Water pump running

Suru · 11-11-2020, 05:27 PM

We were dry camping last week, and whenever I turned our water pump on, it would continue to run, even though we weren't using any water in any of the faucets. It was barely running, but still running. I figured we had a leak, so we looked everywhere and couldn't find any leak or any water anywhere.

Later that evening, we hooked up to the generator to charge a few things and when I used the water pump, it would shut off like normal when not running water. As soon as we turned the generator off, the water pump would continue to run again.

It was very strange. I don't think we have a leak, I think it might be something electrical. Any ideas? TIA

**Flybob** · 11-11-2020, 05:38 PM

It is possible that your battery was a little low and the pump could not generate sufficient pressure to shut off the pressure switch. Running the generator would augment the power of the battery and allow the pump to run at full power. Did you have a lot of other 12V items running.

Suru · 11-11-2020, 06:03 PM

Flybob: I don't remember what we had going, probably just the lights as that's the only thing we could run while dry camping. Hopefully that is all that it was. The batteries are almost two years old and have had a lot of use, so maybe they are starting to go bad. It was also very cold at night, around 30 degrees, so that might have made the batteries weaker too. Anyway, what you said makes really good sense. We are going on another trip next week and I would like to get this resolved. It's been below freezing where I live so I didn't want to put water in the tank to troubleshoot the pump before I had an idea of what could be wrong. Thank you!

**Flybob** · 11-11-2020, 06:06 PM

Was the furnace on?

Suru · 11-11-2020, 06:10 PM

No, we didn't have the furnace on. We use a Mr. Heater Buddy as our furnace is NOISY.

Suru · 11-19-2020, 05:48 PM

We have had time to thoroughly check the trailer for any leaks and have found nothing. We also checked the filter (no debris at all in it) and generally made sure all the connections to the pump were tight.

We just got back from another dry camping trip and the water pump is still making a running noise even though all the faucets are shut. It does this on a full battery but not when we are hooked up to the generator. When we do run the faucet, we get great water pressure and the pumps works fine, it just doesn't seem to turn off until I flip the switch to off

It doesn't make a loud noise like it does when it's pumping, just a "running" humming kind of noise.

When we took showers, I ran the generator because I didn't know if it would hurt the water pump to leave it running when it wasn't pumping water. As stated above, when we had electricity from the generator, the pump turned off when we shut the faucet off and worked like it was supposed to. As soon as we unhooked from the generator, the pump would continue to run with the faucets off.

When we were getting ready to leave, I switched the slide switch to "in" and nothing happened. I tried a few more times and then switched the slide switch to "off" and it started to work so I quickly switched it back to "in" and the slide came in. Because of this, I'm wondering if either our batteries are going bad (the indicator light said they were 2/3 full, but I don't know how accurate they are). All of the lights in the trailer worked fine and were nice and bright. Maybe there is a bad relay switch somewhere or a bad fuse or something else. I apologize as I am really lacking when it comes to electrical knowledge.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. TIA

NJKris · 11-19-2020, 06:39 PM

I noticed when my fresh tank gets low, the pump continues to run a lot more. If there's not enough water to build pressure, it will keep running. Also, make sure the anti-freeze suction port on the water line is set to off completely, or that will cause you to lose suction and keep running.

Suru · 11-19-2020, 07:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NJKris

I noticed when my fresh tank gets low, the pump continues to run a lot more. If there's not enough water to build pressure, it will keep running. Also, make sure the anti-freeze suction port on the water line is set to off completely, or that will cause you to lose suction and keep running.

We had just filled the water tank. But, I'll check that suction port. It's just strange that if we have shore power (generator), the pump works like it's supposed too. It only runs when we are on battery.

Thank you!

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