Water Pump Not Working -- Very Cold Weather

[huntindog]

Camping in a RV in really cold weather, is an energy intensive endevour. Use the propane, and lots of it. Have extra on hand. If you freeze up, it is pretty much impossible to get thawed out until the weather warms up. Not to mention the possible damage a freeze up can cause.
Rvs are generally not insulated anywhere close to what a sticks and bricks house is.

 

[Scott'n'Wendy]

I understand that freezing pipes would likely cause the pump not to work, but in our case, it doesn't even try. Doesn't even attempt to run, not even for a split second.

It won't run for even a mirosecond if it doesn't detect a pressure drop. Frozen lines will cause this. The pump can be nice and toasty, but if water can't run out of a tap, the pressure won't drop, so the pump will stay off until water flows out of the system.

If you are convinced your pump is faulty, you could prove/disprove the theory by disconnecting the output hose on the pump. If the pump is warm as you say be prepared for some water to come out of the hose/pump when you disconnect. Let the water drain into a pot or whatever, then reconnect it. You have now manually created a pressure drop. Try the pump switch again see if it runs. This will only work if the pump is warm and not frozen.

 

[Second Chance]

even a heated hose won't stop the city spicket from freezing.

Nor would anyone expect it to. We've never been in a park or campground that was open in the winter where the spigot was not wrapped and insulated with it's own heat tape to keep it from freezing.

gosh I hope running propane will prevent my underbelly from freezing. I think I'm going to have a windchill of zero. My underbelly is closed but I have no skirt underneath.

It depends on which RV you have. The Solitude and Momentum fifth wheels (and the Reflections to a lesser extent) are better insulated underneath and in the underbelly than are the Transcend and AIM travel trailers.

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Rob

 

[Desiree Million]

I've decided to winterize my RV but I can't find my water heater bypass valves. I hope someone can tell me where it is. Thank you.

I found it and I winterized. My water heater bypass was underneath the two drawers when you first walk in the rv on the left. Thank you to the person that told me that.

 

[Second Chance]

even a heated hose won't stop the city spicket from freezing.

gosh I hope running propane will prevent my underbelly from freezing. I think I'm going to have a windchill of zero. My underbelly is closed but I have no skirt underneath.

I've decided to winterize my RV but I can't find my water heater bypass valves. I hope someone can tell me where it is. Thank you.

Once again - what model RV do you have?

Rob

 

[Desiree Million]

2023 transcend 240ML

 

[Second Chance]

2023 transcend 240ML

OK - that helps. If [MENTION=331]huntr70[/MENTION] is around today, he can probably answer your question. If not, someone with knowledge of that trailer will probably come along.

Rob

 

[huntr70]

I've decided to winterize my RV but I can't find my water heater bypass valves. I hope someone can tell me where it is. Thank you.

Look under the dinette seat closest to the entry door.

 

[faithnosmore7281]

I'm the one with the same problem you have with your water mine thought a bit today but what I had to do was put a heat gun under the drain hose for the main freshwater tank because it was frozen once that thought out I had water running again I hope it works for you.

 

[Desiree Million]

I think your water is frozen or maybe your water pump just went kaput or maybe the water pump froze. However this ends up, I'll tell you what I'm doing to survive this weather. I winterized. It wasn't hard to do. You drain the water tank, drain all your tanks, then run the antifreeze through - i'm sure either I or anyone in here will be willing to help you when you can do this. Then while you're winterized, utilize a re-chargeable shower hose which has a built in water pump to push the water through the shower head - you can purchase this on line at wal mart or amazon. Also purchase a bucket heater (amazon) and you'll be able to take a shower from the bucket of water. I would never trust the propane system again now that you know what you know. Also, buy a five or ten gallon blue water jug holder and fill it daily and bring it in your rig. Use paper plates, etc so you don't have to do any dishes. You can also purchase a portable toilet that is like a two tank toilet, the bottom tank holds water. These are the things I'm doing because if you run out of propane, you're rig is going to freeze, period so why not prevent it up front. Two gallons of antifreeze is less than $10. You may be in a stuck situation until it's time to thaw but if the temps do go above freezing, maybe you could connect the hose up to your rv connection and try to push that stuck water out of your rig. You only need your water pump if you're not hooked up to city water because city water uses the pressure it already has. Good luck and I'm very sorry that you're going through this. But you can do the things I'm advising until you thaw out. Oh, and of course disconnect the water hose from your rig after you're done with it so that doesn't freeze too. Maybe you could pull one of your handles underneath and see if water drains out. If it does, then perhaps it's your water pump.

 

[Desiree Million]

Hi Rob and thank you
I think I'm good to go now!! I'm WINTERIZED!!!!! YAY!

 

[Desiree Million]

thank you
do you see my sig block? That's because of you - you're the best!

 

[Desiree Million]

thank you I found it

 

[WhittleBurner]

It might help all of you to go and read as much of the winter camping section as you can so you can be prepared, The cold is just starting and for those with less insulated trailers there are great cold weather tips in there, it helps to be proactive not reactive.

https://www.mygrandrv.com/forum/forumdisplay.php/129-Winter-Cold-weather-camping

 

[Desiree Million]

ok thank you

 

[lorend]

I have a GD Transcend Xplor 247bh. We hit zero-degree temps last night and suddenly the water pump seems to be doing nothing at all. It used to turn on and run any time we run the sink or flush the toilet but as of this morning it won't run or make any sound. I can't seem to find a fuse for it, and checked all of the breakers.

