Frozen pipes - need help

[bs023521]

We are fulltimers in a 2015 308bhts and left our rig for two weeks and got some oddly cold weather while we were gone and I made the mistake of not winterizing. We came back, hooked up as if nothing was wrong and over the last day I have found that our water pump, shower head and toilet all broke. I've ordered replacements for them and can easily replace them myself. So while I wait for a new water pump I took it out and just connected the inlet and outlet hoses with a brass coupler as we are hooked up to city water so we atleast have running water in the meantime. I turned on water last night and the sinks all worked fine. Today I turned the water on at the spigot and went inside only to come out 10 minutes later (after not having run any water in the rig) and I had water pouring out my fresh tank overflow tube. So what I assume to be happening is that water is coming through the hose and instead of just feeding the rig it's going into the tank. My question is what could be broke that would allow that to happen? Is it only the little black handle on the control panel for "fresh tank access" going from open to shut that could not be closing properly? My only other thought is that somehow having the water pump out of the equation has changed things though that doesn't make sense to me either. Just curious if there's something other than that valve further down the line that would control the flow of water to allow it to go into the tank instead of directly to the rig. Thank you all in advance

[Second Chance]

If your rig is a 2015, my guess is that you have the Anderson water panel and valve (as opposed to the Nautilus). It sounds like the ice expansion broke the valve housing for your Andersen valve and now the water is passing around the innards of the valve and going straight to the fresh tank (path of least resistance when the faucets inside are closed).

Rob

[sande005]

Those are notorious, also, for having an internal o-ring come unseated. Usually because the lever was moved when there was pressure in the lines. Unhook the hose, and relieve all pressure by opening sinks in the trailer. Move the lever back and forth a few times - that frequently reseats the o-ring. Then see if things improve. Otherwise, you get the joy of getting to the backside of the panel, and taking things apart to replace the o-ring, or repair if there is damage due to freezing.

[powerscol]

As you pulled the water pump you may have removed the check valve most pumps have. You could install a ball valve where the pump was and close it and see if the flow stops, otherwise it could be the panel as folks have described above.
Hope this helps

[Second Chance]

Those are notorious, also, for having an internal o-ring come unseated. Usually because the lever was moved when there was pressure in the lines. Unhook the hose, and relieve all pressure by opening sinks in the trailer. Move the lever back and forth a few times - that frequently reseats the o-ring. Then see if things improve. Otherwise, you get the joy of getting to the backside of the panel, and taking things apart to replace the o-ring, or repair if there is damage due to freezing.

With the Anderson valve, you don't have to go behind the panel. One keeper screw and a ring and the valve assembly slides out the front (have done it multiple times). You can probably find a YouTube video on how to do it.

Rob

[WhittleBurner]

The panel has been discontinued by ABCO and they only have whole panels left in stock for 289.99
If it's the o ring you'll have to hunt one down, take it with you and hope to find the right fit. Or if you are handy there are a couple files in the reference section here that can walk you through a plumbing change over.

We got a spare panel 3 or 4 years ago from GD and it travels with us just in case.

[bs023521]

Hey everybody, thank you for your responses. As I wait for my pump to arrive in a handful of days I did a bit more digging. I believe I found it to be the lack of pump to prevent backflow. I ended up taking out the 4 way valve that allows you to switch between city water, fill the tank etc and reattached the city line to where it should be and when I turned it on I could switch the valve and watch the water come out of a different port. I turned it to what would typically fill the fresh water tank so I could then follow that hose to know that is what goes down into the tank. I then put a sharkbite ball valve in line so no matter what up the line is allowing it to backflow it would never make it into the tank. Once I did that I turned the city water back on and boom, no more water going into the tank and full pressure inside. So that setup is getting me by until I get a new pump in a handful of days. Needless to say I learned a good bit on what's going on behind the scenes of the Nautilus system and will always winterize if even for a couple days away. Thank you all for your input, it was a huge help.