The purpose of this note is twofold. First to share an experience I had concerning the drinking water system on my coach which lead to a lot of effort to resolve and secondly to inform you that if your system resembles mine your built in pressure regulator is not protecting your plumbing. FYI my coach is a 42' 2005 Patriot Thunder with a Vicksburg floorplan.
By way of background you should know I never leave my coach hooked up to “city” water. In practice I fill my potable water tank and then disconnect and stow the hose. When the tank is near empty I drain the black and grey water tanks and fill the potable tank. I have managed my water tanks in this manner since purchasing the coach.
Recently when I tried to fill my water tank I found the fill rate was surprisingly slow. I presumed the fill valve had failed and was not fully opening. Eventually, after cycling the fill valve a number of times the tank filled at its normal rate. When I disconnected the fill hose and turned the pressure pump back on, I found that the pump would cycle on several times a minute, although it would only run for a few seconds. I also found that the fill hose was under pressure which was not previously the case, that is, if the cap at the outboard end of the fill hose was loose water would leak out of it.
In trying to resolve this matter I found that the system was not configured as in the drawing that was included in my owner’s manual (see attached drawings). This is not too surprising, however, it makes diagnosing problems much more difficult. More on that matter later; first let me describe what caused the problem.
When I opened up the system and examined the internals of the fill valve and the check valves I found debris that prevented the valves from fully closing. It seems that a very small tree frog had taken shelter in the hose bib. When I connected the fill hose to the hose bib and then started to fill the water tank the tree frog was launched into the tubing resulting in the slow fill rate and, in turn, causing one check valve and the fill solenoid valve to not close completely. To prevent a recurrence, first I now flush out the hose bib prior to attaching the fill hose every time. Also I have installed a washer/screen combination on the fill hose.
The second issue to pass along is that I had presumed the built in pressure regulator was protecting my water system from excessive pressure. However, I found that city water is piped into a “tee” which routes water to both the regulator and to the water manifold, thereby bypassing the regulator. I have no idea why this line, bypassing the pressure regulator is there. It is not shown on the system diagram provided by the manufacturer. Also, it appears to have been factory installed judging from the appearance and condition of the fittings and tubing.
Less important, but none the less still aggravating, is that the configuration of the tubing to the water heater (Aqua Hot) cannot be as shown. Further, the fresh water tank dump valve and related tubing is not shown. I cannot see any of these lines so I do not know how they are configured. Also, but here I am nit-picking, the external shower was not shown on the diagram.
It is difficult to gain access to the tubing by passing the regulator so I will rely on an external pressure regulator to make sure excessive pressure does not cause problems.
I hope this information proves useful to any of you that may be experiencing similar problems.
