CONNECTING TO A CAMPGROUND CITY WATER SPIGOT

 What would just connecting to a city water spigot in a campground need an article for? After all you take your hose and attach to the spigot,  connect the other end of the hose to your city water connection on your Roadtrek - and turn on the water. Right? Well almost right.

 There are two things to do before what is simply described above. The first thing to be aware of is that many of these spigots are close to the ground and in many campgrounds there are dogs and other animals wandering around the campground during the day - and at night.  The dogs, especially, find these low down city water spigots a favorite thing to lift their leg against and cover the spigot at its opening and and the screw threads that you are going to attach your city water hose to. Yuck! This common.  

The most suggested way of disinfecting the spigot is to mix a solution of bleach and water in a spray bottle and spray that into the spigot opening and allover the outside of the spigot.  We did this when we first got our Roadtrek. We would mix up a batch in a spray bottle and keep it from trip to trip. Then we found out that the bleach loses its effectiveness over time - and especially mixed like this in the heat of the summer.  So we started mixing it just before we would use it - and wind up discarding more than we sprayed - and it was a pain to do this when you are trying to get through hooking up. 

I recently found out about a better spray to disinfect a campground spigot for this reason from an RV TV streaming show.  They said to spray hydrogen peroxide and that it was available already in spray bottles.  As long as hydrogen peroxide is kept in its brown bottle and kept closed it lasts for a very long time. I went out looking for hydrogen peroxide in a spray bottle and found out that it is sold in Walmart stores in the pharmacy department.  

This bottle is very inexpensive and it is easy to store in the outside cabinet on the side of the Roadtrek with your hoses. Spray the inside of the spigot hole and all around the spigot head. Let is sit for five minutes and then turn on the water to flush out the spigot before you connect you city water hose. 

There is just one more thing to always do when you are connecting a city water hose to your Roadtrek. You MUST attach a Water Pressure Regulator. The best place to attach this is between the city water hose and the campground spigot. After you spray the spigot with the hydrogen peroxide - attach the city water connection to the spigot and then attach you city water FRESH hose (yes there is a special hose to use on an RV - these hoses have no lead in their connections and they are usually white hoses or a white with a blue stripe hose, or a blue hose. The hose is labeled on its packaging as "drinking water safe" or "safe for potable water".

Water pressure regulators for RVs come different ways. The one above has the max pressure it will limit through it permanently set to 40 psi - which is the most pressure you want in the Roadtrek or any RV plumbing that will not burst the pipes.  There are other preset city water pressure regulators that have an analog meter attached to see the water pressure - which is not really necessary. Then there are water pressure regulators that you set to the allowed pressure. They also have an analog meter attached to see what the water pressure is - which for this type of water pressure regulator is very important. This might seem like the best to get, but if you forget to set it or it has moved off the setting you set it to last time, you will damage your Roadtrek's plumbing.

RV accessories retailers online have all of these. Many Walmart stores have RV accessories in their Auto aisles in a section of their own on the shelves. They have the water pressure regulator shown above in the photo. They may also have a water pressure regulator that looks the same but is made of blue plastic. I do not recommend buying the plastic one - get the brass one. Plastic too easily can break or get a small crack and the pressure will be effected. 

So hooking up to city water is a little more than just connecting the hose - but it is just as easy when you add these few steps.

Also - if you are concerned about the water that comes out of a city water spigot at a campground, you can buy a filter that is attached to your city water hose and it will filter all water going into your Roadtrek (even when filling the fresh tanks through the door openings).  This is a thick walled plastic cylinder about a foot long and maybe two and a half to three inches in diameter. I have a four foot fresh water hose that I put between my pressure regulator and my long city water hose and the water filter is attached between.  We also have a regular Brita kitchen sink water filter - the same that goes on kitchen sinks at home - on the kitchen sink faucet in the Roadtrek.  This lets you know when the filter needs to be changed - and then you just take out the old cartridge and drop in a new one.  The hose filter is also found at Walmart in the RV accessories section and the Brita water filter can be found in most places that sell household items.

REMOVING THE FILTER FROM THE COOL CAT AIR CONDITIONER/HEAT PUMP

 In the mid-2000s Roadtrek started installing the Dometic  Cool Cat RV  air conditioner/heat pump.  This replaced what had been used previously which was basically a home air conditioner that had a built in thermostat and controls.  The Cool Cat uses an external thermostat and control panel which not only sets the temperature for the Cool Cat's air conditioner but also the Cool Cat's heat pump, as well as the temperature for the furnace in the Roadtrek as well. The initial panel used was analog. Later Roadtrek used an updated by Dometic digital control panel and thermostat. The panel is also the on and off switch for the air conditioner, heat pump, and furnace along with a fan only setting for the Cool Cat - plus a      Hi/Low  speed setting and an Auto/Fan setting. The Auto setting is what is used to enable the Cool Cat to turn off when the temperature that is set is reached and come on again when the temperature drops or increases - depending on using the A/C or the heat pump. 

