Water pump questions

[TripKitty]

So, I am actually moved into my rv and have spent the last week living in it. I'm still parked in the driveway of my house while transitioning. (And I'm thankful for that too at the moment). Yesterday, I discovered my water pump had a slight leak.

 

I pulled the old one out and am planning to replace it rather than try to repair it since it's 25 years old by the date on it. Since I'm not close to an RV store, I'm ordering a new one off amazon and going back to using my house for things where I need running water for a few days.

 

Are there any tips on things I can do when installing the new one to make it quieter?

 

The area currently has carpet in it, but I plan to tear it out since it's 30 years old at this point and very gross. I am thinking to line the area with some rubber... I used some rubber door mats to line a storage compartment and thought I'd cut a piece for this area. Is there any reason why screwing the water pump down on top of the rubber mat would be a bad idea?

 

Looking closely at the area, I think it may have been leaking for some time, but it would have been hard to notice since the carpet would have soaked up a lot of the water. I'm also thinking the rubber mat would make any future leaks more noticeable and easier to clean up.

 

I've never replaced a water pump before. Any other tips that may be useful?

 

Thanks in advance for the help!

[Yarome]

Is there any reason why screwing the water pump down on top of the rubber mat would be a bad idea?

 

Any other tips that may be useful?

 

Nope. Sounds like a good idea to me. You might want to secure your hoses. Leave the pump end a little slack in case you need to remove the hose connections, but basically you're trying to prevent the hoses from slapping around if you're pump has a tendency to "pulse".

[oldjohnt]

Trip, I have replaced several, and like you try to limit their noise, here are my thoughts FWIW not one thin dime but hey you asked.

 

 

To deaden noise I've used few pieces of that acoustic sound absorbing egg crate foam "stuff" to line the compartment walls, THAT REALLY HELPS.

 

As far as a rubber mat to mount on, all well and good, but "real hard" rubber doesn't help all that much, sure it does some. Carpet on the floor is a good sound absorber

 

Some have those soft rubber grommets where the mounting screws go through, just don't screw them down so tight you loose the benefit of the shock absorbing soft rubber.

 

I WOULD NOT BE WITHOUT one of those small captive air bladder tanks (like a shock absorber for air and pressure) that reduces short cycling and too much pump switch cycling that happens at low flow conditions. When the faucets are barely cracked it saves your pressure switch from chatter and overworking.

 

In line filter on the suction inlet side??????????/, Ive had and not had them but its prob a good idea to keep foreign material out.

 

Its good if you have fairly heavy gauge wire from the source to the pump, like at least 12 or even 10 versus 14 or 16. Fused and protected of course.

 

This may be controversial and not exactly same as my friend Yarome, but IFFFFFFFFFFFF you have the space available you might consider a hose loop where the flexible hose lines attach to the pump to allow for contraction and expansion and flexibility as the pump could (depends on mounting) torque just a tad when starting and I have even placed that thin foam insulation over the lines which protects them and reduces noise BUT AS YAROME WARNS YOU DONT WHAT THOSE LINES SO LOOSE WHERE THEY JUMP AROUND!!!!!!!! Often there no room to do all of the above and sure it will work as long as hooked up and no leaks

 

John T NOT a plumber or RV technician so do as the experts say over me.

[Randyretired]

A flexible loop on the outlet as others have described worked well for us. An accumulator tank also helps.

[TripKitty]

Thank you all for the tips.

 

 

I WOULD NOT BE WITHOUT one of those small captive air bladder tanks (like a shock absorber for air and pressure) that reduces short cycling and too much pump switch cycling that happens at low flow conditions. When the faucets are barely cracked it saves your pressure switch from chatter and overworking.

 

Is this like what you mean? http://www.amazon.com/SHURflo-182-200-Pre-Pressurized-Accumulator-Tank/dp/B000N9VF6Q/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&qid=1458927014&sr=8-12&keywords=rv+water+pump

[skp51443]

TripKitty, We used a small one like that right on the outlet of the pump on all our rigs. It did reduce pump noise a good bit and reduced cycling some so it was well worth installing. When we got a bigger rig with more room we still added the small one at the pump but also added a much larger one in the basement, the big one did nothing for noise but it really cut down on cycling.

 

2 gallon: http://www.amazon.com/WaterWorker-HT-2B-Pressure-2-Gallon-Capacity/dp/B001AZL562/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1458928284&sr=8-2&keywords=accumulator+tank+rv

 

3 gallon: http://www.amazon.com/Everpure-EV310275-3--Gallon-Accumulator-Tank/dp/B009GENHZ6/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1458928284&sr=8-8&keywords=accumulator+tank+rv

[oscarvan]

The song of the water pump is part of the RV'ing sound scape to me.......

[GeorgiaHybrid]

You can also use a variable speed pump that will run just enough for the required flow and not have the bladder. I went that way due to reduced time spent changing it out and not much room to add the 2 gallon bladder I was going to use.

[hemsteadc]

A flexible loop on the outlet as others have described worked well for us. An accumulator tank also helps.

x2. The flexible outlet hose should cure 90% of the noise.

[oldjohnt]

Trip, yep a small one similar to what you linked works well for me http://www.amazon.co...s=rv water pump mines a different brand but similar in size

 

However my buddy has a much larger one probably like what Stanely posted and if you want to spend more money go the variable speed route LOTS OF PRICES AND OPTIONS OUT THERE. You want a Chevy or a Cadillac lol to each their own

 

John T Still NOT a plumber so no warranty lol

[Kirk W]

x2. The flexible outlet hose should cure 90% of the noise.

My experience as well. Lining the space with sound insulation don't quite the pump it prevents the sound from getting out. But the pump is connected to a semi-rigid water line made of pex (typically) and that pipe transmits the vibrations from the pump and acts exactly like the sound board of a piano or acoustic guitar. If you install a flexible line between the pump and the rigid line on each side of the pump, it solves most of the problem.

[oldjohnt]

I have to agree with Kirk and old,, I prefer flexible hose sections to the pump versus the fairly rigid PEX or Gray tube like they used to use. If you use hose and flex loops to allow for expansion/vibration, plus the rubber pump mounts maybe carpet and even the egg crate foam insulation I mentioned earlier, you're going to achieve much much quieter operation. But if too quiet you may never hear that tell tale now and then pump cycling which happens when you have a very small leak lol a guy just cant win

 

Keep your water flowing gang...............

 

John T

[TripKitty]

OK, I have the parts on order from Amazon- a new pump, some flexible hoses & the small tank from the link I posted before. Being a van, I have no space for a larger tank and am not sure I can get the small one to fit, but I'm going to give it my best shot. I think I have some of that egg crate foam so I'll use that.

 

I don't really need the pump to be totally silent- since I'm traveling solo, it's not like I'm trying to sleep through it or anything. But it did used to make quite a bit of a racket, so if I could get it to be 50% quieter or so, that would be nice.

 

Now, I just have to wait for the parts... the last one won't be here until Wednesday... the sweet feeling of anticipation.