Water Filter Failure

[John Kaehms]

Friday, Dec.3, 2021, I bought a new replacement water filter for my coach from Camping World in San Martine, CA. The filter I purchased was a Camco HL-170 which was supposedly a direct replacement for my Sureflow filter mounted under my kitchen sink. The filter was installed the next day just after lunch. I periodically checked the filter for the next two hours to make sure there were no leaks at the fittings. There were no leaks.

At about 3 pm I was sitting in a lounge chair next to the sink when I heard a very loud “pop” followed by the sound of gushing water. I looked at the kitchen sink cabinet and water was pouring out of the doors. When I opened the cabinet doors I was doused with stream of water like a hose running full bore. I could see the cap of the Camco filter had blown completely off. Water was going everywhere along with the activated charcoal filter medium. Immediately I went outside the coach and shut off the water supply to the coach. The amount of time was only a few short minutes. However, in that time the coach sink cabinet, adjoining cabinet drawers were all flooded. The water had shot across the the coach and flooded the floor tile and soaked the carpet. Took nearly 2 hours of work with sponges, a wet / dry shop vac and nearly a dozen large beach towels to soak up all the water. Note that the filter is rated for 100 pounds and my pressure regulator keeps the coach pressure at about 50 pounds.

Upon close inspection of the cap it can be seen that the filter cap does not have threads but is held in place by PVC plastic glue applied to a ridge that is only about one quarter inch wide. Apparently the cap was not properly installed and glued. Fortunately I was in the coach and next to the filter when it failed. One can only imagine the magnitude of the disaster if the water had been left to run.

Has anyone else had experience with these filters failing? I returned the defective filter for a full refund. I won’t be buying any more filters from Camping World. The store manager was indifferent to the problem and said they intended to continue selling them and I should take the problem to “Corporate”.
Buyers be ware if you have one of these Camco filters.

JK
2007 Monaco Cayman

[TB673]

Sorry to hear about the filter failure.
This is one of the reasons that I run off of the Fresh Water Tank and Pump. When done, we shut the pump off. The switches get a lot of use though.

Once every 4 days I refill the tank.
Can you imagine if it happened at 2:30 am?


Here is what I use for filtering my dedicated drinking water faucet:


https://www.rvwaterfilterstore.com/p...omnipure+K2520


Great Customer Service also.






Tim

[153stars]

Out of curiosity I went on Amazon... reviewer RVdave same thing came to flooded MH. Other leaking at seam on more than one to another buyer. Page 2 blow out.
I think Hydrolife has been around a long time, maybe Camco just putting name on distributing them or bought them out.
I may ditch inline filters after reading these and go to small under sink type.

[CamJam1]

Wow, good thing you were there! We have that exact same filter under our sink. I hate to think what would happen if that thing split while we were away from the coach. I think I'll shut the water off when I leave from now on.

[Domo]

Originally Posted by TB673

Sorry to hear about the filter failure.
This is one of the reasons that I run off of the Fresh Water Tank and Pump. When done, we shut the pump off. The switches get a lot of use though.

Once every 4 days I refill the tank.
Can you imagine if it happened at 2:30 am?


Tim

In answer to you question, "if it happened at 2:30 am" - Well, there'd be a naked person running around the campground. LOL

However, after reading your habit of using the onboard pump and water, you've just made a convert of me - I've always been nervous about leaving the campground water on all the time but the paranoia never got high enough to make me consider alternatives (shame on me!). And, heck, all of us know we can't trust the electricity in a CG - why would be trust the water (pressure/purity).

We use a small countertop Berkey water filter for our drinking and cooking water.

Thanks for adding your {wise} comment.

[TB673]

Originally Posted by Domo

In answer to you question, "if it happened at 2:30 am" - Well, there'd be a naked person running around the campground. LOL

However, after reading your habit of using the onboard pump and water, you've just made a convert of me - I've always been nervous about leaving the campground water on all the time but the paranoia never got high enough to make me consider alternatives (shame on me!). And, heck, all of us know we can't trust the electricity in a CG - why would be trust the water (pressure/purity).

We use a small countertop Berkey water filter for our drinking and cooking water.

Thanks for adding your {wise} comment.

Domo, We have an inline filter at the spigot, the under counter filter for the drinking and cooking, and a Brita Pitcher for the Ice water. May be overkill, but it only takes 30 seconds to fill the Britta.


Tim

[Dutch Star Don]

Were you running a water pressure regulator?

[mr.tommy]

Originally Posted by Dutch Star Don

Were you running a water pressure regulator?

Yes, he said he has one and keeps it at about 50psi.

This is another reason why I don't have under the sink water filter. There's just no need to have one to have safe, good tasting water for every use. My water is triple filtered and softened BEFORE it comes into the coach or filling the fresh water tank.

I copied my water set up after this fella. It has worked flawless for the last 5yrs. and takes me 3 minutes to setup once we land somewhere. His awesome brass quick disconnects makes this possible.

We also always turn off our city water whenever we leave the RV for any reason and at night time we use our water pump and fresh water and then turn it off when we go to bed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14Zo8Vkvh5o&t=337s

[TechWriter]

Originally Posted by mr.tommy

This is another reason why I don't have under the sink water filter. There's just no need to have one to have safe, good tasting water for every use. My water is triple filtered and softened BEFORE it comes into the coach or filling the fresh water tank.

I rely on an under-the-sink reverse osmosis (RO) filter for drinking water because "triple filtered" doesn't remove a lot of harmful stuff.

Originally Posted by mr.tommy

I copied my water set up after this fella. It has worked flawless for the last 5yrs. and takes me 3 minutes to setup once we land somewhere. His awesome brass quick disconnects makes this possible.

I watched his video. He has some good tips, especially with tools, but when he called sediment filters "sedi filters", he lost some credibility. However, the clincher was when I noticed he stored his water hose tub right under his waste water valves.

I built a wall to separate my Sewer/Water sides:

[Dutch Star Don]

Originally Posted by mr.tommy

Yes, he said he has one and keeps it at about 50psi.

This is another reason why I don't have under the sink water filter. There's just no need to have one to have safe, good tasting water for every use. My water is triple filtered and softened BEFORE it comes into the coach or filling the fresh water tank.

I copied my water set up after this fella. It has worked flawless for the last 5yrs. and takes me 3 minutes to setup once we land somewhere. His awesome brass quick disconnects makes this possible.

We also always turn off our city water whenever we leave the RV for any reason and at night time we use our water pump and fresh water and then turn it off when we go to bed.

Yeah....I missed the pressure regulator.....reading too fast.

[mr.tommy]

Originally Posted by TechWriter

I watched his video. He has some good tips, especially with tools, but when he called sediment filters "sedi filters", he lost some credibility. However, the clincher was when I noticed he stored his water hose tub right under his waste water valves.

Ok that's funny right there. "sediment filters vs "sedi filters" oh jeeze.
And if you think having a hose tub under the coach near the wet bay is a problem, then you must have leaking waste water valves. You need to get those fixed ASAP.

But on the other hand you might have a point. He probably doesn't have enough sense to keep that out of the way when he's connecting and disconnecting and he probably never cleans it either.