Water Pressure

[georgetown50]

I'm really frustrated with what seems to be a recurring problem. I have low water pressure. I bought a water regulator a few months back with a gage on it that reads 45. Is that normal???

If I bought an adjustable water regulator, can I increase the water pressure that would fix the problem?

I'm a bit concerned there may be some serious plumbing problem but I don't have any leaks that I know of.

[Herk7769]

I have been dealing with this as well. Save your money as I bought the higher pressure regulator and it did not fix my low pressure problems. If you think about it 45 PSI is PLENTY. One or all of the below things could be the problem.

So, check:

1) Your inlet screen. Is there mud covering it? Well Water does this.
2) Change your "whole house" filter. Change it to a "sediment only" pleated filter. If you think you are doing good to remove bacteria with a tight weave you will not be happy. That .5 micron filter will be fully clogged in about a week.
3) Crud in your faucets. When you de-winterize your hot water heater, the lime scale that's left gets blasted into the plastic hoses and fixtures. Take your faucet aerators apart and look for "sand" filling the hoses and aerators.
4) Replace your shower head with a Oxygenics hand wand. It really takes lower pressure water and spins it up into a nice "at home" kinda shower.
5) Blow out the lines. Remove the hoses from your fixtures (a real job and a half) and hook up an air pressure fitting to the water inlet and with 10 PSI air pressure, blow out your lines to get any "sand" IN the lines out that may be blocking flow to the fixtures.

[cfsoistman]

Lou's has it pretty well covered. Especially if you're using the OEM Filter, that filter just kills the water pressure. As for the shower head, that's my next upgrade!!

[yvesm]

You can also check to see if you pressure regulator is a high flow and also take a look at the check valve (where you hook up the water on the coach) to make sure its also a high flow valve.

[prof_fate]

99% of pressure regulators regulate max pressure, not low pressure. So a 45psi regulator will stop the pressure from going above 45psi. If it's below that the regulator won't do anything.

Normal residential water pressure is 55psi give or take a bit. Almost all municipal supplies are gravity fed from big water tanks/towers via gravity. The bigger the difference in height from the tower's water level to you the more pressure you get.

Well systems have an accumulator tank with a diaphragm - the well pump fills the tank against this diaphragm and the diaphragm 'creates' the pressure. Too much water usage or a bad diaphragm will cause low pressure.

If you have low pressure from a muni supply call them and have them verify the pressure to your meter. For any of them you need to check the pressure into the house/trailer to see what it is - and make sure the valve is open all the way. If it's above 45 then your issue may be elsewhere.

If it's your own water pump that's not putting out enough pressure there are several things it may be - restriction of course (dirt, debris, valve not open, etc), bad pump or low voltage to the pump. If you have a leak the pump will run when no faucets are open and you'll find water under the trailer (eventually). Or you could be using more water than the pump can put out or keep up with - you can add an accumulator tank just like in a well system.
RV Water Pump Basics for Motorhomes, Fifth Wheels & Travel Trailers - RV Basics .com

[jimh]

i've had the same problem with my cardnal sense i purchaced it new. can't understand how a trailer with larger lines would supply less pressure than i had in my last trailer with 3/8" lines.
after trying different reg, no reg (on a known supply pressure), filter element, and no filter element. all with the same results. took it back to the dealer, who changed filter element, and declared pressure was restored. next camping trip, same problem. just kind of set it aside for the last 9 yrs. now i'm thinking the only thing i didn't try was bypassing the filter (pipe around) entirely. after a few other to do items, will try that.
some of the other post talk abt finding saw dust in the screens of the faucets multiple times. apparently left form the manufacturing process.

[georgetown50]

1. No mud.
2. I'll try changing out the whole house filter. When I go to Home Depot there are about three levels of filter and I buy the middle one. I'll try the sediment only one.
3. I have checked for sand but the low pressure is even at the toilet.
4. I tried that shower head. Wasn't my favorite. I bought a different one at Camping World and at first it was fine, but again, it may be because the water filter is bad again.
5. Blowing out the lines? That does sound like a big job. I don't have a compressor and I have no idea where the lines go after they leave the kitchen, shower, etc. I may have to call an RV tech if it comes to that.

Thanks for your reply.

Originally Posted by herk7769

I have been dealing with this as well. Save your money as I bought the higher pressure regulator and it did not fix my low pressure problems. If you think about it 45 PSI is PLENTY. One or all of the below things could be the problem.

