Low Water Pressure

[racerx1699]

Cate&Rob
We have been living in our trailer full time for two years with good water pressure until this January. In January we were in a park and had good water pressure until it got very cold, and we had to start filling our fresh water tank during the day and using the pump at night. Sometimes while using city water during the day, I found that we had still been in the dry camping mode all day, I had forgotten to change the valves back to city water. After this is when we noticed that we started to have low water pressure when on city water and valves in the proper position. I’m wondering if it’s possible I damaged one of the valves while using water with them in the wrong position. I have read everything I could find on low water pressure, that’s where I found the information about installing the gauge on the low point drain line. Here is the information I was able to come up with.

On city water we have 60 psi at the regulator attached to the park water spicket. We have 50 psi out of our Clear Source filters going into the trailer and we have 45 psi on the gauge I installed on the cold water low point drain line. When we turn the water on in the kitchen sink, we have low water pressure and the low point drain gauge drops to 20 psi. When I change over to dry camping using the pump, we have 30 psi and good water pressure all the time. Now for the weird part, if I turn the pump off and leave the kitchen sink water on to dissipate the pressure while I switch back to city water, leaving the kitchen sink water on, when I turn the park water back on, we have good water pressure and 30 psi on the gauge I installed. It will stay like that until we turn the kitchen faucet off then it goes back to low water pressure and 20 psi on the gauge when we turn it back on.

[Guest]

You can try bypassing the filters. Static pressure and dynamic pressure are much different. Kitchen faucet scenario may be due to a defective check valve.

Jim

[racerx1699]

Jim, forgot to mention that I have tried removing the filters and the regulator from the system, it made no difference. I also purchased a new regulator that didn't make any difference either.

[Cate&Rob]

Hi Donnie & Pattie,

As mentioned by Guest Jim in post 2 . . . this sounds like a check valve problem. A check valve is basically a disc held in place by a spring. If the disc jams and does not open all the way, it will affect dynamic pressure (volume flow) but perhaps not static pressure. I would suspect the check valve at the city water inlet since you seem to get different flow rates depending on different system back pressure against the check valve. This valve is behind the screen in the water hose connection. Make sure that it is not contaminated or damaged and moves freely against the spring.

To check whether your inlet check valve is sealing correctly, you should see a significant rise in system pressure with water heating. Fill the system with city water and then turn on the water heater. Without opening any faucets, watch the system pressure gauge. If this does not rise significantly (20 psi or more), then the inlet check valve is leaking and your system pressure is being controlled by the pressure regulator on the city hose connection.

Rob

[Country Campers]

I wonder if it could also be the check valve on the water pump. When you have city water settings on the panel do you notice the fresh tank filling? If the check valve is bad on the pump might allow direct flow to the fresh tank.

Brian

[Jlawles2]

Could be that the park is having issues. It's possible to have good pressure but bad flow. Pressure will eventually build to the max in a system with a restriction when everything is off.

By chance, have you tried changing your hose between the spigot and the camper? Have you tested water pressure at the spigot with the regulator and it's gauge? And likewise just flat out ran the spigot full bore to the ground to verify that the park line is not partially clogged (iron ochre has been known to plug supply lines)?

[racerx1699]

I have replaced the hose, we do that every year. We have only had this problem since January of this year and have had low water pressure at the last 4 parks we have been at, so I don't think its a park problem.

I'm going to take the city water check valve apart today and check that. I'm also going to drain the fresh tank and leave it open to see if water continues to leak out.

I also wonder if I may have damaged one of the valves on the nautilus system, I think I turned the valves with pressure still on the system.

[TedS]

Probably did not damage a valve operating it under pressure.

If water is leaking back through the pump, the water pressure will drop to 5psi or less with shore water disconnected. You could disconnect the pump inlet hose to see if there is backflow while connected to shore water.

[Jlawles2]

racerx1699 If water were leaking into the fresh tank eventually it would start coming out of the overflow line.

Have you changed the inlet screen at the nautilus panel? Has anything changed in the basement or has anything shifted in to the back wall that covers all of the plumbing lines?

[racerx1699]

racerx1699 If water were leaking into the fresh tank eventually it would start coming out of the overflow line.

Have you changed the inlet screen at the nautilus panel? Has anything changed in the basement or has anything shifted in to the back wall that covers all of the plumbing lines?

I have ruled out the water pump check valve, no water is going to the fresh water tank.
Everything was working fine until we had to start switching between city water and our holding tank every day because the temps were dropping down to single digits at night. The temps were high 30s during the day so we could use city water during the day to use the washing machine and fill the fresh tank at night for dishes and showers. We were doing this every day for 2 weeks, it was during this time that we noticed that water pressure had dropped when we were on city water. At first I thought my filters may have clogged so I replaced them but it made no difference, then I changed the regulator and that made no difference. So we have just been living with it until now. I have been reading everything I could on here about low water pressure before I started my post.
I'll Have a new city water connection tomorrow, so I'll swap that out on Wednesday and see if that makes any difference.

[Country Campers]

I have tried to tear apart a valve on the Nautilus panel with no luck, they are not rebuildable as they are completely molded as one unit. That said I do not think there is an issue with a valve on the panel, but could be wrong. When replacing water inlet there is a u-shaped plastic keeper on the backside that you will need to remove, it is a little tricky but it can be done. There is a tab that sticks straight out on the closed end that you need to lift in order to slide the clip off, you will understand when you see it.

I am not sure what else to suggest, this is quite confusing for sure.

Brian

[TedS]

How about a shot in the dark. Has a handle come loose from a valve stem? The black valve is used to change from city to dry. Remove the handle. Grip the stem and see if the valve is fully rotated to one position or the other. Try the same thing with the white and blue valves. The reasoning is the rotation stops are in the handles, not the valve stems.