The Cool Cat like most other air conditioners has a filter in the front of the unit to keep dust and debris from entering the unit with the air that is brought into it.   The filter is foam - mine, as it came from the factory is foam backed with a thin plastic grid that gives the filter some rigidity to remove and put back in.  Some may have this or just a foam filter - replaced by a previous owner of the Roadtrek if your Roadtrek is pre-owned.  Because of how the Cool Cat is installed in the Roadtrek removing the filter can be awkward due to the close proximity of the two cabinets at the ceiling that are on each side of the Cool Cat. The filter does not slide up and out - as many home A/C filters do - but slides out to the side. 

You DO NOT have to remove the front grill to remove or replace the filter in the Cool Cat. If you look at the photo above there is a screw on the outer side of each of the two end round vents on the top of the front of the Cool Cat. These are the screws that hold the front grill panel on.  There is no need to remove those screws. There is a much better way to take out the filter.

1. The first thing to do is OPEN the door on the ceiling cabinet on the passenger side. With this door open you will have a lot more room to move around when sliding out the filter. The filter is going to slide out of the left side.  

2. With the open cabinet door you can get your elbow inside the cabinet to get your fingers onto the edge of the filter through the open slot on that side of the front Cool Cat panel and grab the edge of the filter. 

3. Just slide the filter out toward the open cabinet.  It is flexible and you can flex it out of the slot and completely out. 

4. The filter can be washed or vacuumed clean. If you wash it set it out to completely dry. If you vacuum the filter be careful that it has not become brittle and will disintegrate with the suction of the vacuum nozzle.  There should be no dirt behind where the filter has been in the Cool Cat if the filter has been doing its job. 

5. If you decide the filter needs to be replaced, you can use any of the cut it to size filters sold for air conditioners. I suggest getting one of the foam filters with the plastic grid on the back as it will go in and out of the filter much easier than an all foam filter.  Use the current filter as a template to cut the new filter to size. 

6. When you are ready to put the filter back in, it is going to slide in through the same place it slid out of from the same side BUT there is something to be aware of when putting the filter back in. There is a flexible plastic "clip" that holds the filter in place when it is in the Cool Cat. This does not get in the way of removing the filter but it will stop the filter from sliding back in if you do not follow the next step.

 

7.  Look at the photo above on the left side, inside the grill. You will see the clip that I am referring to. As you see it here, it is in place with the filter clipped down by it. When you start to slide the filter through the slot it came out of (again the open cabinet door next to it makes it easier to maneuver. Put your finger into the vent where that plastic loop is and move the loop toward the front of the vent cover to open the path for the filter to slide in on. The filter is sliding on a groove on the bottom of the cover. Once the edge is past that point it should slide along with the clip down and in place  and you can let go of the loop - but if there is resistance or the filter you have is just foam with no backing - keep that loop up until the filter is slid to the right side of the Cool Cat and stops.  if you are still holding the clip up, let it go.

8. The filter is now in place and the Cool Cat is ready for use. 

I clean the filter when we dewinterize and have used a vacuum to do it. I take the filter out of the Roadtrek, put it down on a flat surface and with a vacuum hose with a soft brush nozzle vacuum the front and back of the filter. 

If you decide that you are going to take the front cover off to remove the filter. When you remove the two screws on the front, it is not just going to come off. There are tabs on the bottom of the cover that fit into slots that hold the cover on. Because the Cool Cat is so close to the ceiling you cannot just pull the cover off when the screws are removed. You have to carefully pull the top of the cover slightly toward you and once you clear right above the cover move the cover up so that the tabs come out of the slots on the bottom holding them in. 

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Just for further information about the Cool Cat. The Cool Cat is a closed system. There is no way to recharge the refrigerant in the Cool Cat.  There is also no access to any of the mechanical parts of the Cool Cat from the front with the cover off. It is necessary to remove the Cool Cat from the Roadtrek to work on it. This is something not advisable to do yourself.  It may be possible for an A/C shop to cut a charging port into the coolant line for a way to recharge the A/C BUT this can only be done with the Cool Cat out of the Roadtrek and an RV shop would have to take it out for you to bring it to an A/C shop.  Reinstalling involves sealing certain places around the Cool Cat inside the the opening and where it sits on the pan behind. (per the Cool Cat installation manual). Also- The heat pump in the Cool Cat stops blowing hot or warm once the outside temperature approaches 40 degrees F.  If you put it on and the temps outside drop to near or below 40F - the Cool Cat blows COLD!  This can be a big surprise if going to sleep with the Cool Cat on at night and during the early morning ours the temp outside drops! 😦⛄