Contractors making repairs at home, so we are living in RV in driveway.
I have full hookups at home. My question is this. Can you be hooked to city water and use you water pump at the same time. I have noticed increased water pressure when taking a shower.
Does this do any harm?
__________________ Rick & Jan
with Lilly (Most Active Dog) & Mattie (Laziest Dog in the World)
Wally: 2014 Thor Windsport 34f
Toad: (Wally One) 2014 Fiat 500L Trekking (4 Down)
"Welcome to our front porch"
It caused harm in my Vegas. I mistakenly left the water pump switch on when I hooked up the city water. It allowed water to slowly feed back into the fresh water tank. The tank over filled and leaked into the floor.
It caused harm in my Vegas. I mistakenly left the water pump switch on when I hooked up the city water. It allowed water to slowly feed back into the fresh water tank. The tank over filled and leaked into the floor.
I would think that had nothing to do with leaving the pump on; it's a common problem due to all the crap Thor leaves in the tank when they drill the holes.
To the OP; you can use the pump while connected to city water IF you have water in the FW tank AND the city water pressure is less than the pump output pressure. We have done this on occasion while showering when connected to low city water pressure.
I'm a little confused about this:
...in the event of using both pressurized water, and the water pump, at the same time, you would be using both pressurized incoming water AND your holding tank water, i would assume, at least that's the way it would seem on my Anderson RV200 4-way Valve setup.
The outside water, when available, comes in to the Main valve inlet connection:
-1)then is shared to the Water tank, when you want to fill it...'Fill Tank'
-2)or directly to the water lines/faucets... 'City Water'
or, when no outside water is available
-3)the third connection is from the Water pump, allowing you to pull from the water tank to your water lines/faucets... 'Normal/Use Tank'
-4)or to pull from the 'inlet' connection from a bucket... 'Sanitize/Winterize'
I had originally assumed that the water came via the main connection, thru the water pump, and THEN to the 4-way Valve, but now I know that's not the case.
I had also thought that it therefore might seem reasonable if you thought your water pump could 'help' give you more water pressure, when it was switched on - but no, it's really just 'adding' water from the tank, and the water pressure that the pump provides, more-or-less 'overriding' the low pressure of the outside water.
So, the question for me is this: how then, if the 4-way valve is set to 'City Water' does the water pump, when switched on, provide the 'additional' water from the tank, since the valve is not set to 'Normal/Use Tank' ?
__________________
the Turners...
two Campers, two Electric cars
former diesel pusher traveler
I'm a little confused about this:
...in the event of using both pressurized water, and the water pump, at the same time, you would be using both pressurized incoming water AND your holding tank water, i would assume, at least that's the way it would seem on my Anderson RV200 4-way Valve setup.
The outside water, when available, comes in to the Main valve inlet connection:
-1)then is shared to the Water tank, when you want to fill it...'Fill Tank'
-2)or directly to the water lines/faucets... 'City Water'
or, when no outside water is available
-3)the third connection is from the Water pump, allowing you to pull from the water tank to your water lines/faucets... 'Normal/Use Tank'
-4)or to pull from the 'inlet' connection from a bucket... 'Sanitize/Winterize'
I had originally assumed that the water came via the main connection, thru the water pump, and THEN to the 4-way Valve, but now I know that's not the case.
I had also thought that it therefore might seem reasonable if you thought your water pump could 'help' give you more water pressure, when it was switched on - but no, it's really just 'adding' water from the tank, and the water pressure that the pump provides, more-or-less 'overriding' the low pressure of the outside water.
So, the question for me is this: how then, if the 4-way valve is set to 'City Water' does the water pump, when switched on, provide the 'additional' water from the tank, since the valve is not set to 'Normal/Use Tank' ?
My experience is with RVs with gravity fill FW tanks and a standard City Water hose connection. I'm not sure how a 4-way valve would tie into the system.
RVs without the 4 way valve just have both water sources in parallel (like batteries in parallel, the higher voltage battery supplies the most current).
Maybe the 4-way valve acts like a selector switch kinda like the ATS does for SP/Generator?
well, I decided to do some 'research' to confirm my thoughts, and really to try to 'imagine' how these lines are connected because they are all behind a hard metal panel, not to be viewed by human eyes, even with an iphone or camera... so...
I found this interesting and well colored DIAGRAM for this 4-way dual valve system...
(by the way, Anderson has two different versions: one is the 4-way valve, and the other also combines the separate Water Heater Bypass valve)
I've attached both the diagram I found online, and my own 'hand drawn' example with water flows and also the separate listing of flows for each of the four types.