We run off the fresh water tank, filling it weekly, rather than running off city water and having a hose across the driveway full time. I filled the tank before bed and a shower last night with no problems. The trailer has a "heated" fully enclosed underbelly, and we turned up our thermostat hoping to keep things from freezing. I dunno what happened, but we won't be over 32 degrees for 8 days and have nowhere else to live, so it's pretty dire. I've done a lot of research and troubleshooting I can think of with no luck so far. Any tips or suggestions would be hugely helpful.

Thank you,
-Kaylor

Hopefully the little bit of warmer weather we have now has solved your problems. For future reference, if you hooked into the city water line and checked to see if you had water I would think it would isolate the problem as being the pump or frozen lines. If no water, lines would be frozen, if water, the pump has issues. Just a thought.

 

[Scott'n'Wendy]

[MENTION=59357]Kaylor[/MENTION]
How did it work out?

 

[huntindog]

Long story short, my girlfriend and I purchased a GD Transcend Xplor 247bh a couple months ago to live in full-time while we fix our house after a house fire. We're parked in our driveway, hooked onto main power service full time, and so far we have just been filling the fresh water tank weekly and running the water pump (rather than using constant city water from the hose) as to not have a hose constantly across the driveway.

We're very new to RV/Camper trailers, learning as we go. We live in the pacific northwest, and tonight temps dropped to 0 degrees or less over night.... And these zero degree temperatures are supposed to stay for a week.

The underbelly is fully enclosed and supposedly has a dedicated heat duct to keep things "warm" under there, so aside from the dump pipes that protrude from the underbelly, I wasn't really too worried about things freezing or breaking. We just wrapped the drain pipes, cranked the furnace, and crossed our fingers.

However, as of this morning, it seems our fingers apparently werent crossed enough and our water is not working Last night, right before temps plummeted, I filled the fresh water tank full, took a shower and went to bed. Today, water isn't running at all, from either sink, shower, or toilet.

I really don't think pipes would be frozen, but I don't have any way to know for sure, and I don't know how cold the underbelly is right now. The one obvious problem I can see is that our water pump isn't running at all. We have the control panel right inside the door, on the wall, and there's a switch for the pump. The red light is still illuminated. Normally as soon as you turn it on, you will hear it come up to pressure for a few seconds then shut itself off. Any time you open a faucet or flush the toilet, you will hear it run. Today, nothing at all. No sound, pump doesn't seem to be working at all.

I've checked the small breaker panel in the bedroom floor, nothing is labeled 'water pump' but none of them were flipped, and all of the fuses in that panel also appear to be good.

I don't know if there are multiple pumps, but the one I do know of is below the bench seat at the dinette table. I opened it up to look around, but found nothing of note other than the pump. In related forums I've seen people mentioning a dedicated fuse for the water pump, close by, but I'm not finding one anywhere. Not in the pump panel, and the wires go into the wall to an unknown location. I would assume that if lines froze over night, we would still at least hear the pump trying, but literally nothing is happening which makes me think electrical issue, or maybe the pump somehow completely failed.

I opened the large panel under the bunk beds, in the back-right corner of the trailer. I found all of the hoses and valves, a large styrofoam box over what looks like a water tank, but nothing of note to help me. The access panel outside in that area is for the gas water heater, it has some wires but didn't seem to be anything related to the pump. There was a 2A fuse out there, but again, I thinkkk everything in that panel is related to the gas water heater.

I've disconnected all the power to the trailer, flipped all the breakers, then turned everything back on and no change. At this point, I've hit a wall and getting really stressed out. We will have 5+ days of these sub-zero temps, and at least 8 days until we see anything over 32 degrees, and only just barely. We have no running water. And the toilet cannot flush.

At this point, I think focusing on water pump troubleshooting is where I should be looking, but I have no idea what to do next. Even if I grab my multimeter, I don't think I have a good way to probe the wires at the pump, I don't see how they disconnect. The pump is some sort of "Pentair" brand.

Any help or suggestions would be hugely appreciated. I was hoping to find a fuse for the pump, but I don't know where else to even look. We normally leave the switch for the pump on at all times since we run off the tank water, and it auto-shuts off when pressure is reached. For now I've turned it off at the control panel until I have anything else to try.

Ps, we have a heated garden hose, and I'm tempted to try just hooking up to the city-water full time until we get above freezing, but the faucet/spigot leaks badly when open and will turn the driveway into a complete ice rink if I leave it on. So it's not a great option, and really just circumvents our water pump issue. I'm also worried that might just fill up more water lines at the other end of the trailer which might be more prone to freezing and bursting.

Thank you,
-Kaylor

With the WP inside, it is unlikely that it froze. The pump has a pressure switch in it that turns it off around 40 psi. It is likely that some lines froze and their is enough pressure on the switch to prevent it running.
Camping in an RV below freezing is an energy consuming job. You need to use a LOT of heat (energy) to prevent freezeups. Once it happens it is very hard to thaw out until it warms up.
If you have a blowdryer, you can try to do it...I wish you luck. BTDT