water tank

dzcook · Veteran Member

water tank

KFT · Guru

Firstly you are not a pain. You are in the right place to ask lots of questions and the experienced people in here are only too happy to help you learn about your rig.

first thing I would do is remove the bottom hose in photo 1 and see if water comes out.

next thing would be to remove the hose from the pump and see if you can blow through from the pump back to the tank(the hose you pulled off)

the water you see "leaking" is probably coming out the breather which is normally on top of the tank and usually has a small diameter tube attached but it may not if the rig is an oldie.

see how you go with that and get back in here to ask some more.

you really are welcome

frank

dzcook · Veteran Member

ok disconnected the pipe on the tank and emptied the tank out
took pump tap off again and retried it and is pumping good
poured water down the pipe that connects to pump tap and went thru pipe fine filled bucket outside
reconnected tap in sink and left hose in bucket and its pumping
might flush tank out a little bit before putting hose back on so i hope it will work tomorrow when i connect it all up
thanks frank for your message
david

Sarge9 · Senior Member

You are on the money now David, you have proved the pump and hose work... so, either there was a blob in the hose and you have washed it back into the bucket or there was one in the tank and hopefully if flushed out when you let the tank drain.

There is a plastic nut in Photo one, you can always gently undo that one to help drain and flush the tank, shove the garden hose into it and into the one the pump hose connects as well, just to move any solid blobs. And when you re-connect the pump hose to the tank, have a good look to see there are no kinks after it is installed, my dishwasher took 10 years to finally develop enough of a kink in the waste hose as to stop it emptying.... it was a long gentle loop when it was installed but gravity dragged it down.

Sarge

PeterD · Guru

dzcook wrote:
there appears to be a pipe old plastic hose ( looks like garden hose , should i replace it van is 30 yrs old ) going to the pump tap

Thirty year old hose! Vans built back then would have most probably had ordinary garden hose. Read this link. Then go and remove all the old garden hose. Replace it with a modern food grade hose. If the filler hose is a black plastic hose then it will probably be OK.

Food grade hoses are PVC but there is a lining in them that is not PVC or made of any other carcinogenic substance.

If there is water in your tank and water will pass down your old pump hose it is possible you have an air leak in it by now that will prevent the pump from working. When you re-plumb your van the pump will possibly work. If it does not it may be because the seals are not good enough for the head height you are expecting it to work. Get a piece of hose that is longer than the rise in your system and see if it will pump up that height.

dzcook · Veteran Member

ok thanks everyone is now working fine think pipe also needed to be filled after a long time empty pump just wasnt big enough to suck all that air out
the pipe is not garden hose is black and is once all the dust etc was washed off in good nick , does take a few pumps to get water but is working well

PeterD · Guru

David, when you said "looks like garden hose" I assumed that it was garden hose. The carcinogenic nature of the PVC garden hose was not recognised back then, we all used garden hoses way back then for high pressure water connections. Vans of that age were frequently plumbed wit garden hose as the food grade hose was not available then. The black 1/2" black plastic hose is OK.

The hand pumps are noted for loosing pressure between uses. As you have noted it takes a little time to re-prime them. This non return valve or similar will assist in preventing the pump loosing its prime between uses. I have fitted one in my van which is plumbed with 1/2" food gauge hose.