Water Pressure & Pump?

[cmhbob]

Fulltimers with a whole week under our belt now! We're near Porter, OK, after an exciting week in Nashville, complete with tornado warnings and flooded roadways in the campground.

Our water pressure in Nashville at the KOA was so-so, but we got by. Added an Oxygenics showerhead, and that helped a good deal in the bathroom. We're getting really low pressure through the faucets at the park in Oklahoma now, and I'm not sure what to check. The pressure at the tap seems not bad, but we're not getting much in the faucets or shower.

Before we left Nashville, we added some water to the fresh water tank, so we'd have some while overnighting at a Cracker Barrel or Walmart. If I now turn on the water pump, I get a little more pressure at the faucet. Do I need to have the pump on all the time now, since I have water in the tank?

I've got the water inlet set to "City," and the bypass valves all set to "Normal." Wondering what else I might be missing or need to do. I've checked for restrictors on the faucets, and nothing seems obvious.

[Herk7769]

This sounds like our experience this season. I had put in a new whole camper water filter and it had too tight a micron range. It clogged within two weeks and we had almost no water pressure. Removed the filter from the housing and am now using an "inline" RV filter. Water pressure is now normal.

Also check for clogged screens at fixtures.

[cardinal4fun]

If you are using the fresh water holding tank for your water you will at least need the pump turned on when opening the faucets. As for the the values you may have to play with them. It sound like you may be geting unwanted air into the system. I think you will find under most cases the pressure will not be the same as in stick homes.

[Herk7769]

If you have city water pressure, a check valve will prevent city water from turning your water pump backwards and filling your fresh water tank to overflowing. When using city water pressure you should turn off the on board pump. It will not normally run even if you forget because the pressure in the lines is above its turn on value.

When using the fresh water tank (with no city water pressure) you must turn on the water pump to pressurize the system with water from that tank (it stays on all the time in that case and will shut itself off when the correct pressure is reached). A chack valve in the city water connection port will prevent the pump from pumping the water into the street through the city water port..

[cmhbob]

We have the cartridge system in place, as well as a Valterra inline pressure regulator.

Pulled the PR, and it was clogged with pretty fine sediment. Flushed that, and got some improvement. I eventually pulled the cartridge, and it was packed with the same rusty fine sediment. I suspect that came from the Nashville campground, which has flooded badly last year. They may have a broken/damaged pipe letting a lot of sediment in the lines. Last night without the cartridge, we had decent pressure. I got a Camco Water Filter 2-pack from Walmart, and that seems to working just fine with no apparent pressure loss.

[Herk7769]

Glad we could help.