Replacing the Soft Hose in a 315RLTS

[howson]

When functioning normally hot water can flow to the fixtures or the nautilus panel via the tee. Now my shower is literally instantly hot and my kitchen faucet gets hot in about 10 seconds.

Emphasis on the word OR is mine, as it was the key to understanding your post. I went back through the hot water flow diagram and that word "or" made it click. What casual readers of this thread may not realize is the water travels from the water heater (about midway down a 315RLTS), all the way to the front of the camper (where the Nautilus is) and then has to flow all the way back to about midway in the camper again to reach the bathroom and even further to reach the kitchen. By inserting the "T", Boucon has cut the hot water travel easily by 90%!

Congratulations--an excellent application of system knowledge. I may have to try this myself.

Howard

P.S. Sure wish your post had included pictures. (Hint)

[Guest]

Excellent work and documentation Howard. Rob has certainly paved the way to eliminate leaks.

Do you have a recommendation for a PEX crimper?

Jim

[howson]

Excellent work and documentation Howard. Rob has certainly paved the way to eliminate leaks.

Do you have a recommendation for a PEX crimper?

Jim

My experience is with one tool. It has worked well, but when in tight spaces it becomes a challenge. I especially like the GO/NO-GO gauge so I can verify each crimp to make sure I did it right.

Cate&Rob (I think) has used a variety of pex crimpers and will likely have valuable input. Might be a good topic for it's own thread in the Tools channel. (I'll move this there if there's a lot of additional posts on the subject of just the pex tool.)

Here's what I bought:

[Cate&Rob]

Guest howson

I have posted the attached "tools and parts" info previously on other threads. I stayed with the stainless steel crimp rings (as used by Grand Design) rather than the solid copper rings that are the alternative that Howard uses. The tool shown in post #145 is for the solid copper rings. The tool that I used is shown in the attached pdf. There are one hand versions of this tool that might be better suited for the tight spaces that we have to work in, but I have never tried these. One of the main reasons that I stayed with the OE style crimp rings is that they are easier to "unwrap" than removing a solid copper ring which has to be cut. The stainless steel crimp rings can be visually inspected for proper crimping whereas the copper rings need the go/no go gauge that Howard uses.

11 pages and 154 posts !!

Rob

Plumbing Tools & Parts.pdf

[Guest]

Cate&Rob Thank you Rob.

Next on my list is changing out the gas strut on my awning, getting it aligned and correcting a 1/8 inch gap at the bracket on the back wall. Correcting a sagging gutter installed by GDRV after that. $^%$^%.

For now, the water alarms, a PEX kit and some RecPro high quality hose on board will help.

Jim

[Jimmer]

Question about replacing soft hose with PEX for howson and others who have done this job. Shureflo is a manufacturer of RV water pumps, and likely made the pump on my RV. My water pump inlet was connected to a white soft hose which was kinked (from the factory install), which gave me low water pressure when using the pump. I changed that hose from the Nautilus panel to the pump inlet with blue pex. But the instructions for the Shureflo water pump state to use hose and not plastic pipe on the pump connections. See the attached image of the relevant portion of the instructions.

In view of the instructions, do you think that Pex directly connected to the water pump strainer and/or water pump outlet will crack over time due to vibrations from the pump?

[howson]

Question about replacing soft hose with PEX for howson and others who have done this job. Shureflo is a manufacturer of RV water pumps, and likely made the pump on my RV. My water pump inlet was connected to a white soft hose which was kinked (from the factory install), which gave me low water pressure when using the pump. I changed that hose from the Nautilus panel to the pump inlet with blue pex. But the instructions for the Shureflo water pump state to use hose and not plastic pipe on the pump connections. See the attached image of the relevant portion of the instructions.

In view of the instructions, do you think that Pex directly connected to the water pump strainer and/or water pump outlet will crack over time due to vibrations from the pump?

Connecting PEX directly to the pump inlet and outlet was not a good choice (by me) when I did this project. The reason is the pump vibrations are transferred through the PEX--thus the noise associated with the pump is carried by the plumbing into the trailer. As you also noted, the connectors are subjected to a lot of vibration, too. Mine never leaked, but again, an inflexible connector on the pump (in retrospect) wasn't the best choice.

What I've done since that time is change the connections (when I changed the pump) and used a washer hose. The hose absorbs some of the vibration. Between the new pump and now (better) hose for the application I have almost zero pump noise.

See https://gdrvowners.com/forum/operati...t-a-difference for full documentation of the change.

Howard

[Jimmer]

...

What I've done since that time is change the connections (when I changed the pump) and used a washer hose. The hose absorbs some of the vibration. Between the new pump and now (better) hose for the application I have almost zero pump noise.

See https://gdrvowners.com/forum/operati...t-a-difference for full documentation of the change.

Howard

Wonderful! I knew (at one time) that you changed your pump, but did not notice the hose connection. Thanks for the link on your revised pump connection. That's a big help!