things that scare you when your watching horror movies

[powerboatr]

Friday night, we were watching a few horror movies and generally had the nerves a bit wired from all the seat jumping scenes.
it was just about midnight and my wife was walking by the kitchen sink and BAM/HISSS/KNOCK/SQUIRT was the sound that about had her leaping out the window.
I ran out and instantly recognized the sound of water under mild pressure doing its best to clean the under sides of my cabinet.
With quick reflexes i sprang into action and ran outside and cut off the water.

I have been removing and replacing all water supply hoses inside the coach ,that were secured with hose clamps, with manufactured hoses tested at 150 PSI, somehow i felt this particular hose was exempt ( i thought it was to the ice maker). Stupid me,
as the pictures show the end that blew off was incorrectly assembled
first the hose was to big for the barb fitting by 1/8" inside hose diameter, 2nd the barb was wrapped with Teflon tape, which is SLIPPERY and was a recipe for disaster.
so after we vacuumed up all the water and wiped down the walls, threw out my cheerios that were soaked, threw out the alum foil and saran warp boxes, set up the dehumidifier i went to bed.

next morning i set out to repair the culprit, as i was laying under the sink getting an feel for this lines function i figured out the filter assembly was not for the ice maker, but instead for the cold water side of the faucet. Since my rig also has a whole house filter installed on the water intake line, and all of our drinking water is run through the R/O unit, i decided this redundant filter was no longer required.

sooooooo
now we have no more hose clamped hoses inside the rv, I do still have three in the wet bay, for the outside shower and water drains, these i feel will be replaced very soon
and BTW i had the pressure regulator set at 50 PSI.

Tuscany, Astoria and Essence folks i would take a hard look under your kitchen sink.

damon is getting a call in the AM, cheerios arent to be messed with

[Danorske]

Bob,
Sorry to hear of your leak.
What kind of replacement, tubing/water lines, are you using? How are you attaching them without the clamps?

Ron

[powerboatr]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Danorske Bob, Sorry to hear of your leak. What kind of replacement, tubing/water lines, are you using? How are you attaching them without the clamps? Ron

i have getting new built up ones at HD or lowes, and use 3/4 npt plastic nipples or brass to connect the lengths if needed.

so far its been easy and as most were less than three feet long.
my favorite was the one under the bath sink for the black tank flusher,
i replaced it then i moved the whole thing to the wet bay just above the blank tank, never made sense having the flusher hoses going that far UP and inside the coach. for some reason the pressure side was a hose clamp and the outlet was a built up line with 3/4 npt fittings, you can guess which one flooded the bathroom

the hose clamps and barbs would be ok, if the barbs were the right size, the hose should be snug to get on without a clamp, but all of mine were loose fit and would pop off if the clamp pressure was removed
MOF the hose end barb measured .471 at its largest point on the O.D and the hose at a relaxed un pinched pint measured .512 on its I.D, which leaves .041 thousandths to make up by pinching it with a clamp, way to sloppy
the PEX tubing is another great idea, but on two hoses the connection to the pressure side was a hose clamp and the flexible pvc that was to big for the barbed end.

right now my questionalbe hoses are al lin the wet bay, so at least no more ruined food.
i really believe the plumbing started out great and then along the way an assembler cut something wrong and instead of doing it right, just added a barbed fitting and hose clamp.

[powerboatr]

i emailed Damon about the line failures....
below is my letter then the reply
i think the reply is a bit SCREWED up

"Sir,
I do hope you can help or give this to engineering. I have had three major water leaks inside the coach now and my patience is worn thin. The first was our first night in the unit back in April. The cold water supply line under the sink was not tightened at the connection between the line and the faucet line, it subsequently flooded the basement and the kitchen as we slept.

I chalked it up to a loose line and corrected the problem.

The second was the blank tank flusher water vacuum break fitting under the bathroom vanity, I am still scratching my head as to why the vacuum breaker was installed INSIDE the coach, It popped off at a hose barb and hose fitting. Subsequently it flooded the bathroom and made a for a terrible mess to clean up while camping. I lost all the products that where stored under the sink, to include band aids, soap, dry towels and paper products.

This past Friday night the 21st of August around 12:00 AM another line decided to let go under the sink and spray gallons of water all over food and again soak the carpet under the sink before draining out on the floor and into the basement.

