Lee1st Posted April 18, 2007 Share Posted April 18, 2007 Hi All, Thought I'd just tap the techies brains.... Preparing to go to France for our first "proper" motorhome holiday next Tuesday, I had a habitation service carried out about 6 weeks ago and haven't used the motorhome since. On filling the tank with water it turns out that the submersible pump in the tank no longer seems to work. Further investigations show the bathroom tap has been left on. Will this have burned the pump out? Is there likely to be a reset switch of some sort on the pump. (can't see one). Before I rush out and buy as new pump, am I missing something obvious? The switch on the control panel is on for power and pump. Any advice would be appreciated. Cheers, Lee Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david lloyd Posted April 18, 2007 Share Posted April 18, 2007 Hi Lee We use our motorhome quite frequently but after a four week break I was getting it ready and found our pump didn't work. As the weather has been cold I had drained the water down in the usual way and my first thought was the cold may have got at it - however, checked the fuses and, sure enough, the fuse for the pump had blown. Although, it looked intact when I changed it the pump burst into life. Check the basics first. Regards, David P.S. If you have water in the tank it is always good practice to turn the pump off when leaving the van for any length of time - if you do spring a leak the pump will soon make sure all the water is pumped out if left on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terrytraveller Posted April 18, 2007 Share Posted April 18, 2007 Hi Lee, Submersible pumps do not like running dry for any length of time, so try the following checks first, then I'm afraid you most likely have to replace the pump. The pump is switched on either via an adjustable pressure switch, or via micro switches embedded in each tap. After checking the fuses, try each tap - listen for the faint click of the micro switch. Bear in mind some switches are left in the taps but not connected and a pressure switch is fitted as well. The pressure switch should be on the pipework somewhere on the output side of the pump, you will find two wires running to/from it. To check the switch, take both spades off of the switch and short them together, the pump should then run if the switch is either bad or requires adjustment. The miniture tap micro switches are replaceable and switches are available from good electronic stores or MH and caravan retailers. In the past I have taken a spare immersible pump with me to Europe as they are not so popular as the diaphram pump which is widely available. If you do take another pump, remember to take new fittings. The last whale pump I fitted was not polarity conscious, just had two white wires to connect - any way round you wanted to connect it was okay. So from that I surmise there must be a diode network inside the pump, there was a report that the pump was faster connected one way than the other, I think that when connected one way there must be less resistance and less current/volts drop, the pump runs faster. I expect someone will have taken a pump to pieces and will let us all know. Regards Terry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clive Posted April 18, 2007 Share Posted April 18, 2007 A Couple of thoughts 1) Are you sure there is not a master switch for the water pump?. If the motorhome has been serviced by a professional and the water tank drained then the pump would have been switched off by them. 2) Submersible pumps can sieze up in their simple bearings after a period of non use. I have found that giving the impeller a poke round using a small instrument with the volts applied has frequently started it running after which it rapidly frees up again. 3) Check for volts at the pump terminals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Kirby Posted April 18, 2007 Share Posted April 18, 2007 david lloyd - 2007-04-18 1:16 PM Hi Lee We use our motorhome quite frequently but after a four week break I was getting it ready and found our pump didn't work. As the weather has been cold I had drained the water down in the usual way and my first thought was the cold may have got at it - however, checked the fuses and, sure enough, the fuse for the pump had blown. Although, it looked intact when I changed it the pump burst into life. Check the basics first. Regards, David P.S. If you have water in the tank it is always good practice to turn the pump off when leaving the van for any length of time - if you do spring a leak the pump will soon make sure all the water is pumped out if left on. If you do as David suggests and find it is just the pump fuse that has blown, don't leave home without several more spare fuses to hand! A blown fuse may be because something, or some one, shorted the pump circuit, but it may also indicate a faulty pump, in which case the fault is likely to reoccur.However, unless your pump master switch has been turned off, I'd be inclined to suspect the pump has run dry, siezed, overloaded, and probably blown your fuse into the bargain! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lee1st Posted April 19, 2007 Author Share Posted April 19, 2007 Thanks for the replies chaps. Bit of a mystery, I re-drained down, reopened a tap and promptly heard what was suspiciously like the noise of a pump trying to do it's stuff. Tank refilled and all appears to be well. Don't know whether it was just taking a while to prime for some reason, but seems fine now. Don't you just hate it when a solution arises but you don't really know why? Thanks again, France here I come (Tuesday anyway), Lee Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david lloyd Posted April 19, 2007 Share Posted April 19, 2007 Yep - a bit like the rest of life eh? Have a great trip Lee........ Regards, David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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