Water pumps

[Surfer]

We bought our caravan brand new in January 2005 and are now on our sixth water pump. Most of them did not even last 6 months. Two of them lasted just on 14 months before packing in and at £nearly £40 a pop is not laughing matter. It is not a whale pump but is the other common one.

Over the weekend the new pump which we have had for over a year but only fitted it a few months ago for the first tinme has now packed up and emits a high pitch whistle and also has very low pressure. We tried another very old pump and after a bit of jigging it sprang to life and worked perfectly.

We now want to replace the current pump with a Reich water pump which we have been told is far more reliable, but are unsure what is involved in changing it over. Do we just replace the pump part and then use all the old bits etc or do we have to change the socket part in the caravan also.

 

[AnthonyNornIreland]

We had a whale pump for our old 94 challenger, and it worked well for a number of years, then quit, we invested in another, around

 

[ProfJohnL]

Hello Ian,

You don't say if your pump is an inboard model or one that drops into the water container, but I suspect it is a submersible on that you pop into the water container from your reference to 'the socket part'.

The most common cause for failure of these is if the pump either runs dry, or continues to run but all the taps are closed so the water is not actually flowing.

In both cases the pump motor will overheat, and cause the premature failure of the main shaft seal, allowing water to enter the motor compartmentand ruin the pump.

Do you have a 'pump running' light anywhere in the caravan? This would alert you to it running when it shouldn't be.

As for changing makes of pump, provided you can fit the pump to the existing hose and connector, any make should do.

It is very important that you ensure the pump is always submerged. so do not let your water barrel run dry.

If the pump continues to run when the taps are closed, you need to check that non of the control switches are faulty. If you have microswitches in every tap (switched tap system) then one may be faulty, alternatively you will have a pressurised system with an adjustable pressure switch. This may need to be adjusted to switch off at a slightly lower pressure.

Most caravans have a pump isolator switch, Get into the habit of turning it off at night or when you leave the caravan.

Anthony

Yours is a diaphragm pump, and yes compared to a submersibles they are noisy and because they are usually fitted to the structure of the caravan, the whole panel will tend to amplify the noise. There are isolation pads that try to damp out some of the vibration.

 

[johnwendy]

We had a whale pump for our old 94 challenger, and it worked well for a number of years, then quit, we invested in another, around

 

[AnthonyNornIreland]

Hi Anthony,

have a word with your dealer and ask then to check the fixings on your pump. We had the same problem and were able to have something fitted under the mounts to dampen the sound.

It hasn't completely silenced the pump, but it's now much better and we can live with it!

Wendy

many thanks for the suggestion, will start chasing up today.

 

[Surfer]

To the best of my knowledge none for the 6 pumps ran dry. Obviously there is the period when the pressure drops and you realise that it is running close to empty. When changing barrels we switch off until it is fully submerised.

When the correct pressure is reached, it shuts down so no issue there. We cannot understand why we are having so much problem with the pumps.

 

[MrsWarboys]

We've also found that the Flojet pump is really noisy in our new Challenger. I wondered if it was becuase it was not pulling enough water as it had been shipped folded up and the cross section had flattened, but even when got it back to the proper shape it did not improve. The manual is next door to useless as loads of languages but tells you nothing ! Grrr !! Any ideas would be really welcome !

 

[Jennifer_374461363]

Is it just a general loud pump noise, or do you have any sort of hammering noise in the pipes and pulsing of the water?

 

[metz]

Hi, I have a flojet pump in my Abbey, once i'd adjusted the pressure switch we got a good flow of water, the biggest problem with these pumps is air in the system, i found that the particle filter on the end would float to the top and as the pump operated would bounce in and out of the water therefore sucking air into the system, once i got that sorted then i needed to make sure the feed pipe had no kinks in it (it's made of a very soft plastic) if kinked the pump is struggling to draw enough water and bangs away,got all these sorted out and now have a good flow of water and the pump is actually less noisy than the submersible in our last van.

 

[Jennifer_374461363]

Anthony, you seem to be experiencing what I was asking Mrs Warboys about.

We had similar problems with ours, especially when only turning on a tap a little. There is some pressure adjustment of the pump possible, but if yours is mounted vertically, the pump has to be removed to reach the adjustment screw.

Our first pump was condemned as faulty, and a second fitted, but this was little better. In the end we fitted an accumulator, this has made a big difference. If you do not have one, fitting one would be helpful. The Fiamma one can be procured for about

 

[MrsWarboys]

Thanks Metz I'll give that a try, and to answer your question Jennifer,it's a general noise that sounds like there is air in the system so I think I'll tie a brick round the filter so it sinks !!

 

[Jennifer_374461363]

If you have an Aquaroll, there is a neat accessory available to keep the pipe under control, we got it at a dealer near Wrexham.

Basically it is an Aquaroll lid fitted with a long rigid pipe that reaches almost to the bottom of the Aquaroll.

You remove the strainer disc, thread the uptake pipe through to work out where to cut the rigid pipe, and reattach the disc so it sits just off the bottom.

The lid/pipe assembly then screws onto the Aquaroll and holds the pipe firmly in place. All for