# Water pressure



## bc109 (Sep 17, 2016)

Ah....the problems of old MHs. The water pressure in the washroom, shower is very poor. Shower is effectively unusable. Placing the shower head onto the shower tray doesn't improve the flow. On the other hand, 
the pressure at the kitchen area sink is acceptable. Have done the air evacuation drills to exhaustion. Distance to kitchen area is probably longer than to the washroom.
The previous owner said that the washroom tap/shower had been recently replaced.
I dismantled the whole caboodle this morning and discovered that the shower hose cannot ( easily ) be divorced from the tap. All the hoses towards the tap seem to be rather small, although the main feeds are large.
My question is whether the wrong type of tap could have been fitted.
Are there low pressure and high pressure tap/shower combinations available ? Could the water pump be past it's sell by date ? Are higher pressure pumps easily fitted ?
The evidence from multi screwholes in the area of the washroom tap/sink construction suggests that the problem of water pressure in the washroom has been lurking for some time.
Any clues out there ?
Bill


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## erneboy (Feb 8, 2007)

There are numerous possibilities.

I had a flow problem last summer to the kitchen cold tap. It's supplied with the same size pipes as all the others yet it was the only one a very poor flow rate. 

I checked all I could, considered a faulty tap or washer etc. but if swapped the hot and cold feeds over the hot came out of the cold tap well enough. Eventually I compared the flow (hot against cold) into a bucket straight from the pipes. The cold was poor but only at the kitchen which led to the conclusion that it was a problem with the pipes to the kitchen tap.

Eventually I found a pipe joint hidden away. It was of the type that's pushed into the pipes thus reducing the bore at that point considerably. I took it off thinking I'd try to replace the whole length of pipe but I found that the restricted but was all but completely clogged with little lumps of limescale. We'd been wintering in Spain in an area where the water is very hard and full of limescale. I cleared the blockage away and the flow returned to normal. Since then the problem has recurred but now I know where the blockage happens I can clear it in a few minutes.

So I'd check by just running the water from the pipe straight into a bucked and see what that reveals.


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## adonisito (Nov 6, 2009)

I see you have a Hymer, on mine the water pump had been installed the wrong way round (poles reversed) negative to positive, it still worked but pressure was poor. This is an easy mistake to make as the German wiring had/has strange colour coding. I checked it with a voltmeter which revealed minus readings and wired it back in the right way round. Pressure improved.


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## nicholsong (May 26, 2009)

adonisito said:


> I see you have a Hymer, on mine the water pump had been installed the wrong way round (poles reversed) negative to positive, it still worked but pressure was poor. This is an easy mistake to make as the German wiring had/has strange colour coding. I checked it with a voltmeter which revealed minus readings and wired it back in the right way round. Pressure improved.


Good tip, but maybe not the problem in this case as the OP said the pressure in the kitchen is OK, but not at the shower, even with the showerhead in the tray, thus ruling out the differnce in lift height being the problem if the pump had your problem.

Geoff


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## bc109 (Sep 17, 2016)

Here are a couple of pics showing method of connection.
The bore of the shower tube is 6mm. Is this normal for a low pressure system ?


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## erneboy (Feb 8, 2007)

I'd have those hose clips off and see what the flow from the pipes is like. Are both hot and cold weak?

Yes 6mm should do the job adequately.


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## Devonboy (Nov 19, 2009)

The jubilee clip connection to the tap pipes do not look correct. I would expect to see some kind of fitting like the one fitted to the shower hose.


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## bc109 (Sep 17, 2016)

Thanks for your help, folks. It is clear the next step is to disconnect the tap feeds from the main tubes and try the flow 
without the tap.
Bill


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## BillCreer (Jan 23, 2010)

I had a low pressure problem which I traced to the outlet pipe connection where it left the main water tank. I had to tighten the jubilee clip on the pipe where it connected to the gland pipe. No leaks but it must have been introducing air when the pump was activated.


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## barryd (May 9, 2008)

I had a similar problem. Could be voltage drop. Maybe the route to the sink is easier and the voltage drop at the pump doesnt manifest itself. I noticed a difference with my problem when I wired the pump directly to the battery as a test. It was still rubbish though and in the end I fitted a Shurflo pump outside of the tank rather than the standard Swift immersible pump. All taps are brilliant now.