The line that let go was not a line with a manufactured end, it was instead a hose barb and a piece of flexible hose attached with a hose clamp.
It do not pop off from over pressure as i have the incoming water supply set to 50 PSI, which 30 less than what I am told the system is tested to. The line question was a branch hose that ran across the under side of the cabinet around the sink to a water filter then back down to the cold side supply to the water faucet.
When I finished the cleanup and de-watering, i examined the hose and the barb used and determined the outside diameter of the hose barb at its widest point was .471 thousandths and the ID of the attached hose was .512 thousandths, yes it was bigger than the hose barb by .041 thousandths of an inch, in fact it just slipped onto the barb with no resistance and was relying on the hose clamp to take up the oversize and perform a seal. I am thankfully i was in my unit at the time or the damage would have most certainly been quite severe. I then removed the entire filter assembly for better inspection and found the other end of the hose to be of the same mismatch and again was relaying on shear clamp pressure to seal the hose.
I also found on the hose barb that popped off, several wraps of Teflon tape, which is commonly used to aid in sealing threads on NPT pipe connections, not used a gap filler between a hose barb and the hose. What really confounds me is why are al the other connections either using manufactured hose ends or PEX tubing connectors that aren't subject to mere hose clamp friction to ensure a no leak seal?
I include three pictures of the hose and the filter. I have since removed the filter and am working out a " whole house" filter in the outside wet bay.






the reply

"The rule of thumb for the allowed water pressure for an RV is 40 PSI as if the water pressure is above the 40 PSI it is possible to cause water leaks at seals. Not sure if the water pressure of 50 PSI caused the three water leaks you presented below but it may have caused the failures to happen sooner. We at Damon apologize for the inconveniences you experienced and pre your request I will forward your E-mail to production and our Engineering department."

[DBOL]

Robert other Damon owners also need to check plumbing as I also found out about Black tank flush after the fact and have had small leek under sink do to pee trap coming loose.I look forward to seeing first hand about problem sloving.

Darrell

[cfsoistman]

It appears that water leaks are the most common issue with most manufacturers. Why they don't pressure test the lines with air is beyond me, other than it takes time and costs money to do. I belong to other forums as well and it's documented from Pop-ups to the big boys. It's a shame that the consumer is the one bearing the burden for inconvenience and cost, not to mention the damage and time to repair it as wll as the clean up. My next RV will be gone over with a fine tooth comb before I leave the lot. They may as well lock me in the lot because I'll be checking it all.

[Bill98116]

I just bought a new (2008) Tuscany in Aug 2009 and am already having water leaks under the sink in the bathroom. I will start looking under the kitchen sink to check out that system before anything under there starts to leak. Thanks for the heads-up.

[buckeyeduffer]

At 3000 kmiles (purchased 9/28/09) we have experienced the same pee trap problem under bathroom lavatory and the hose clamp under the kitchen sink on the outlet side of the filter. Have not had it hooked to shore water yet so am beginning to get p__p in my drawers from following your folks to date experience. As an ex Public Works puke in the Air Force I am paranoid about poor pipe fitting anyway. Have lost too many turbines, boilers. and gennies due to poor OEM, and installers quality control.

Planned to run to NC for a long haul shake down, but having trouble getting out of town. Oh well, at the rate we're going will not get it out of the dealers service bay anytime soon anyway so no-harm, no-foul, right?

[powerboatr]

Quote:

Originally Posted by buckeyeduffer At 3000 kmiles (purchased 9/28/09) we have experienced the same pee trap problem under bathroom lavatory and the hose clamp under the kitchen sink on the outlet side of the filter. Have not had it hooked to shore water yet so am beginning to get p__p in my drawers from following your folks to date experience. As an ex Public Works puke in the Air Force I am paranoid about poor pipe fitting anyway. Have lost too many turbines, boilers. and gennies due to poor OEM, and installers quality control. Planned to run to NC for a long haul shake down, but having trouble getting out of town. Oh well, at the rate we're going will not get it out of the dealers service bay anytime soon anyway so no-harm, no-foul, right?

i removed my under sink filter
and installed a whole house one at eh water hook up like my fiver had. this eliminated the last hose clamped connection inside the "BOX"
i have two left in the wet bay, both are on the water tank fill lever, and yep one of em leaked when we were in NM. so her i am in the rv park, folks looking at me crazy as i dis-assembled my wet bay panels to get to it.
even heard some funny remarks as my head and shoulders were up inside the beast