Just posting this as a bit of a warning to fellow caravanners who want to prolong the life of their water pump.
My unit is a Bailey California which has the Whale Smartflo inboard pump which feeds the taps from either an aquaroll or the inboard tank, with two manual valves to switch between them. I usually pump from the aquaroll and switch to the inboard tank if the aquaroll runs dry at an inopportune moment. When we go out, usually straight after clearing away the breakfast things, we always turn off the waterheater.
During our last outing of 2012, we returned to the van on one occassion, after being out all day, to the pump running. What's going on I thought, half expecting a pipe to have detached itself or we'd sprung a leak somewhere. But that wasn't the case. Everywhere was dry, including the aquaroll.
I eventually realised what had happened. The aquaroll must have run dry at the same time as the tap was turned off. With our system, as the hot water tank cools, we get three or four strokes of the pump to maintain the pressure as it drops due to the water cooling. On this occassion there couldn't have been anything left in the aquaroll so it carried on pumping, probably some six hours or more! I was impressed that it was still working, and continued to do so for the rest of the holiday.
However, this last time away, the pump started to struggle. It wasn't cutting in straight away, then it struggled to cut in at all and then coupled with some nasty metalic noises gave up completely. I'm sure it's because of the abuse it received last time out.
Luckily, we were directed to a very helpful and well stocked caravan shop only a few miles away at Hill Park in Pentlepoir, near Saundersfoot. About half an hour and £120 lighter, we were fully functioning again.
Moral of this story - we always turn the pump off when leaving the van now!
My unit is a Bailey California which has the Whale Smartflo inboard pump which feeds the taps from either an aquaroll or the inboard tank, with two manual valves to switch between them. I usually pump from the aquaroll and switch to the inboard tank if the aquaroll runs dry at an inopportune moment. When we go out, usually straight after clearing away the breakfast things, we always turn off the waterheater.
During our last outing of 2012, we returned to the van on one occassion, after being out all day, to the pump running. What's going on I thought, half expecting a pipe to have detached itself or we'd sprung a leak somewhere. But that wasn't the case. Everywhere was dry, including the aquaroll.
I eventually realised what had happened. The aquaroll must have run dry at the same time as the tap was turned off. With our system, as the hot water tank cools, we get three or four strokes of the pump to maintain the pressure as it drops due to the water cooling. On this occassion there couldn't have been anything left in the aquaroll so it carried on pumping, probably some six hours or more! I was impressed that it was still working, and continued to do so for the rest of the holiday.
However, this last time away, the pump started to struggle. It wasn't cutting in straight away, then it struggled to cut in at all and then coupled with some nasty metalic noises gave up completely. I'm sure it's because of the abuse it received last time out.
Luckily, we were directed to a very helpful and well stocked caravan shop only a few miles away at Hill Park in Pentlepoir, near Saundersfoot. About half an hour and £120 lighter, we were fully functioning again.
Moral of this story - we always turn the pump off when leaving the van now!
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