Water Pump Saga

I don’t think I mentioned that Jim replaced the water pump in the rig a couple weeks ago. Our original Shurflo Extreme Smart Sensor 5.7 had been acting up off and on for months. These pumps have a history of failing, and many people on the Lazy Daze forum have replaced them numerous times. Supposedly Shurflow finally fixed the problem in the spring of 2008. We bought a replacement last year before we left Pensacola, anticipating a problem in the future. Our old pump was working but occasionally while taking a shower, the water pressure would vary, then turn hot or cold when the pressure came back. It might do this multiple times, or not at all in the course of both of us taking showers. It wasn’t pleasant, so Jim decided to replace the old pump with the new one, which was manufactured in February of ‘08, hoping this would be a good one. We were very excited that the installation wasn’t too bad, and the new pump worked like a charm. Very quiet, steady pressure, no temperature fluctuations. That is until last night! I took a shower and had no problem. Jim got in 5 minutes later and I soon heard a few choice words coming from the shower. The pump was doing the same thing the other one did, and wouldn’t stop. I finally had to go outside and hook up the water hose directly to bypass the pump so Jim could rinse the soap off. Unfortunately the water pressure here is very low, so he still wasn’t a very happy camper.

After work today, he decided to try and make an adjustment to the new pump, which our friend Don did to his and seemed to help. When we raised the mattress to access the pump, there was water under the bed. The new pump had been leaking! Since we exchanged the first defective one for another last week at Camping World, we just went ahead and put the newest one in tonight. So far, we’ve both showered and all is well. We’re keeping our fingers crossed, since this pump was manufactured in July ‘09. But we will be diligently checking for leaks for awhile.

And to add to our fun this evening, I checked the gauges and realized our black tank was 94% full and the gray tank read 100%! Usually there is still room for more, so we didn’t think much about it and continued washing our hands, etc. I noticed a funny smell from the bathroom, and Jim opened the shower door. Gray water was about an inch deep in the stall. The clothes hamper was in there, but it was sitting on top of a throw rug I keep in a plastic bag, so at least the clothes weren’t wet. The rug was soaked, though. Just more clean-up!

We are now sitting down with a beer and glass of wine to unwind. We may have to have more than one after today! Work was good, though, did some more trail work and picked up a little trash. Have some other things on the agenda for the next 2 days. Here’s a picture I took today from one of the trails. This is the back of the dam and powerhouse 2. Our neighbors across the street left this morning and we inherited one of their tomato plants. Don’t have much of a green thumb, so I hope I can keep it alive. There are 4 green tomatoes on it so maybe there is hope.