Water pressure issues - any thoughts anyone ?

[Bailey boy]

Hoping someone can help as we are struggling with this and getting wet as well.

We have a standard water setup on our Broom. Large storage tank,calorifier,pump etc.

When we turn any tap on the water spurts in a similar way to what happens when the water tank has been allowed to empty and air to enter the system, however this is all the time.

We have removed the pump, checked O rings and ensured the pipe joins are tight to no benefit. I am assuming that air is leaking in before the pump as past the pump water might leak out but not air in due to the pressure.

All joints between tank and pump (and there are only a few) seem to be fine is there anything we may have overlooked ? The damp patches are getting embarrassing !
.

 

[KevB]

If there are no obvious leaks it might be worth checking if it does it when the tank is full to the brim. If not it could be air somehow getting into the pick up pipe above the waterline.

 

[petem]

Wear darker trousers?

 

[vas]

not necessary relevant to you but I did notice that after replacing all pipework with proper 18mm backbone and 15mm to the taps (AND replacing the taps with proper grohe items) the new showers and heads taps were fine.
HOWEVER, the original galley one (featuring a minute 5-6mm internal dia) was embarrassing as it would either not flow or make a mess of everything. At some point I regulated the pump pressure (undoing quite a lot the screw on top of the regulator) and now everything is much better

Worth checking that pump hasn't been replaced by a much larger one, creating too much pressure making it feel as if there's air in the system (or even forcing somehow air in the system if the tank to pump pipework is not up to par..)

good luck

V.

 

[Firefly625]

I had the exact same thing on our Mitchell for the first few weeks of ownership. Used to be a bit of a pain, then one day I was cleaning out the coffee filter jug and it did its "spurt" and covered the entire galley with wet ground coffee.... so I had to fix the problem.

A little delving around I found 2 issues, first a slight leak from a connector to the water pump, which had been slowing filling the bilges and may have been sucking in air to the system (the leak had also been bugging me as I couldn't find where the water had come from when I had looked previously), but curing the leak did not help the air in the water supply. Then after the water pump I found I had one of these Jabsco water pressure accumulators installed;

It has basically a tyre pressure value on the top (the black pointy thing). I just turned the taps on and pushed the valve down until all the air was out of the system and the supply has been air free ever since...

hope that may help.

 

[ARE]

I had the exact same thing on our Mitchell for the first few weeks of ownership. Used to be a bit of a pain, then one day I was cleaning out the coffee filter jug and it did its "spurt" and covered the entire galley with wet ground coffee.... so I had to fix the problem.

A little delving around I found 2 issues, first a slight leak from a connector to the water pump, which had been slowing filling the bilges and may have been sucking in air to the system (the leak had also been bugging me as I couldn't find where the water had come from when I had looked previously), but curing the leak did not help the air in the water supply. Then after the water pump I found I had one of these vetus water pressure accumulators installed;

It has basically a tyre pressure value on the top (the black pointy thing). I just turned the taps on and pushed the valve down until all the air was out of the system and the supply has been air free ever since...

hope that may help.

There should be air in the top of the accumulator, the accumulator has a rubber diaphragm separating the water from the compressed air. Basically when the pump produces pressure it squashes the compressed air in the accumulator and the pump cuts off.

When you open a tap the pressure of the compressed air forces the water out of the accumulator and this action takes out the pulsing of the pump to give a nice smooth flow.

I would suggest your diaphragm may of split allowing the compressed air into the system

Regards Anthony

 

[Wavey]

A couple of suggestions, one of which Firefly has mentioned above.

Check the accumulator tank which should be just after the pump in the circuit. If yours is like the one on my Broom it's a red spherical container in which there's a bladder. The bladder holds the fresh water en route to the taps. Between the bladder and the accumulator wall there should be air. The purpose of the accumulator is to absorb pressure differences in the water circuit to reduce the frequency of the pump kicking in. It's possible the bladder has perished or leaking somehow so it's sucking air in through the valve on the top.

Also, on my Broom, after the accumulator the water pipes rise about 2-3 feet to run at high level in the engine space before dropping down low again. When we had to change the water pump we got a lot of air trapped in that high section of the pipework and had to crack one of the joints in that section to get the air out.

 

[Firefly625]

interesting, when I push the valve down the was a hissing noise that then disappeared after 3 or 4 seconds, that may have been air being drawn into the accumulator rather than being pushed out, I'm not sure. All I know is ever since I have had a smooth / normal delivery of water to all taps on board.

 

[Wavey]

interesting, when I push the valve down the was a hissing noise that then disappeared after 3 or 4 seconds, that may have been air being drawn into the accumulator rather than being pushed out, I'm not sure. All I know is ever since I have had a smooth / normal delivery of water to all taps on board.

https://j109.org/docs/jabsco_accumulator_30573-0000.pdf

 

[Momac]

Hoping someone can help as we are struggling with this and getting wet as well.

We have a standard water setup on our Broom. Large storage tank,calorifier,pump etc.

When we turn any tap on the water spurts in a similar way to what happens when the water tank has been allowed to empty and air to enter the system, however this is all the time.

We have removed the pump, checked O rings and ensured the pipe joins are tight to no benefit. I am assuming that air is leaking in before the pump as past the pump water might leak out but not air in due to the pressure.

All joints between tank and pump (and there are only a few) seem to be fine is there anything we may have overlooked ? The damp patches are getting embarrassing !
.

Could this be due to a clogged water tank breather ?

 

[Bailey boy]

Many thanks to all who offered assistance and apologies for not responding until now. I took the opportunity to tackle the problem on the week end in the order of "easiest first" and the results were :-

The dark trouser suggestion certainly helped my appearance but did nothing for the water pressure.
The water tank vent is free and clear.
Releasing the pressure on the top of the accumulator vessel has made a huge difference - the spluttering is greatly reduced with probably only 10% of the previous splashing.

I am leaving things as they are for now until the Winter when I will take a look at the pressure vessel bladder and see if there is a fault. I will add my findings to this post. Incidentally the water pressure seems the same as before with no pulsing.

Thanks again

 

[Firefly625]

Many thanks to all who offered assistance and apologies for not responding until now. I took the opportunity to tackle the problem on the week end in the order of "easiest first" and the results were :-

The dark trouser suggestion certainly helped my appearance but did nothing for the water pressure.
The water tank vent is free and clear.
Releasing the pressure on the top of the accumulator vessel has made a huge difference - the spluttering is greatly reduced with probably only 10% of the previous splashing.

I am leaving things as they are for now until the Winter when I will take a look at the pressure vessel bladder and see if there is a fault. I will add my findings to this post. Incidentally the water pressure seems the same as before with no pulsing.

Thanks again

Glad my suggestion worked as well for you as it did for me, regardless of the instructions suggesting otherwise.... :encouragement: