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Cycling
My pumps are cycling every few seconds when we are in dry camping mode. We turn on the water and get water flow but the pressure drops a bit and the pumps cycle on. Pressure comes up, pumps turn off. A few seconds later the pressure starts to decrease and pumps cycle on. We can hear the cycle inside the coach.
Looking at my system, I have 2 shurflow pumps and a jabsco accumulator tank. The pumps both run. Am I correct in assuming my accumulator is going bad? I suspect it is no longer holding its working pressure. Currently I cannot access the system at the camp ground. So i am trying to tap into your experiences (if you encountered this problem)
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11 Replies
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Typically short cycling is the result of a water logged system. Water cannot be compressed so an accumulator tank is sometimes provided to provide an air “cushion” so the water pump reaches its cut out pressure, drops off line and then as water is drawn, the pressure drops to the cut in pressure and the pump starts running again. The accumulator tank pressure with the entire water system at zero pressure should be set to the pump cut in pressure.
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Chip,
Do you an R O system that could be constantly discharging water into your holding tank due to a problem with the system?
If the accumulator tank is OK, you have a leak somewhere. Check the toilet to be sure it’s shutting off.
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Tom
The toilet was just redone. I rebuilt the microphor last week. The toilet water shutoff is working. There is no water dripping in the bowl. I know this as we are still waiting on the flapper gasket to seal completely. No running residual water.
I only see the surge/cycle when I turn on the faucet or run the showers. I can here the pumps cycle on & off. When I checked the pressure gauge at my outside faucet, I can see the pressure go from 40 psi to 30 psi per cycle. This is why I thought the accumulator my have an issue. I could replace the shurflows and go from there. The pumps are easy access and the accumulator is not. Do you think that would be a possible problem fixer?
I plan on going back on city water as soon as my fresh water is depleted. My reason for draining the tank was due to finding water coming out of my freshwater overflow tube under the bus. Each time we’d shower, the overflow would push out water. In an attempt to isolate the problem, I shut off the city water and wanted to check if the overflow continued. We showered and It, the overflow does not push water. This leads me to believe/suspect my fresh water fill valve is not cycling full closed. When on city water, the tank may be filling even if I don’t have it set to do so. When I shower I must be causing enough to of a siphon to draw city water into the fresh water tank. It in turn gets full and pushes the overflow.
FYI – this is a culmination of 2 things. The overflow and I keep the fresh water full just in case we need to bug out the DC area. Bad guys seem to have a fixation on doing bad things to this town. Usually once a month, I shut off city and use the fresh water. I thus drain the old and replenish with new. The surge/cycling issue just recently started.
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What kind/type water pump do you have? Ours started doing that and Leon at Marathin said it was the pressure switch going out. We have the Grund Fos 110v. We replaced the pump and all is ok now.
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OK, so the cycling is only when using water. That would be consistent with low air pressure in the accumulator tank or a ruptured bladder. The rumtured bladder is not to be confused with Jon’s frequent peeing schedule.
I think your right on the fresh water fill not closing, that would push water out the overflow.
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Hi,
If the pumps are running wthout water useage and you see no visible leakss or water dripping to the ground, one thought is the check valves in the pumps themselves. To determine if this is the issue clamp one pump off and see if the pressure drops, Block the other one off and see if it drops. If it stops remove the block from the first pump and see if it is okay.
Mikee
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Some of the new ShurFlo pumps are not to be used with accumulator tanks.
If they are the high pressure pumps 55 60 pounds it will push water past the Microphor O-ring where you insert the shaft from the water solinoid into the vacume breaker housing.
I had this problem with mine and had to finnally put a pump for the toilet and an accumulator tank in.
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I think I will replace both sure flow pumps. It will be easier than the accumulator. I’ll also check with commonwealth coach about getting into the water bay for the fill valve issue. I cannot access the water bay at our campground. The Army folks here frown heavily on us doing maintenance in the CG. We can do all we want inside, just not outside.
We we currently are on city water & the system is idle. I don’t need to run the pumps. Pressure is adequate for us and we have no surge. It’s only when I go into dry camp mode that I get the surge/cycle. That is when I shut off city water on run out of our tanks.
Hopefully we shall not need to utilize the system accept for an emergency bug out.
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Chip, I had to put in a standard ShurFlo that was made to run with an accumulator tank and remove the supply line for the toilet from the Manabloc manifold and run directly from the pump to the toilet and left my ShurFlo Extreme hooked up for everything else because I like the high pressure and volume of water.
60 psi and 5.? something gallons a minute flow rate.
Good luck.
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would you believe that it’s an electrical issue. It turns out that country coach has a control board with switches that control fresh water fill, fresh water dump, water pumps, curb lights. That board is my problem.
When I went to inspect the water bays, I had to take off the plywood laminated cover. The circuit board with swiches are mounted on the board . When I this disconnected the wiring from the pins I noticed something. There were 2 sets of pins and 2 wire harnesses. The harness had space for 10 pins and there are only 8 pins.
Hmmm, what are the odds the harness could have been incorrectly placed? I went thru each switch and determined some systems could turn on but not turn off. The dang pins and harness were not on correctly.Since the the switch lights are not working. I decided to disconnect the entire board. I isolated all the switches and taped off the pins and harness’s . I then went to the main panel inside and cycled the switches. Low and behold. No more water leaking from the over flows. Water pressure is back up. I turned off city water. Ran the pumps and drained the water tank to 1/2. The pumps cycled but not as much as before. Pressure on the pumps stayed up.
the fill valve was getting a signal to open from part of the harness but not closing due to the incorrect pins on the second harness. Now that it is isolated, the system has no half assed signals going to the solinoids.
I think that the system got messed up when I had my fill hose replaced last winter. The techs put the harnesses back together incorrectly. Since the lights don’t work, there was no visual indication the switch was on.
I’ll replace the board later. For now I’m happy.
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You will find that on almost every control board in the coach.
A lot of them have more pins than the plugs have spaces that you plug into them.
They can be put on backards or start with the wrong pin first.
No where in any of my electrical drawings does it list which pin is number one or which pin goes in which hole on the molded cnnector.
A lot of tmes some of mine have fallen off the control boards because the pins lost there resistance to the plugs and just fell off.
Some of them I had to bend the pins to put more friction on the plugs so they would stay on.
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