Good day all coachers, my question of the day is: what are you all doing for reducing water pressure when hooked up to a rv park watersource. I am thinking of putting some type of pressure gauge to moniter the pressure. I have tried one of those in line pressure adapters but it reduced my flow to just about nothing.
Any suggestions.
My experience is that RV parks have low water pressure. I think the RV water pressure devices make it worse. I built my plumbing to take high pressure and use a 60psi pump. Before I leave in my bus, I fill the tanks with my house water that has been run through a water softener, and only fill up with camp water when I run out, using the pump to have good water pressure while camped. I also use a whole house water filter when filling with camp water.
I don't hook up to water either. I just fill my tank and use the water pump.
JC
Install a Zurn or Watts in line pressure reducer down stream from the hose connection on the rv will take care of the bus ,the hose from the rv park connection to the bus is another saga just buy a good potable water hose not the RV junk hoses and go
What is the pressure reducer that you are using rated at.
Thanks
They are adjustable the problem you run into with any regulator is the water pressure varies so much a reducer set at 60 lbs does no good on 50 lb rv park supply I have a 2 valve bypass on my city water supply connection to take care of that problem,The reducers that screw on the hose bib work ok till the pressure falls below the preset pressure then you are screwed ,Marshall is a good brand of those it does ok with a 10 lb variation in pressure the cheaper brands won't handle any variation
I'm with Geoff on this one. I've never been in a park yet with enough water pressure to rinse my toothbrush properly much less worry about over pressure. Good luck,
Will
Parks do vary in pressure the AVI KOA here runs 110 psi they stock and sell a lot of the RV water hoses 8) in this heat
I don't even have a place to hook up to park water. I just use my bus water and as Geoff does I fill mine before I leave home, I am on my on well water and I refill at the park or wherever using a very large filter. Works for me.
I also fill from my softened water supply at home before leaving and then run from the on-board pump. I'll fill if necessary at the park, but have yet to run the water system from the park pressure. I carry an adjustable pressure gauge/regulator should it ever necessary. My waste tank and my water tank are the same size. I fill the water tank at slightly less than full, and I know it's time to dump the waste tank when I run out of water. I'll never over flow the waste tank this way.
Water pressure issues aside, one of the problems with campground water is the unknown quality. I once filled up my water tank at a campground in Northern Michigan with "potable water" that was anything but. It smelled like gray water, and I ended up dumping it all and disinfecting the 100 Gal. tank. Water from home is a known source and a good idea.
I have a Watts 263A water pressure regulator for my shore water supply, set to 45 PSI, the same as my SHURflo 2088 pumps' pressure. There are two pressure gauges, one for incoming water pressure (here it's about 65 PSI) and one for in-bus pressure. The Watts seems like a good little regulator, definitely better than the cheapo "regulators" from Camping World which are just flow reducers.
John
When on the road for a long time, you get whatever water you can. Most of it is good enough. We carry a 5 gallon jug that we refill if possible, or buy gallon jugs for drinking and cooking. So it doesn't matter as much what kind of water goes into the big tank. I put a little bit of bleach in it once in a while.
JC
we tried the camping world pressure reducer but had no luck with it and removed it and I installed a pressure gauge . most times the max I see is 60 lbs
we just installed a 6 stage reverse osmosis system because most of the 1 gal. drinking or spring water we would buy tasted like crap
dave
The park i am at here in prince rupert bc canada tells me they are at 100 psi city pressure. I bought a reducer at the only store in town that has one. ( walmart ) and it is rated for 40 to 50 psi. My pressure seems to be comfortable and not makeing me lose sleep of flooding.
Again thanks for all your ideas
I have seen water pressures over 100PSI. A campground in Kentucky, they warned use not to hook up unless we had a pressure regulator. Measured the pressure at 110PSI. These high pressures don't happen often but when they due you will be in trouble.
Bill
Me too. I fill my tanks before I leave on a trip and rely on my 3.0 GPM SHURflo water pump to do all of the work. Then I hook up water and sewer usually before I run out and fill and dump. I do not like to travel with dry tanks as some folks do for weight and balance just in case this old bus breaks down and I have to live in it on the side of the road for a while.
The last time I hooked up to park water was about 5 months ago and came home to a big puddle of water under my bus. Someone had turned the park water faucet off before I returned...thankfully. I turned the water back on and heard water running which it should not have been. I went inside and discovered water running into my bay from behind my shower wall.
I had to cut an access hole behind my shower, which was behind two large heavy pantry slides, to find the problem. One of the water lines had blown off the shower handle fitting and was spraying inside the wall. Thankfully it ran down the wall and out in one of my bays so it did not do any real damage.
Another time I was returning to a campground and saw water running out someones entrance door on their trailer. I turned it off. Not sure what they came home to but I assume they too had a broken water line inside.
New RV's if plumbed correctly with PEX should not leak with line pressure up to a bit over 100 PSI, but these older buses may not be leak proof under pressure. Some have good old copper pipes that may never leak. However unless you did all of the plumbing yourself and know what you are doing, anything can go wrong and even a toilet can stay running after you walk out of the coach and overflow. It has happened to me if the drain closes but the incoming water valve sticks open.
Bottom line, I use my own water pump which does not put out much pressure for a shower and the potty may not flush as complete as it could, but with that low pressure you are not likely to have a leak, but you never know. You can use a water pressure relief valve, but even under low pressure, you may still spring a leak or a toilet valve can stick open then you have an endless supply of water filling up your coach.
I also have a water pump switch on my dash and if I plan to leave the bus for a couple of days, I will generally shut it off. I figure it is good insurance. I only have a 200 gallon fresh water tank, but 200 gallons can do a lot of damage.
I think every bus and RV I have had has had water leaks at one time so I do everything I can to prevent is as they tend to spring a leak when you least expect it and may have to get up in the middle of the night (like I have) to the sound of spraying water and have to fix the leak and mop up the mess.
We live in a house with a well & pump. The pressure tank switch turns on the pump at 40psi and off at 60psi. That means we do all we have to do at home with water pressure between 40-60psi and everything works well. Higher pressure is not needed, unless you plan to pressure wash yourself in the shower.
What make the lower pressure work is water flow. Having a pump that can keep up with the flow required is all the difference in have a pleasant shower and feeling like you're showering under a trickle. The fixtures in the bus, especially the shower head, must be matched to the capability of the pump. Our pump puts out 3.5 gpm and we matched the shower head to be one that performs well on this flow.
I have a mix of copper tubing and nylon braided hose in our water system and would never trust it to be safe connected to a park system without a high quality pressure regulator. Even then, when we leave the bus for any reason we turn off the pump, as once we didn't and came back to an empty tank and a very wet bus. (Cause was a bad hose clamp application on my part).
I have 2-5.7 gals @ 65 psi pumps tied in parallel it's going to take it all for the dw's clawfoot tub and rain forest shower,the 2-5.7 pumps should work and save me from buying a headhunter pump.I like the headhunter pump but not the price
The best water system I ever experienced was in our old skoolie. I installed a 90 gal steel boiler tank with a 12V air compressor that came on at 85PSI and kicked off at 125PSI. I plumbed everything in flexible copper except the tap feed lines and never had a problem with leaks. The less water in the tank the longer the pressure stayed up between the pump kicking on. The DW loved it! Beat the heck out of pumping water through conventional water pumps. :D
Will