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## nicholsong (May 26, 2009)

barryd said:


> I had a similar problem. Could be voltage drop. Maybe the route to the sink is easier and the voltage drop at the pump doesnt manifest itself. I noticed a difference with my problem when I wired the pump directly to the battery as a test. It was still rubbish though and in the end I fitted a Shurflo pump outside of the tank rather than the standard Swift immersible pump. All taps are brilliant now.


Barry

Out of interest what was your immersible pump - was it Whale or Reickle (? spelling). I had my Reickle fail and in UK could only find Whale, which I fitted as a stop gap and then found Reickle pumps down the road here in Poland(probably more favoured by German MH builders) and the accessory shop had quite a range of pump capacities and pressures.

My point being that it is always possible to increase the flow and/or the lifting capacity when replacing a pump.

I have always thought that one disadvantage of the Shurflo system is that if the system is 'live' and a leak developed, one could come back to an empty tank and a big 'puddle'. I suppose the discipline of turning the pump switch off if going out or going to bed would protect against that, but I would not trust my memory, especially aftter the second bottle:surprise::laugh:

Geoff


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## Pudsey_Bear (Sep 25, 2008)

nicholsong said:


> I have always thought that one disadvantage of the Shurflo system is that if the system is 'live' and a leak developed, one could come back to an empty tank and a big 'puddle'. I suppose the discipline of turning the pump switch off if going out or going to bed would protect against that, but I would not trust my memory, especially aftter the second bottle:surprise::laugh:
> 
> Geoff


Good point Geoff, I suppose one could fit some sort of timer in line, similar to the ones you get on staircases but 12v so it gives say 20 minutes then goes off regardless.

Heres one you can set for up to 60 minutes, I don't know how easy it would be to reset it each time you would need water, but there are one or two on here who would.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/H3Y-2-DC-...639704?hash=item35b73f3598:g:2ZMAAOxyXDhSghjh

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Genuine-W...530990?hash=item4b0cb1dfee:g:nYwAAOSwiONYLG3Q


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## barryd (May 9, 2008)

I think our original pump was a whale which packed up in France and the one I replaced it with I'm France I'm not sure, just bought it off the shelf and fitted it in the car park. Didn't know you could adjust them but they were both crap compared to the shurflo.

If you developed a leek surely any pump would run on if the water was turned on. Our hot water tank leaks sometimes through the pressure valve outside which occasionally cause the pump to pulse so I've always turned the water off at bed time or if we go out anyway.


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## nicholsong (May 26, 2009)

barryd said:


> I think our original pump was a whale which packed up in France and the one I replaced it with I'm France I'm not sure, just bought it off the shelf and fitted it in the car park. * Didn't know you could adjust them* but they were both crap compared to the shurflo.
> 
> If you developed a leek surely* any pump would run on if the water was turned on*. Our hot water tank leaks sometimes through the pressure valve outside which occasionally cause the pump to pulse so I've always turned the water off at bed time or if we go out anyway.


Barry

You cannot 'adjust' the pump - what I said was they had different pumps to choose from.

A Shurflo pump kicks in when the pressure in the system drops and it stops when the pressure is up. Other pumps are activated when a tap is opened and the tap micro-switch signals the immersible pump to start, thus if nobody is there to operate a tap the pump will not start. The water in the leaking pipe might leak out but the pump will not start to empty the contents of the tank. If you had taps with micro-switches for the Whale then when you fitted the Shurflo they probably just became redundant, as the Shurflo does not need them to oprerate.

MH builders who fit Shurflo do not need taps with micro-switches and do not have to wire each of them to the pump, the builders' choice might be between the cost of the different pumps and the cost of the taps and labour and wiring. Ask an expert:wink2::laugh:

Geoff


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## bc109 (Sep 17, 2016)

Have taken in all your suggestions, folks, and tried them out this morning. We didn't get to fit a new pump, 'cos the other one, belonging to a friend had no connectors on the end. Water mains pressure.....did that....front and back MH very damp now !
Disconnected everything, connected everything, Checked the pump.....no apparent problems.
The shower/tap didn't even work with mains pressure up the jacksy.
As a last resort, checked the voltage at the pump. Deep joy. Pump was wired wrong way round as suggested above. Everyone has been thanked....so thanks again ! Now have some pressure in the washroom but no sprinkles from the shower, just a gush of water.
I think I can fix that on my own !
Job done.....at last.


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