water system overhaul

[ichabod123]

I'm thinking about remodeling my basement like Dave did earlier this year and while I'm at it i was thinking about re-vamping my water system.

3 stage filter system or maybe an RO system
New VSD pump
Maybe a pressure tank.
Relocate or make easier access to filters for maintenance
Better tank level monitoring system

Has anyone had experience, done modifications or thoughts on these subjects?

[ichabod123]

Why is there a sad face in front of my title

[spindrift]

Originally Posted by ichabod123

Why is there a sad face in front of my title

Because you're home instead of out seeing the sites? Don't really know but you may have inadvertently hit the frowny face at the bottom of the page when you made the post.

The only reason I would see as to why you would want to change the pump is for more flow. The factory pump has the flow reaction technology that precludes the need for the installation of an accumulator.

[ichabod123]

Originally Posted by spindrift

Because you're home instead of out seeing the sites? Don't really know but you may have inadvertently hit the frowny face at the bottom of the page when you made the post.

The only reason I would see as to why you would want to change the pump is for more flow. The factory pump has the flow reaction technology that precludes the need for the installation of an accumulator.

Your right. I should stop working one the house and go see the sights. Still haven't seen a bear

[lwg]

I've done the whole house RO, it's easy. Will be upgrading to a VSD pump next and installing automatics sensors for the RO system so I don't have to manually turn it on and off all the time.

BTW, not sure why you'd need a pressure tank, you shouldn't have any banging pipes.

[ichabod123]

Decided against the pressure tank. I put in a two stage canister filter and brought them out into the basement for easier access.
I didn't do the RO because of pressure needed and brine waste water. How did you solve these problems? Do you just let the RO water fill your tank then draw from your tank?

[lwg]

You have to use the fresh water tank for RO water. Then you'd be using the water pump for all of the house water pressure, hence I need to replace/upgrade mine.

For Brine water, I ran a 1/4" waste line to the dump location and used the below link to attach everything.

http://www.amazon.com/Camco-39062-Fl...=rv+dump+rinse


We can't "make" water unless we're connected to a sewer. However if we're not connected to a sewer we're more or less boondocking and would be using all the internal tanks (including fresh water) anyway so it's really not an issue.

[ichabod123]

OK. That makes sense. You just teed into your sewer line.

I agree the standard pump falls short in the volume and pressure area.

Did you put a gate valve in to keep shore water from going into the home. From what I can tell, shore water goes to a tee connector that goes directly to the house and to the pump.

What pump are you concidering

[lwg]

Originally Posted by ichabod123

OK. That makes sense. You just teed into your sewer line.

I agree the standard pump falls short in the volume and pressure area.

Did you put a gate valve in to keep shore water from going into the home. From what I can tell, shore water goes to a tee connector that goes directly to the house and to the pump.

What pump are you concidering

I did not put a gate in. I did have to reswizzle the plumbing to allow the onboard water pump to run while connected to city water (switched two lines as I recall). However I can still fill the freshwater tank via the usual method if need be.

I think that's what you're asking?

[ichabod123]

There is a tee connector on the main shore line. One end goes to the pump for when you are dry camping and the other goes directly to the manifold and uses shore pressure

That is the line i put my filter pack on so that shore water is filtered before it gets to the tee but that wouldn't let me fill the holding tank which is what I want to do. How do i run through the RO system and then into the tank and at the same time not let shore water into the manifold?
Sorry for being an idiot on this but it sounds like you have done exactly what i want to do.

[5th_Time]

You may have covered this, but have you noticed that you start with an empty fresh water tank, then hook up to city water and before you know it, your fresh water tank is full. Anyone have this water system issue?

[atom ant]

Did that start happening? Its the sign of a bad check valve in front of the pump. There is also a hand valve in front of the check valve - try closing that and see if that doesn't cure that issue of filling the tank. If it does, the check valve is dirty or bad.

[lwg]

Originally Posted by ichabod123

There is a tee connector on the main shore line. One end goes to the pump for when you are dry camping and the other goes directly to the manifold and uses shore pressure

That is the line i put my filter pack on so that shore water is filtered before it gets to the tee but that wouldn't let me fill the holding tank which is what I want to do. How do i run through the RO system and then into the tank and at the same time not let shore water into the manifold?
Sorry for being an idiot on this but it sounds like you have done exactly what i want to do.

Gotcha, I do have a T inline. If I actually need to use city water and bypass the fresh water tank I can route the water around the RO Membrane and into the coach as you normally would. In this instance the water still goes through the 3 stage filter, just not the RO membrane. I also won't have any brine waste water when in this mode.

Consequently I'll probably be switching over to this over the next couple of days as I need to sanitize my fresh water tank. Trying to do that every 6 months even though it's probably not as big a deal as usual since RO water has less nasties to cause algae buildup and such.

[rcflame]

I had the problem of the fresh water tank filling. I won't go through the whole story, but it would occur when I had the water pump on, and than had the city water on. If I shut the pump off before turning on the city water, I didn't have the problem.