I am plumbing the fresh water, and am looking at 12v pumps. Seems there are about a million options. What has worked the best for every one else, and how many gph?
I like the Flojet Sensor VSD water pump. It is available in 3.5 or 4.7 GPM models. The standard pump used in most RVs is a Shurflo that is 2.8 GPM.
The Sensor VSD will work on 12 or 24 volt.
strongly recommend ponying up the bucks for the variable speed vane type pumps. The piston type pumps like the Surflow I just installed hammer like crazy.
Brian
In May, I went to the Camping World RV get together in Albuquerque, NM. There were over 3500 RV's there (very few buses). At the Camping World exhibit there was a water pump expert from Surflo exhibiting most of all their models of pumps. While they did say that the electronic variable speed pumps are nice, the old fashioned ones with a mechanical switch are the heavy trucks of water pumps. The electronic variable speed versions are sensitive to voltage spikes, and are sensitive to any dirt that my enter the pump. The regular mechanical pump, while it only runs either on or off, is about as reliable as dirt. I have two Whisper King pumps in parallel that I can run either or turn on both when showering. Have not had any problems with them in 14 years that they have been in the bus. You can hear them-but that's mainly because they are under my bed in the back with the water tank and 2 water heaters (transit bus). I will use the same setup again in my truck conversion, it has worked so well for so many years without any problems. If you want a constant feed from the pump, get a ping tank-not very expensive and will even out the pulses. But-I'm not even doing that since running two at a time, they don't pulse together. Good Luck, TomC
I've had just as many of the old standard surflo pumps break on me as the electronic ones. The nice thing about surflo is if one breaks, they send you a new one for free. I've gone thru three now (in two buses), but the ones I finally got seem to be lasting. That part out of the way, I love the electronic variable flow versions, they are quieter by leaps n bounds and they don't hammer.
Regardless what one you choose, do yourself a favor and buy the strainer that goes on the inlet. I had tons of trouble with the pump going on at weird times when it shouldn't be, which turned out to be shavings that were in my water tank getting stuck under the pump valve seats causing the system pressure to slowly leak down all the time. This went on for years until I finally added the strainer. The shavings were complimients of the tank manufacturer- they were tiny but definitely enuff to cause the pump to have leakdown problems.
The Sensor VSD comes with the strainer. I bought the Sensor VSD mainly because it can do 24 volt. The Shurflo variable speed pump is 12 volt only.
What about the Shurflow extreme. Var. Speed. 5 chamber, 5.7 gpm for $175.00. Vsd 4.5 is $ 215.00. Is it worth the diff? Dist. says they sell more of the shureflow model. Mabey just what they have more off. Both say accum. tank not needed.
Quote from: Ericbsc on October 21, 2009, 06:59:46 AM
What about the Shurflow extreme. Var. Speed. 5 chamber, 5.7 gpm for $175.00. Vsd 4.5 is $ 215.00. Is it worth the diff? Dist. says they sell more of the shureflow model. Mabey just what they have more off. Both say accum. tank not needed.
There is a new Sensor VSD 4.5GPM on Ebay for $150 buy it now. Camping World sells for $200 if you are a club member. I have two Sensor VSD pumps. I got one on sale at Camping World and the other from an Ebay seller for $140.
The distributor probably sells more Shurflos than Flotjet due to the large price difference. I don't know of any good reason to choose one over the other. The reason I went with Flojet is the ability to do 24 volt.