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Water, water everywhere

Mike_LeClair
Explorer
Explorer
Well, as the title suggests, we found water where we didn't really expect to. I was taking the skirts off of the old girl (trailer, not wife!) and I was working under the area just in the vicinity of the water heater. Momma was in the shower and I noticed water dripping under the edge of the trailer, just below the WH. I thought at first that the pressure relief valve was weeping or the drain plug was dripping a bit. Opened up the access panel and nope, bone dry in there. Crawled back under the RV and saw that an expose area above the coroplast was pretty wet. I opened up the access cubby to the back of the Atwood 10gal WH and sure enough the floor there, as well as the insulation between the floor and the coroplast was WET!!!. By now the WH had been in it's heating cycle for quite a few minutes and was approaching full pressure. In the light of the flashlight I finally saw it, water oozing out of the hot water outlet port of the WH. I grabbed the fitting and was able to tighten it by hand and then a bit more with some slip pliers. I could tell by the grunge and crusty buildup that the fitting had been leaking for a long time and I cursed at myself for not checking this out more frequently. Can hardly wait to get back home to Alberta and drop the underbelly to discover the extent of the damage done. SIGH!!!

Then my sweet Babboo mentioned to me that the lino in the toilet closet had a fairly large bubble forming from underneath. ****!!! more water problems, where in the @@##$%$%$%&&& is this coming from??? I checked all around the toilet and there were no leaks and the floor was dry. Then I remembered that we had a closet, right beside the toilet, that had a space for the washer/dryer that we didn't get with the RV. I pulled out the three utility drawers under the W/D area and sure enough, the floor had a fairly significant amount of water on it. In examining the fittings for the water supply to the W/D I could see that the cold water outlet was leaking from behind the black cap that was on the tap. At first I thought that the tap was somehow turned on, yet it was definitely in the closed position. I turned the black cap loose by one turn and the trickle became a flow. ****!!! Tightened the black cap as far as I could. Reversed the direction of the tap control and slightly opened the black cap again, only to have the previously mentioned flow become a geyser. ****!!! So then, clearly, this incredibly expensive .50 cent ball valve had failed for whatever reason. If not for the black cap on the outlet the ensuing flood would have been catastrophic. I couldn't really see any way to repair the existing stub of a fitting so I went into the basement plumbing, found the feed line going up to the W/D utility supply and installed a brand new, Home Hardware, Made by BOW Industries, $15.00 shark bite ball valve. No more water going onto the floor from the W/D water supply! YAY!!!

I got a chuckle out of the way the base shelf for the W/D was installed. See the hole in the front right corner? Why? The carry away pipe is in the back right corner. Ooooops, somebody musta put this shelf in upside down or just couldn't be bothered to reach in all the way to the back to hole saw the hole in. Oh well, QC has never been high on the list of most RV manufacturers.

Cheers!

Mike



Something Old, Something New
2012 F350 SRW, 6.7l Powerstroke, 3.55's front and rear.
2008 Fleetwood Regal 325RKTS
Mike, Carol and our 4 legged "furry child" Kenzie Shweenie Tod
7 REPLIES 7

Mike_LeClair
Explorer
Explorer
Hi All! Many thank yous for your reads and replies! Some good ideas to try with respect to leak detectors and using the fresh water tank vs full time water pressure.

Cheers!

Mike
Something Old, Something New
2012 F350 SRW, 6.7l Powerstroke, 3.55's front and rear.
2008 Fleetwood Regal 325RKTS
Mike, Carol and our 4 legged "furry child" Kenzie Shweenie Tod

jnharley
Explorer
Explorer
We purchased leak detectors just for this reason. We have them everywhere we could have a water leak problem. We also fill our fresh water tank and use it unless we are using the washer. That way if the water pump cycles, we know we have an issue. Sorry to hear of your troubles. Hopefully it will not be a complicated fix.
2015 Dodge Dually
2012 NuWa Discover America 355CK

Mortimer_Brewst
Explorer
Explorer
djousma wrote:
naturist wrote:
Sorry to hear you were afflicted and I do hope the repairs needed are less than you expect.

First time we used the shower in our then-brand-new TT, the bathroom floor flooded. Turned out the guy who installed the trap under the shower floor pan didn't bother to tighten the collar, so it was easy to fix. Sent me looking at all the plumbing fittings.


Same here in my 2017 Cardinal. Not only was the collar loose, and luckily wasn't leaking, but the shower enclosure wasn't caulked at all, and we ended up with water running out the bottom of the brand new 5th, the second day we had it. Talk about pissed off. That was while on full hookups. A week later, july 4th weekend, we are at campground on fresh water tank only, and I see dripping out the bottom of the trailer on the side that the pump is located. Pull out the bulkhead and find the water connections to the pump aren't even finger tight....

A real lack of QC these days.


I'm not sure that it's a lack of quality. All that bouncing on the road is naturally going to loosen up any screw on type water fitting. Checking that they are tight is a part of routine maintenance. Unfortunately this isn't mentioned in most manuals. Often people (myself included) learn that this has to be done after finding a puddle somewhere in the RV.
If ethics are poor at the top, that behavior is copied down through the organization - Robert Noyce

2018 Chevy Silverado 3500 SRW Duramax
2019 Coachmen Chaparral 298RLS

djousma
Explorer
Explorer
naturist wrote:
Sorry to hear you were afflicted and I do hope the repairs needed are less than you expect.

First time we used the shower in our then-brand-new TT, the bathroom floor flooded. Turned out the guy who installed the trap under the shower floor pan didn't bother to tighten the collar, so it was easy to fix. Sent me looking at all the plumbing fittings.


Same here in my 2017 Cardinal. Not only was the collar loose, and luckily wasn't leaking, but the shower enclosure wasn't caulked at all, and we ended up with water running out the bottom of the brand new 5th, the second day we had it. Talk about pissed off. That was while on full hookups. A week later, july 4th weekend, we are at campground on fresh water tank only, and I see dripping out the bottom of the trailer on the side that the pump is located. Pull out the bulkhead and find the water connections to the pump aren't even finger tight....

A real lack of QC these days.
Dave
2016 F350 Lariat 4x4 FX4 SRW CC SB 6.7 Magnetic Metallic
2017 Forest River Cardinal 3850RL

naturist
Nomad
Nomad
Sorry to hear you were afflicted and I do hope the repairs needed are less than you expect.

First time we used the shower in our then-brand-new TT, the bathroom floor flooded. Turned out the guy who installed the trap under the shower floor pan didn't bother to tighten the collar, so it was easy to fix. Sent me looking at all the plumbing fittings.

Devocamper
Explorer
Explorer
Sorry to hear your water woes. not that it is of any help now for you but we had a friend that had battery operated water detectors placed around his motorhome so we picked up some on amazon they are like a smoke detector but for water using a 9 volt battery and placed them under each sink, under the water heater and at the water center in hopes of catching something like what has happen to you . good luck
with the repairs and clean up
MIke
08 NU-WA Hitchhiker Discover America 339 RSB Sold
18 Host Mammoth
07 Chevy 3500HD LT1 EXT Cab LB DRW D/A Sold
18 Ram 3500 SLT Crew Cab DRW 4x2 6.4 4.10's

Campinfan
Explorer III
Explorer III
Your first line had me laughing...the rest, not so much. Hope the repair goes well. I feel bad for you. Let us know how the lino job turns out.
______________________
2016 F 350 FX4 4WD,Lariat, 6.7 Diesel
41' 2018 Sandpiper 369 SAQB
Lovely wife and three children