Poor water pressure

[cnash1970]

I seem to have poor water pressure when running off my own water supply. Pump seems to function correctly, going on and off, but pressure drops pretty quickly and when pump runs while water is on, the pressure doesn't come back up. Anyone else encounter this? Trying to decide if pump just doesn't function that well anymore or if I'm getting buildup in the lines that is causing poor flow. Any advice would be helpful.

Thanks

[Steve Collins]

Chris,

Is this happening on both hot and cold? If only the hot side, then I would look for a problem around the water heater. Maybe a winterizing valve is not completely open. Maybe a kinked hose. Maybe a blockage in the tank it self.

The pump will run while the water is on. That is a normal condition unless a pressure tank has been added. If there is a pressure tank, it is possible that the air pressure is low. The tank would have a fitting on it just like the air fitting on a car tire and you can easily pump it back up. What you want is for the tank to fill about half way or more, compressing the air so that it's a long time between runs of the pump.

You could hook the system up to city water and see if you get the same pressure drop, indicating a clog some where.

Also, the line between the fresh water tank and the pump can be susceptible to sediment or other things accumulating, causing a partial blockage that would make things perform pretty much as you describe. That line is easily disconnected from the pump and could be blown out, pushing the blockage out.

Others may have some ideas, too.

[cnash1970]

Thanks Steve.

When I am hooked up to city water, the pressure is good. Also the prssure drop is same on either hot or cold.That is why I assumed a pump issue. I had also thought about the short feeder line between the tank and the pump. I'll pull that off this weekend and take a look. The pressure drop I get is pretty significant. The shower or faucet is barely more than a trickel after about 10 seconds of running the water. Then the pump kicks on and the pressure really doesn't recover while water is running. I also notice when I drain the fresh water tank, I don't get a good flow. Wondered if it is airlocked and not getting enough air venting the tank.

[JohnB]

Chris

Steve gave you a good list of things. But after reading your note you may indeed have a pump problem.

If you want to check this out, you need to get a pressure gage in the system. Can be anywhere down stream of the pump. One place can be the hot water heater. Drain tank, take out the drain plug, install a nylon pipe bushing then adapt to a pressure gage. Fill system and let the pump pressurize. The pump should be in the 40 to 45 psi range. Even 35 may work. When you connect your house it may be 50psi.

If you are down in the 25 to 30 range or lower then the pump is not working right. Blocked suction line could be. While a blocked pressure outline line is not impossibly, would look at suction line first. If you have an air compressor, unhook the pump suction line and then blow the suction line backwards into the tank. It can be good odds there is no strainer in the tank or before the pump. I added my pump suction strainer to protect the pump from things that just seem to end up in the tank. And I filter all water that goes in unless it is from my house. The prior owner may not have been so diligent on filtering water on the way in.

The fresh tank draining slow. Well unless someone upgraded the drain valve the common RV fresh tank drain can take well over an hour or more to drain a full fresh tank. The hole is really small in those valves. I upgraded mine to a 1/2 boiler drain getting so fed up with the RV standard drain valve.

Good luck and hope this helps.

John

[JohnB]

Also pending what pump you have there is an adjustment screw for the pressure shut off. But if the pump is running and you are only getting a trickle out of the shower, well the volume is not there.