The water pump is what pumps the water from your fresh tank(s) into the plumbing in the Roadtrek. THE water pump is 12 volts. It uses the coach battery(ies) to work. Before you turn on the water pump you must turn on the battery switch.
Normally, when you turn on the water pump switch on the wall inside the Roadtrek you will hear the water pump turn on and then shut off right away. It should stay off until you either open a faucet handle, a shower handle, or flush the toilet. Then you will hear the water pump start to pump water to the faucet, shower, or toilet. It will keep running - as it should - until you turn off the handle to the faucet or shower, or take you foot off the flush pedal on the toilet. Then the water pump shuts off and waits for the next open faucet, etc. There is a sensor in the water pump that starts the pump when there is a demand for water. If your hot water tank is empty and you fill your fresh tanks, the hot water tank will fill the first time you turn on the water pump and open a hot water faucet handle. What will happen then is the water pump will start and it will seem like it is running for a long time. First any water left in the sink hot water pipe will come out (cold) and along with it a burst of air. That burst of air is the water pump starting to pump cold water into the hot water tank to fill it and the air it is displacing in the tank is coming out through the open sink hot water side. The hot water tank holds 6 gallons of water and it takes awhile to pump that much water into the tank - and it must fill the tank. This is all normal and with an empty hot water tank being filled the wait for the water pump to shut off is normal. When the water starts coming out of the faucet steadily the tank is full and then you shut off the hot water handle and the water pump will shut off. (Never turn on the hot water heater switch if there is an empty hot water tank - you will burn out the hot water heater. Wait until the hot water tank is FULL! -And it take awhile for the water to heat up - 6 gallons is a lot of water to heat.)
If something is wrong , however, the water pump might run when it shouldn't. First, understand that to for the water pump to run - correctly or not correctly - THERE MUST BE POWER TO THE WATER PUMP - SO - if the water pump wall switch is OFF - the water pump will be off and stay off. There are two things that you might find happening.
1) The water pump runs and runs and does not shut off.
2) The water pump runs for a few seconds, shuts off, starts running again, and repeats this cycle of runs, shuts off, runs, shuts off - and keeps doing that.
Each of these happen under different issues with the plumbing.
Let's look at #1 first. If the pump runs continually - not run, stop - run, stop - then there is a problem between the tanks and the pump. This means the problem is on the INTAKE side of the pump. The pipes to the fresh tank(s) are on the intake side of the water pump. (Note - this does not include the hot water tank. The hot water tank is on the OUTPUT side of the water pump.) With the tanks in summer mode or in a one water tank Roadtrek, this means that the problem is between the exterior fresh tank in the front of the bottom of the van and the water pump. If a two fresh tank Roadtrek is in WINTER Mode - which is set to have water come from the rear interior tank directly to the water pump - then the problem is between the water pump and the rear interior tank plumbing. (See our article Summer Mode/Winter Mode to understand what this is.)
What then should you do or look for?
SHUT OFF THE WATER PUMP SWITCH - that cuts off the power and stops the pump while you try to diagnose or fix the problem.
This can be caused by as simple as a dirty filter on the water pump or more complicated a kinked pipe or something blocking the fresh tank output - or, again, simple - the fresh tank is empty.
The filter is the first thing to look for. Go to the cabinet with the water pump and look around for a black connection in the pipe going into the water pump intake side. In the middle of that black connector on top of it there is a clear/whitish flat topped dome. That is the filter. Here is a photo of what to look for:
THERE ARE OLDER ROADTREKS THAT HAVE THE WATER PUMP FILTER ON THE OUTSIDE AND UNDER THE VAN NEAR WHERE THE FRONT EXTERIOR FRESH TANK LOW POINT DRAIN IS ON THE PIPE COMING OUT OF THE TANK AND HEADING INSIDE THE VAN TO THE WATER PUMP. IT MAY NOT LOOK ANYTHING AT ALL LIKE THIS AND YOU WILL HAVE TO LOOK UNDER THE VAN TO SEE WHAT IS THERE. SO IF YOU DO NOT FIND THE ABOVE IN YOUR ROADTREK NEAR THE WATER PUMP IT IS OUTSIDE.
In my Roadtrek this is connected to the winterizing valve that I had installed to pump RV antifreeze directly into the water pump for winterizing the plumbing in the Roadtrek. This is what it all looks lime in my Roadtrek 190 - yours will not have the brass valve on the right side of the filter. It will have a white PEX pipe connected to that side that comes from the water tanks' connections. The pipe on the other side, not seen in this photo goes into the water pump. What you do see in this photo when compared to the photo above is that with use, the dome turns a milky white in color.
Shut off the pump. Open the sink to clear any water out of the line. Opening the filter will pour out some water so put a towel under it. The dome screws off.
