Community Forums

taboky · 05-04-2012, 02:40 PM

We were camping last weekend and had terrible water pressure. I turned on the pump and all was fine. Wife went to take shower and started getting puffs of air. This is the first time we have had to use the pump with a hook-up. Does there need to be water in the fresh tank? Feel stupid asking this

randyranger · 05-04-2012, 03:05 PM

Yes there needs to be water in the tank. the line for the city water should be conected up stream from the FW pump. you where probably sucking air from you tank, not good for the pump as it is water lubricated and cooled. another thing i have seen that if the city pressure is realy low and you use your own FW pump is that you could be charging the city system from your RV. now many camp grounds put a backflow preventer on their hook up to prevent this as there is the potential for your system to contaninate theirs.

**NLOVNIT** · 05-04-2012, 06:34 PM

randyranger is correct. You must have water in the fresh tank because that's where the pump is drawing from. You'll burn up the pump without water.

When we have low water pressure from a shore hookup, we just fill the fresh tank & run the pump. Much better than putting up with crappy low water pressure.

Lori-

taboky · 05-04-2012, 07:56 PM

Thanks for the replies. That is what I thought. If pump pressure is enough to go back to the campground, I would assume the backflow valve on my input would close.

H. Miller · 05-05-2012, 07:04 AM

Both the primary makers of RV water pumps have the following in their spec. page. "pump may be run dry without damage".
Not that I plan to

Clay L · 05-05-2012, 11:03 AM

We stay most of the winter in a campground with low water pressure and routinely run the pump together with the campground water. The check valve in the city water input prevents any back feed into the campground. The pump will cycle on when the park pressure is lower than the pump pressure and off when it isn't.

I fill the tank about half full so I can add fresh water every two weeks or so. The water comes from a well and is not chlorinated so I don't want to leave unused water in the tank too long.

danf7 · 05-05-2012, 11:15 AM

I usually keep my fresh water tank full and always run my pump when I take a shower. It keeps the water pressure higher and I am always rotating my fresh water. At the end of the season is when I'll drain it down to zip. Also if the canpground loses water pressure I always have water to use. ( It happened once...someone broke a water line and they had to shut down our area for about 1 1/2 hours until they fixed it. )

Dan