Prime water pump for first time

[Maxhise]

I picked up my 2015 32QBBS and we've had it out 3 times already with zero issues. Last Sunday when we were packing up (in the rain of course) I decided to go ahead and fill the fresh water tank since I'll be boon-docking next weekend and we'd been running off city water. I filled the tank until I saw water coming out of the over flow hose. I verified the valve from the tank was open, opened the kitchen faucet and turned the pump on and nothing. Didn't appear to be pushing air or anything out. I checked to see if I could hear the pump and it's running but no water. I was afraid of burning the pump out so I turned it off pretty quick. I only ran it 2 or 3 minutes tops. Since it was raining I didn't spend much time trouble shooting. After getting home I checked the documentation and it says to open all the faucets and let it run until you have water. I keep the camper in storage so I'm planning on going down this weekend and trying again. I'm going to close the valve from the tank and put the antifreeze siphon in a bucket of water and see if that pulls. Assuming that works, all the lines and water heater will be full of water except for the hose from the tank to the pump.

How long should it take to prime that line? Do I need to pull the intake off the pump and blow and suck on the line to make sure nothing is clogged? A friend of mine said his took over 30 minutes first time to prime and his dealer said that was normal. I left a voice mail with the service dept today but hadn't heard back yet. I was just curious to your experiences.

[OldCoot]

You probably still have the antifreeze valve open and it will not pull water from the fw tank.

[Maxhise]

That hose is capped pretty tight. There isn't a valve, it just has a cap on the end.

[OldCoot]

Originally Posted by Maxhise

That hose is capped pretty tight. There isn't a valve, it just has a cap on the end.

Should be a valve inside on the line going to the pump.

[RSchleder]

After you filled the fresh water tank, did you move the "Fill tank" valve back to the "normal" position? If you leave that valve in the "fill tank" position, your pump cannot pressurize the system as the water system is not closed.

[Maxhise]

It doesn't have a valve. It has a hose hookup for city water and a hose hook up for city water. The tank has an over flow hose that I saw water running out of so I know it filled up. I'm assuming this is also the vent hose.

[Maxhise]

You can see the valve from the tank is open and the Winterize hose is capped. Everything is set correctly, it just seems like it was taking too long to prime the hose from the tank. I guess I'll go try it again tomorrow and see if it flows after letting the pump run.

[OldCoot]

Originally Posted by Maxhise

You can see the valve from the tank is open and the Winterize hose is capped. Everything is set correctly, it just seems like it was taking too long to prime the hose from the tank. I guess I'll go try it again tomorrow and see if it flows after letting the pump run.

What is the valve in the lower rh corner in the picture? Looks like it might be the antifreeze suction line and it should be closed, not open.

[Flybob]

If you have used it this year and did not re-winterize then the water heater is probably empty. It takes a long time for the pump to build up pressure. Open hot water faucet to fill Water Heater then let it rum. May take 3-4 mins

[Tiggerdad]

After verifying that everything is lined up properly it is sometimes difficult to prime and takes a while to fill the piping if they are empty. Close all valves, run pump for 3-4 minutes and open one cold water valve. If pump is pumping you should get a gush of air. If so, continue to run until lines are full. Once a system is pressurized make sure water heater is full before turn on electric or propane to it.

Check for a leak on suction side of pump. Sucking air can sometimes prevent a pump for pressurizing. Let us know what you find.

[DaveSchwartz]

And your KW1 housing seems to be on backwards. There's a big green arrow on the label, at least on mine, that should point at the spike hanging down from the upper part of the housing. You have to have the label nearly opposite that before you push it up and turn to tighten. Maybe that's why so many people's unscrew themselves and flood their camper.

[Maxhise]

Water pump was bad. I had to remove the access panel to gain access to the pump. I pulled the intake line off and connect a regular faucet hose for a kitchen sink and fed it into a gallon jug of water and nothing. Last thing I checked was the voltage to make sure they didn't wire it backwards. Luckily I had a spare pump from my last RV, pulled the new pump out, installed the old one and I had water in about 5 seconds.

Called RV nation today and they are drop shipping me a new pump direct from the manufacturer and mailing me an RMA and shipping label to ship this one back to them. I leave Tuesday and will be boon docking for 6 days so I wish I had tested this sooner but at least I'm operational now. Old pump is a little louder and little less flow but that's a minor issue.

Also, on the water filter, there are tabs on both sides. The cover can go on 2 ways 180 degrees out. However, that picture was taken before the filter was installed so the sticker is on this side now.

[Maxhise]

Originally Posted by OldCoot

What is the valve in the lower rh corner in the picture? Looks like it might be the antifreeze suction line and it should be closed, not open.

That valve is from the fresh tank. You have to close it to get suction on the antifreeze line. Seems to be the opposite of most campers. I do not have a valve on the antifreeze line, just a cap.