-the right 'side' of the valve is the Anderson 4-way connector
-the 'middle' is the additional 3-way connection, when the WH Bypass valve is integrated
-the 'left' side is the 3-way Water Heater bypass valve
I believe part of my confusion is that the 'TEE' that provides for the connection between the Water Pump output to both the Cold Water lines and also back to the middle connector is key, though not necessarily part of Anderson's valve setup itself, but more of maybe how Thor decides to connect all these options.
and, yes, the incoming water does not first pass thru the water pump, and I can only 'assume' that Anderson's engineers imagined that at times the water pump may be used in conjunction with incoming pressurized(or low) water, so therefore don't 'block' the ability for the valve to allow both flows at the same time...
maybe : )
__________________
the Turners...
two Campers, two Electric cars
former diesel pusher traveler
Our Axis doesn't have an Anderson flow valve (and many coaches don't).
In our case the passenger side fill is simply a gravity fill that dumps straight into the FW tank. The driver's side hookup is for city water which connects to the pressurized cold water lines through a check valve (e.g. "after pump").
Thus we can have the pump on and city water "on" at the same time. When the system pressure drops below the pump's switch threshold the pump will turn on. If the city water pressure is lower than the pump's switch it will come on (also if you open enough faucets to get enough volume out that city water can't maintain system pressure the pump will switch on).
and it could also be that the water pump is always pressurized by City Water, even when the pump is not being used.... therefore, if so, the water pump being switched on would allow it to take some of the outside water and pump IT to the water lines, versus pulling it from the Water Tank...
one drawback to that, though, is that there is a question of whether the pump can PHYSICALLY create more pressure than what the incoming water is already providing - would it be possible that the water pump gets 'ahead' of the incoming water and therefore begins to pull air in the process?
I'm not sure I understand the physics of it, but I'm probably just missing part of the actual process of what's going on when this happens...
Our Axis doesn't have an Anderson flow valve (and many coaches don't).
In our case the passenger side fill is simply a gravity fill that dumps straight into the FW tank. The driver's side hookup is for city water which connects to the pressurized cold water lines through a check valve (e.g. "after pump")....
yes, it seems the 'smaller' coaches get the more traditional 'gravity fill' and simpler valves, the 'mid-line' coaches get the Anderson valve setup, and the 'high-line' coaches get more valves for a more 'custom' usage of the systems.
I don't 'dislike' the Anderson 4-way Dual valve's combined design, as it is fairly easy to do everything you want to do, BUT because of the combining of all of the water lines, pump, water tank, and water heater connections all behind a 'steel wall', figuring out the system can be fraught with confusion, especially if you have an issue that needs attention.
Also, I didn't add that I removed my whole house FILTER from the equation. Thor initially ran separate lines all the way across the coach to the filter, on the passenger side, and back all the way across back to the valve INLET.
I moved the filter over into the wet bay several years ago, and it made things simpler, but now I've actually removed it all together and just use in AT the spigot - it's no longer 'plumbed' into the maze of water lines and connections.
I may get brave one day and remove my wet bay WALL where my Anderson connections are housed. I'd like to 'see' why there is such a wiring web behind the panel, and see if there is a way to minimize the number/lengths of water lines, or at least resort them so that 'seeing' them and where they go makes more sense.
: )
__________________
the Turners...
two Campers, two Electric cars
former diesel pusher traveler
With Thor Industries, it up to the plant's design staff how the coach is plumbed and wired, as all the plants operate independently. Plants 650 and 750 cost is a primary concern, so the extra time spent plumbing for an Anderson valve is just too much of an expense. Plant 850 coaches all get the Anderson valve because that what the buyers of these coaches expect and are willing to pay for.
__________________
Jim & Roy Davis
2016 Hurricane 31S
1961 Rampside in tow
I also see that Anderson Brass has now updated their RV200 type 4-way Valve and Dual system panels to be 'all brass', versus the all plastic units. Appropriate, since that's their name.
Contractors making repairs at home, so we are living in RV in driveway.
I have full hookups at home. My question is this. Can you be hooked to city water and use you water pump at the same time. I have noticed increased water pressure when taking a shower.
Does this do any harm?
You can only get max line pressure or max pump pressure. You will not increase pressure beyond the highest of the two. I would just use which ever gives you a safe pressure for your rig.
__________________
2017 Gemini 23TR Ford chassis w/ power stroke 3.2
DW, Daughter and 2 dogs, Sofie (black lab/boxer) and Phoebe (schnoodle)
i was told on my walk through to never run the water pump while on city water? hurrican 35m 2022
"Never" is too all encompassing. You don't NORMALLY run the water pump while connected to city water, BUT, if the city water pressure is unacceptably low to take a decent shower and we have water in the tank we'll run the water pump to increase pressure and flow to the shower. All it does is use some water from your FW tank.
An ambitious person could plumb a 2 way valve to the suction of the water pump to allow the choice of:
Pulling from the FW tank as normal. or
Puling from City Water and using the water pump as a booster pump. This would also require an isolation valve where the city water normally connects to the discharge header.
Guess my reaction to all this is -- Why? If you are connected to city water and it is providing water into the RV at about 50 psi, why run the pump?
The pump is there to pump the water out of the water tank when you are not connected to pressurized city water.
A park we were at last week only had 40 psi of water pressure. No problem for us but the folks next to us had to use their tank and pump to take showers.
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