House Water Pump Options

[neoneddy]

well, I dun did it.  I failed to properly winterize my RV and somehow some water was left in the upper part of the pump chamber and split some plastic.  Tried some JB weld and still had some leaks, still cycles on and off.  Current pump is a Shuflo Aqua King 4148.

So, my next move is a new pump.   I've heard of some of you guys doing more standard home pumps, Any other options?   RV shop down the road has a 3 gpm pump for $115, which isn't bad.

I'm leaving in a few days for  a trip down to TX, so I need to make a move here today , tomorrow on this.

One item we'd love to remedy as well, is the surging.   I've thought of making a small pressure tank, not sure if there are other ways of solving it.

[dtcerrato]

The small rv bladder tanks do well to eliminate surging.

[freds]

What pump are the new 1M++ bus's using?

In the process of revamping everything and to quote Tim Allen "More power!!!"...

[richard5933]

I've seen some using a more residential water pump, but to me the standard RV pumps move more than enough water for us. They are also easy and relatively inexpensive to replace when situations like this occur.

One option that some of the high-end coaches use is two pumps installed in parallel. This won't increase the pressure, but it will increase the water flow rate allowing for multiple use points to be open at the same time. Guess this would also incorporate built-in redundancy in case one pump fails. Should also be possible to add an extra switch to allow for one of the pumps to be left off when not needed.

[Lin]

I would ask if there was anything about the old pump that you found inadequate. If so, look for a pump that corrects that problem. If not, replace it with one that at least meets that standard.

[oltrunt]

I went with two 3 gpm rv pumps, one on the cold line and one on the hot.  Like Dan pointed out the air bladders (accumulator) will pretty much cure the surge problem--I put one on each pump line.  I think the pair cost me $85.

Just as a note, my on demand water heater requires constant flow and constant pressure before it will light. When I turned the water off the heater would go out and the water in the hot water line would go tepid until the heater warmed it up again.  I solved this by installing a recirculating circuit on the hot water system that (as long as it is turned on) keeps the water heater on and eliminates the tepid issue.  The second pump allows me to run cold water while the heater is on without having a drop in pressure or flow.  Jack

[neoneddy]

Thanks everyone.  I ended up buying a slightly lower 3.5 GPM pump for $115 from the local RV store.  Looks to be about the same pump except for the motor size.  Same housing and connections.   So I think I'll just buy the rebuild kit for the old one and keep it as a spare or run it in parallel.

[Paul S]

what type of accumulators are you guys running? I get some surging and think mine may be bad.

[richard5933]

More likely you need to adjust the pressure in the one you have. The pressure in mine is set just below the cut-on pressure of my pump. For example, if you pump turns on at 30psi and off at 45psi, the pressure in the tank should be set at about 28 psi.

Check with the manual on your accumulator tank to see the specific recommendations for yours.

[dtcerrato]

Richard is point on unless you have a leaking or ruptured bladder. We run the tiny little unit made by ShurFlo. Some run the small residential 1- 2 gal. Tanks which are overkill IMO.

[richard5933]

These small accumulators do come in a few sizes - most you see are about 0.5L but you can get a 1L from Jabsco.

I switched to the 1L accumulator last season, and I did notice that the pump cycled less. The only time this mattered to us was flushing at night. We can now do a few flushes before the pump kicks on and starts making noise. Not a huge difference, but it helps since I am a super light sleeper.