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On my 2011 35SB3, the water pump is located in the fresh water tank compartment, up high on the forward bulkhead of the compartment. After several frustrating episodes of trying to get the pump to prime from the tank (it just runs and runs), I took a serious look at the plumbing going to and from the pump. Found several suspect bends in the plastic tubing, so used a combination of shorter tubing, and hard 90’s, to eliminate the kinks. Worked just fine after that until this weekend.
Switched on the pump to prime for our first trip after the winter, and got nothing but run, run, run until I pulled a vacuum on the kitchen faucet. That fixed it for this time, but I really want a permanent fix. I’ve thought about moving the pump to the floor of the compartment, maybe even going through the floor into the area where the tanks sit. That would ensure that it’s “down” from the tank.
Any comments or suggestions?
Posted: 9:41 PM – Feb 10, 2013When my pump has been sitting I have the same problem, in fact I had it happen when I pulled our rig out of storage a few weeks ago. What has worked for me is to turn faucets on and off for a few minutes. I’ve had this happen with other RV’s we’ve had but not all of them, not sure why.
Posted: 10:34 PM – Feb 10, 2013I have a 2010 34CK3 which has the water pump mounted down low near the bottom of the fresh water tank, and I’ve had the same problem. It just happened a couple of times and I used suction on the kitchen faucet to fix it. So, I don’t think that relocating your water pump would make any difference.
Posted: 6:35 AM – Feb 11, 2013I have had the same problem with my 2011 35SB3 and I did the same thing as Traveler. Turned the faucet on the off until finally the pump got primed and started working.
Posted: 8:17 AM – Feb 12, 2013My pump on is also located 1/2 way up the tank, and I did have a problem with prime one time. Open the water valve on the outside hose, pour some liquid in the clear tube and then turn it on. Has worked every time. Not a fix, but it beats moving things around and takes less than a minute.
Posted: 12:01 PM – Feb 12, 2013Thanks to all of you. Believe it or not, I’ve tried all these suggestions, and eventually something works every time (my particular favorite is to pull a vacuum on the kitchen faucet). Please understand that I don’t say this in a “I know better than you” way. I say it in a very frustrated “man, there’s only so many ways to get this done” way. And like you, I’ve eventually gotten it to work each time.But there has to be a better way, doesn’t there? Leaving aside the fact that the manufacturer quite clearly states that the dang pump will self-prime, and do so with even several feet of head, why doesn’t it prime hanging on the wall?
I’ll almost certainly move the pump to the floor of the compartment (a job I’m not looking forward to) and see if that makes any difference. I may also call Sur-Flow and see what they say.
Posted: 12:11 PM – Feb 12, 2013The Sur-Flow people are great to work with. I have a problem with the pump filling up the water tank periodically when we were on city water. When that happen I use the pump and it seems to correct the problem for about a month. I called them and they sent me out a whole new pump. I haven’t installed it yet, getting to the pump is a bit of a job, but maybe I will do as you suggest and move the pump to a lower position, but first it might be best to check with them to see if that is a good solution.
Posted: 2:00 PM – Feb 12, 2013If you have a 4008 series pump the problem could be the check valve that is built into the pump. It can get stuck in both directions. Mine stuck in the open position once and allowed city water to over fill my fresh tank. I installed an in-line brass flapper style check valve to remedy the problem happening again. They can also stick in the closed position from the pressure of the city water against it all the time. It’s located behind where the wire attaches to the pump. There are 3 screws you have to remove to get to it. The o-ring gets stuck sometimes so re-positioning of the pump wont always solve the problem. The part is listed as #94-800-03 (check valve) in this diagram.
Posted: 4:51 PM – Feb 12, 2013Okay, here is a dumb question. How do you put “suction” on the faucet?
Posted: 1:10 PM – Feb 13, 2013retamaman wrote:Okay, here is a dumb question. How do you put “suction” on the faucet?Not so dumb, once I thought about it for second. I replaced the faucet that came with the trailer for a spray head model, which allows me to unscrew the head from the pullout hose. Then, ya know, suck.
Posted: 1:16 PM – Feb 13, 2013falconhunter wrote:If you have a 4008 series pump the problem could be the check valve that is built into the pump. It can get stuck in both directions. Mine stuck in the open position once and allowed city water to over fill my fresh tank. I installed an in-line brass flapper style check valve to remedy the problem happening again. They can also stick in the closed position from the pressure of the city water against it all the time. It’s located behind where the wire attaches to the pump. There are 3 screws you have to remove to get to it. The o-ring gets stuck sometimes so re-positioning of the pump wont always solve the problem. The part is listed as #94-800-03 (check valve) in this diagram.Thanks for the reminder on the check valve falconhunter. I’d read about that before, then never acted on it. I’ll see what I can do about just replacing the thing. I assume that when you used the in-line valve you removed the one in the pump?
Posted: 1:38 PM – Feb 13, 2013I left the one in the factory pump. It was too hard to get to so I cut the line by the tank and installed the brass one. Hasn’t overfilled again.
Posted: 2:16 PM – Feb 13, 2013I guess we all have the same water pump??? We have a 2011 31ksls and have had prime a price issue with the water pump a time or two. We only every use the water pump to fill the toilet after dumping at a dump station. This faulty valve filling the water tank thing has me concerened, however. If connected to city water would this allow the water tank to overflow? If so, would it just come out of the vent at the water fill point? Don’t want any floods! Thanks, Phillip
Posted: 3:18 PM – Feb 13, 2013Wellfooled wrote:retamaman wrote:Okay, here is a dumb question. How do you put “suction” on the faucet?Not so dumb, once I thought about it for second. I replaced the faucet that came with the trailer for a spray head model, which allows me to unscrew the head from the pullout hose. Then, ya know, suck.