So, check:

1) Your inlet screen. Is there mud covering it? Well Water does this.
2) Change your "whole house" filter. Change it to a "sediment only" pleated filter. If you think you are doing good to remove bacteria with a tight weave you will not be happy. That .5 micron filter will be fully clogged in about a week.
3) Crud in your faucets. When you de-winterize your hot water heater, the lime scale that's left gets blasted into the plastic hoses and fixtures. Take your faucet aerators apart and look for "sand" filling the hoses and aerators.
4) Replace your shower head with a Oxygenics hand wand. It really takes lower pressure water and spins it up into a nice "at home" kinda shower.
5) Blow out the lines. Remove the hoses from your fixtures (a real job and a half) and hook up an air pressure fitting to the water inlet and with 10 PSI air pressure, blow out your lines to get any "sand" IN the lines out that may be blocking flow to the fixtures.

[georgetown50]

Originally Posted by yvesm

You can also check to see if you pressure regulator is a high flow and also take a look at the check valve (where you hook up the water on the coach) to make sure its also a high flow valve.

How would you check either one of these things?

[jimh]

in the back of my mind, i believe i have thought of them as water saver fixtures that require u to run them a lot longer to accomplish the same thing. i have one faucet in my home like that. they weren't popular when my '84 was built, which had smaller lines and more water flow.
that may not be the reason but that is why i haven't perused it in years.

[Herk7769]

I did remove the white plastic water flow restrictors in the bathroom faucets (shower and sink) but there is not one in the kitchen that I could find. There is not one at all for the toilet.

I am still leaning toward the filter being clogged. Mine is getting yanked completely as soon as its back from being inspected. I am only using the Wal-Mart inline hose filter now.

[lbrjet]

Lou,

Where are these white plastic water flow restrictors you spoke of? My bath sink has very low pressure.

Larry

[Herk7769]

Remove the aerator screen FIRST and make sure there is no crud clogging the screen. The white plastic disk with the small diameter hole is the flow restrictor. It can be removed to see if it is the problem. If it is, you can carefully enlarge the hole till you get the flow you want.

I juts removed mine and keep it in a plastic bag under the sink. When dry camping, I want the restricted flow for water usage control.

[lbrjet]

Brand new trailer so I don't think crud is my problem, although never say never.

My main problem (related) is that I can't figure out how to remove the faucet end cap housing the screen. It pushes up and pulls down and twists in either direction and I have never seen anything like this. Seems to be designed to NOT be removed which makes no sense at all.

[Herk7769]

Originally Posted by lbrjet

Brand new trailer so I don't think crud is my problem, although never say never.

My main problem (related) is that I can't figure out how to remove the faucet end cap housing the screen. It pushes up and pulls down and twists in either direction and I have never seen anything like this. Seems to be designed to NOT be removed which makes no sense at all.

Yikes! Photos now please.

Crud could have been in the lines from when they drilled the probe holes in the fresh water tank.

[georgetown50]

Originally Posted by herk7769

I did remove the white plastic water flow restrictors in the bathroom faucets (shower and sink) but there is not one in the kitchen that I could find. There is not one at all for the toilet.

I am still leaning toward the filter being clogged. Mine is getting yanked completely as soon as its back from being inspected. I am only using the Wal-Mart inline hose filter now.

Well, sure enough it was the water filter that needed replacing. I guess what sure have been easier to diagnose was made more difficult because the filter was supposed to last six months. I'm sure it hasn't been six months. I replaced it with a less restrictive (cheaper) filter. Hey, that fixed this problem. Thanks for all who gave advice.

[sherdep]

get one with a 5 micron filter with charcoal - the lower the micron the lower your pressure will be because the more it filters and the harder the water is to get past the filter

[Lawfive]

Another spot to check, like enough haven't been identified, is a small filter near your water pump. If you are on city water it doesn't affect things but running off your fresh water tank will be impacted. I noticed mine one day. Unscrewed it and found it about 75% full of PVC shavings. They were obviously from the manufacturing work on plumbing in the rig. Glad the filter trapped them before they hit any fixtures but over time they would have built the base for a clog or pressure problem. Best case would have been a premature failure of the water pump.

[Herk7769]

[QUOTE=georgetown50;95421]I'm sure it hasn't been six months.QUOTE]

How does that go? "Results not typical."