Inside around the inside edge there is a metal screen that goes all around. That metal screen pulls out. Do this where you can flush this all with water - and not let what is in the filter go down any drain - in the RT or in the house. Clean the metal screen and clean the inside of the dome. Look into the hole left open where the filter was and see if there is anything in there that is blocking it. Get this all clear of any debris that was inside (nicely filtered out as it is supposed to do - yes, this gunk was in your fresh tank) and put the screen back into the dome. Take the dome with the screen inside and screw the dome back on the filter base. Just that dome being loose can cause the pump to do this too. The pump is sucking air and that is why it runs and does not shut off unless you shut the pump off with the switch and putting the pump back on will start it doing it all over again.
We had the problem - and a pipe was kinked. This happened when the Roadtrek was about 6 months old new. How did that happen? We don't know. We took it to the Roadtrek service and they cut the kink our of the PEX pipe and joined a new piece of PEX pipe to rejoin the pipe.
A kink or blockage or leak could happen anywhere in the pipes going to the fresh tank(s). A hole in a pipe from the fresh tank(s) will also cause the pump to suck air. If the pump sucks air it continues to run and not shut off. The pump will keep running unless you or an RV service technician fix it. AND while the Roadtrek plumbing is fairly basic, if you are not experienced with plumbing or have never worked with PEX pipe before, take the Roadtrek to an RV service shop to deal with this problem.
The lucky solution is that you find that the filter was clogged or you thought the fresh tank had water in it and it was empty (or your summer/winter valves were turned the wrong way).
Now, let's look at #2. The water pump runs, shuts off, runs and keeps doing this - always shutting off a little in between.
What then should you do or look for?
If the pump was running and stopping repeatedly that is a leak on the output side of the water pump and that can be as simple as a clogged sink faucet end tip screen or a faucet handle that is not closed all the way. Those are the easy to fix things you hope to find.
SHUT OFF THE WATER PUMP SWITCH - that cuts off the power and stops the pump while you try to diagnose or fix the problem.
The sink faucet is just like any that you have at home. There usually is a screw off tip at the end of the faucet where the water comes out into the sink. Inside that there is a small round screen - sometimes it is a plastic disk with holes in it. Like the pump filter this also stops gunk from the pipes going into the water coming out of the sink. If this gets clogged. water wants to flow - and doesn't. Unscrew the tip of the faucet and clean the screen. Screw it back on and hope for the best. The water pump when you turn it on now should act normally - run for a few seconds and stop - and not start again until you want it to.
If the screen was not clogged and you still have the problem, the next thing to do is go to every faucet handle - shower handle (inside shower and outside shower) - check the toilet that there is no water or dripping into the toilet - and close the handle tight. If the handle was open even slightly it will cause the water to drip - you may not even notice the drop - but the water pump does. It senses some handle is open and it wants to make you happy and send water there. of this is the problem, tightening down the handle will stop the water pump from starting,stopping, and keep doing that.
Worse cases -
1) There is a leak in a pipe on the output side of the water pump somewhere in the Roadtrek.
2) There is a loose pipe connection between two pipes or a pipe and a plumbing fixture.
3) The toilet valve is broken and is leaking. Look around the toilet on the floor. If you see water it is likely coming from the toilet valve what is broken. The toilet valve is located on the back of the outside of toilet under the rim against the bowl on the left side facing the toilet. This happened to us TWICE - once the valve had to be replaced and the second time the valve was able to be repaired - both times by an RV service shop. How did we know? The pump was running, stopping over and over. I went looking and found water collecting in the aisle in front of the toilet. The water was dripping from the valve and coming down from the toilet and found its way to the floor. We shut off the water pump and since we were in the Roadtrek we had no choice but to turn the water pump on when we needed water and shut it off right away to avoid flooding the floor which by then was covered in towels.
WHAT HAPPENS IF NOTHING WORKS OR CAN BE FOUND TO EXPLAIN #1 or #2?
The water pump may be broken. Like any other appliance it wears out over time and needs to be replaced. It is also possible that the sensor inside is broken. Some might take the water pump apart and find parts to fix it themselves. Many - who are not so skilled or inclined - will take the RV to an RV shop and let them replace the water pump. I know there are many skilled who own Roadtreks that can do these things for themselves - but like you and me, who do not have those skills and who need articles like this to figure out what might be wrong and they might be able to do - or not do - take it to an RV service shop to fix. The Roadtrek uses PEX pipe for its plumbing. This is pipe that is joined together using crimp connectors - not glued together like PVC pipe or welded together like copper pipe and mostly not screwed together. PEX plumbing work requires special tools to work with the pipe and the crimp connectors.
Also do not figure that you will just shut off the water pump and connect to city water. If there is a leak, a broken toilet valve, a broken pipe - is is going to leak more connected to city water.
And speaking of city water - if the city water fill valve is turned to fill - the water pump does not work and even city water will not flow into the plumbing.(But we have an article all about that!)
How does the water pump know to run when a water faucet is opened? The water pump senses a drop in pressure and sends water to increase the pressure in the pipe - and it comes out of the faucet.
HERE IS TO HOPING THAT IT IS ONE OF THE EASY FIXES THAT YOU CAN DO YOURSELF!
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