Think I might just turn the faucet on and off and hope for the best! Thanks for playing.
Posted: 3:34 PM – Feb 13, 2013jdpm wrote:I guess we all have the same water pump??? We have a 2011 31ksls and have had prime a price issue with the water pump a time or two. We only every use the water pump to fill the toilet after dumping at a dump station. This faulty valve filling the water tank thing has me concerened, however. If connected to city water would this allow the water tank to overflow? If so, would it just come out of the vent at the water fill point? Don’t want any floods! Thanks, PhillipWhen my tank overflowed the flow of water was very slow into the tank. The check valve was only partially stuck open.It took several days for it to fill the tank and yes, it did overflow out the vent hole with the screen. Some of the water managed to get behind the panel while it was trickling down the front of it and wet some of the insulation in the bottom of my rig. At least it was fresh water. I pulled the bottom membrane loose and let it dry.
Posted: 10:01 PM – Feb 13, 2013falconhunter wrote:I left the one in the factory pump. It was too hard to get to so I cut the line by the tank and installed the brass one. Hasn’t overfilled again.Any chance you remember the make/model of the inline check valve that you installed?
Posted: 10:24 PM – Feb 13, 2013Sorry but I don’t know the make but I purchased it at Lowes. It’s a common 1/2″ brass flapper style check valve preventer. Here is a pic and a link to the one I purchased.
http://www.lowes.com/pd_27945-34146-M31 … facetInfo=
Posted: 5:58 AM – Feb 14, 2013Another way to prime the pump is using the winterizing hose. If you turn the winterizing valve half way, it will open the hose to the water tank. Let the hose fill partially with water. Start your water pump then blow into the winterizing hose to create a little pressure for the water pump suction. I’m not sure I would want to suck on the kitchen faucet. I also found that I can get the water pump to prime a little better if I use the outside faucet. I just open it up and the pump will usually prime.
Posted: 12:48 PM – Feb 14, 2013zachlaplante wrote:Another way to prime the pump is using the winterizing hose. If you turn the winterizing valve half way, it will open the hose to the water tank. Let the hose fill partially with water. Start your water pump then blow into the winterizing hose to create a little pressure for the water pump suction. I’m not sure I would want to suck on the kitchen faucet. I also found that I can get the water pump to prime a little better if I use the outside faucet. I just open it up and the pump will usually prime.Yeah, I’ve tried the outside faucet more than once, and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. I’m really looking for a more solid solution, which I realize may well be a forlorn hope. I do find it interesting that a bunch of us have this problem (some more than others
).I’ll keep you all up to date on my progress on this.
Posted: 3:00 PM – Feb 14, 2013I really think the hard priming issue is related to the check valve getting stuck in the closed position from city water pressure against it all the time or from just sitting dry for long periods of time. Once it gets a little water to it and it has a chance to soften up it frees it’s self or a little bit of suction or pressure can also free it. The check valve has to be in the pump so when the water system develops pressure it can’t back feed to the holding tank.If they made a primer bulb with 1/2 barbed ends like a boat has, it would solve the problem. The largest they make is 3/8″ barbed and the water line from the tank is 1/2″. It could be mounted at the tank outlet or somewhere before the pump.
falconhunter wrote:I really think the hard priming issue is related to the check valve getting stuck in the closed position from city water pressure against it all the time or from just sitting dry for long periods of time. Once it gets a little water to it and it has a chance to soften up it frees it’s self or a little bit of suction or pressure can also free it.I think you’ve hit the nail on the head here falconhunter. If the valve gets stuck, that’s it. On the one hand, stuck means you won’t backfill the tank. On the other, stuck means the pump won’t prime without some outside intervention.
falconhunter wrote:The check valve has to be in the pump so when the water system develops pressure it can’t back feed to the holding tank.I wondered about this. If I removed the pump’s check valve, but installed a better check valve between the tank and the pump (as you did), doesn’t that solve both the “backfill” and the priming problem/?
falconhunter wrote:If they made a primer bulb with 1/2 barbed ends like a boat has, it would solve the problem. The largest they make is 3/8″ barbed and the water line from the tank is 1/2″. It could be mounted at the tank outlet or somewhere before the pump.Yep, so why the heck don’t they make primer bulbs with 1/2″ ends?
Posted: 8:28 AM – Feb 16, 2013I ended up changing the pump. I added a shutoff valve between the pump and the fresh water tank (cured tank filling up problem). My next problem began when I could not get the pump to prime and pump water. It appears that if the internal check valve in the pump goes bad, then you have a dual problem of the tank filling up and the pump will not prime, then it is time to replace the pump. This is what happened in my case others may be different.Nate
Posted: 9:20 PM – Mar 18, 2013Folks, I just want to throw out a general thanks, and a method that worked for me. I decided to flush the winterizing before I bring my unit in for service, to make sure that there’s nothing else that needs work, and get ready for the season. (Of course, now it’s snowing.)The pump wouldn’t prime, and I remembered seeing this thread, so I found the fix. I just needed to put suction on the faucet. I didn’t reread far enough to get to the part about sucking on the hose, so I just grabbed my small wet/dry vacuum, and held the hose against the faucet, using my hand as a seal. In less than a minute, I felt the vacuum hose bucking, and when I took it off the faucet, I had water. Yay!
Now to see if it all continues to work…
Cliff
Posted: 9:28 PM – Mar 18, 2013Cliff,I sure hope you cured your problem. On the model I have the pump is a real pain to change.
Nate
B.W.Gentry
Owner/Admin
2007 Carri-Lite XTRM5
Breckenridge, TX
Thanks, Phillip
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