Our coach has a very full utility bay with hose and cable reels. I would like to add a good Watts regulator if I can find a place to put it. However, with the regulator at the coach end of the hose, how do I protect the hose? Is there a hose strong enough to withstand excessive water pressure as found in some parks and campgrounds? What do most of you find to be the best solution?
We have ours screwed into the input side of a sediment filter housing. Short length of hose from campground water to housing, then attach the coach hose to the output side of the filter housing.
This way it protects our water softener (if we need to use it - we attach it between the sediment filter and the coach) and the coach hose.
Royce,
We use a Watts adjustable regulator and we hook it up to the spigot prior to the hose and our filter system. Just as you have stated we have run into real high pressure in some parks that have there own water system. When the park gets full you have low pressure & when no one is there you have high pressure. Real balancing act.
Pamela & Mike
I used to put my adjustable regulator on the input side of my water filter. At one campground in Utah (Thompson Springs) I noticed my short hose between campground spigot and regulator was about 2 inches in diameter. I checked the campground pressure and found it to be slightly above 100 psi! And in the afternoon sun, my inlet hose looked like a Boa Constrictor. Ever since I put the regulator on the spigot.
Without a high pressure inlet hose this seems to be the safest way for me.
Found this site for Valterra high pressure hose.
High Pressure Drinking Water Hose Archives - Valterra.com | Valterra.com (http://www.valterra.com/product-category/rv-products/aftermarket/freshwater-products/high-pressure-drinking-water-hose/)
Have you guys never had a problem having the regulator stolen? Seems like expensive brass regulators would be a target for thieves. Maybe I'm just paranoid.
Not us. In fact, we accidentally left ours behind once, called the campground when we realized it, and they sent it to us.
You may call it dumb luck but, knock on wood, we have never had a problem having one stole. (borrowed permanently)
Pamela
Just for fun, I looked at Tweety's prices. Except for one Valterra one, all were under $20. There are some that replace the fill port that are more expensive but a thief would have to steal the whole coach to get one of them.
We have a short FlowSafe hose fron the campground spigot to a pressure regulator to a partiulate filter. Then to other filters, water softeners as needed then to the input hose on the coach.
The FlowSate hose is a stainless steel reinforced hose with a built-in shutoff valve that closes if the flow rate exceeds soething like 3.5 gal/min. It will stop the water if there is a major failure. A slow leak, not much help.
We generally do not use campground pressured water, just fill our tanks, turn it off and use the coach pump and shut that off when we are not using water or away. A water leak inside is a bad thing.
A particulate filter is especially important to protect the coach's water system from incoming crud and we have seen some nasty stuff. You want to keep al that junk out of your valves, solenoids valves, pump etc. There is a small filter at the input side of most pumps that should get cleaned once a year or more. Check the screens at the ends of the faucets and the shower in the coach if water flow seem slow. Thay are probably full of junk.
Roger
Always put the pressure regulator at the spigot first then the hose. This way everything, including the hose, is protected.
It's my understanding that Foretravels have a built in water pressure regulator. I know my 1996 U295 did. I've not checked my 2003, but I assume it has one as well.
On my '96, the regulator was just behind the panel where the water fill connector is located.
When the coach was new to us, I used a regulator on the spigot. I have left one behind and also found one that someone else left behind. After leaving that one behind and learning about the built in regulator, I decided to just fill the tank and shut off the water at the faucet. The pump keeps the system pressurized. I can tell if it is running when it shouldn't be running, like a slow drip, leak, or faucet left on. When we leave the coach we turn off the pump so that in case of a leak, we don't return to find the coach flooded. Just my way of doing it; I'm sure others do it differently. We don't have a washer/dryer.
I plumbed in a permanent inlet sediment filter with a carbon filter downstream, followed by a Watts regulator. Gauge on the input side and output side, and if the shore pressure is over about 70 psi, we just fill the tank, turn off the faucet and run on the water pump. My thought about the higher pressure to the filters is that they will flow faster with higher pressure and I won't have to change the sediment filter so often. Filters before the regulator help the regulator last longer.
Agree that you should never leave a fill hose under pressure with more than 70 psi.
Similar to Dave K. except just a 5 micron Carbon Spun filter... I would like to add a second filter (carbon), but that will involve some gymnastics with the plumbing on my current setup. For now, I have taken to adding a disposable inline filter at the spigot. My adjustable regulator is after the filter with a gauge in front of it as well. Since I added the hose reel, I have taken to adding a fixed Valtera Stainless Steel full flow inline regulator at the spigot to protect the hose reel. My system is different than most because there is still a city water inlet in the utility bay wet wall that can be used for filling the tank as well- bypassing the hose, filter, and regulator. I left it in when I added the hose reel by teeing into the water inlet tubing with a check valve. I will eventually add a direct gravity fill on the tank.
Don