlet to the house water filter. (Also from the RV Water Filter Store) I thought that perhaps there was a screen somewhere in the hose connections that may have clogged up over time. There were no screens.

As it turns out, there is a back flow valve that is on the back side of the City Water inlet where you connect your water hose to the trailer. Since everything else seemed OK, I assumed that there must be a problem with the valve. I took the bracket that it was mounted on inside the docking bay, completely off to try and see how to get the valve off. This is the same bracket that also has the inlet for the Fresh Water Tank.

I took the bracket and valve to Camping World to see if they knew how to replace the valve. After examining my valve, the parts man told me my valve was broken, so I am assuming that is my problem. The parts man said that where the fresh water tank inlet and the city water inlet are on the same bracket, they must be bought as a unit. My valve was made out of brass, but the ones they had, were all plastic valves. So I called Heartland. They are shipping me a new one tomorrow with a brass valve for $24 less 10% for being an Owners Club Member.

As soon as it comes next week and I get it installed, I'll post the results here. Roy

PS olcoon, your problem sound exactly like mine. You may want to check your back flow valve also.

 

[Ray LeTourneau]

Roy, is there any way you can temporarily adapt the garden hose to hook up and still have water or will you just use water from the fresh water tank? The city connection on our rig is separate from the fresh tank fill. They must have made some changes to the system between 07 & 08.

 

[randes]

Hi Ray,

I think the answer to your question is yes, but there might be some legal/health issues if you did. The engineer in me wants to explain in a little more detail what happened to me.

The two systems on our BH are the same as yours. They are separate also. However, I knew that turning on the pump would not cause any problems, so with that thought in mind, I decided to see what happened if I turned the pump on. I had the kitchen faucet on full before turning the pump on, when I did, you could see a noticeable increase in the water flow. That showed that the problem was not occurring after the house filter but before it.

As I mentioned above, I checked for clogged screens in the hose connections, but there were none. The only thing left was to look at where the city water connected and the hose that led to the house filter. On the backside of the bracket that held the city water hose connector was a brass fitting. I didn’t realize at first what it was, but it was the only thing I could see that might be causing the problem. Turns out it was a Backflow Valve to prevent trailer water from possibly flowing back into the city water supply.

Since the city water was now turned off, I decided to remove the hose from the backside of the valve so I could examine it better - SURPRISE!!! With the hose loose from the backside of the valve, and the pump still turned on, the pump thought someone had opened a faucet someplace and tried to fill the demand. I had water spraying everywhere from the loose end of the hose. It seems funny now, but at the time water was going everywhere in my basement. Once it dawned on me what the cause was, I hollered at my wife to shut off the pump while I tried to put the hose back on the valve until it quit spraying.

Moral of the story, you need the backflow valve to prevent water from the trailer from going back towards the city water connection and you need also need it to seal off that line so when the pump is turned on it will provide pressure to the rest of the trailer fixtures. If you did hook the water hose up to the trailer without the valve, I don’t feel anything would happen, except that you would probably have more water pressure. However, in my case, the pump psi is obviously higher than the city psi, so it would try to pump from the fresh water tank back to the city water spigot - which in turn might cause a legal/health issues if it did.

I just wish I had understood all this several weeks ago. I could have turned on the pump and had more water for showers, etc. Ha!

Hope this helps Ray.

Roy

 

[Ray LeTourneau]

Hi Ray,


Since the city water was now turned off, I decided to remove the hose from the backside of the valve so I could examine it better - SURPRISE!!! With the hose loose from the backside of the valve, and the pump still turned on, the pump thought someone had opened a faucet someplace and tried to fill the demand. I had water spraying everywhere from the loose end of the hose. It seems funny now, but at the time water was going everywhere in my basement. Once it dawned on me what the cause was, I hollered at my wife to shut off the pump while I tried to put the hose back on the valve until it quit spraying.

Moral of the story, you need the backflow valve to prevent water from the trailer from going back towards the city water connection and you need also need it to seal off that line so when the pump is turned on it will provide pressure to the rest of the trailer fixtures. If you did hook the water hose up to the trailer without the valve, I don’t feel anything would happen, except that you would probably have more water pressure. However, in my case, the pump psi is obviously higher than the city psi, so it would try to pump from the fresh water tank back to the city water spigot - which in turn might cause a legal/health issues if it did.

Roy

Roy, I 'm actually very familiar with RV plumbing. Your post, where you said, "The parts man said that where the fresh water tank inlet and the city water inlet are on the same bracket, they must be bought as a unit." is where I got confused. My city water connection and fresh water tank fill are separated in the UDC. The city water fitting is replaceable without having anything to do with the tank fill.
I actually laughed a bit when you said you removed the back of the city connector with the pump on. I can visualize that happening.
The main issue most folks have with the city connection is the inner parts of the check valve lose the seal and they have water running out of the city post when they use their pump. I actually carry a spare city connector with us.

Anyway, you should be good to go once the part arrives from Heartland. Happy Trails!