Water Hose Connection Surprise

Another wrinkle in the MH Saga... Prepping for the first outing this year (I know, I know, go more often), we attached a hose to the water supply at home to partially fill the water tank... no flow.  A groan and a "now what"?  Something was definitely amiss.  Thinking there must be a blockage somewhere, we proceeded to remove the panel cover above the fill/normal valves and hose connection stuff.  An hour later, finally the panel is off and we can see all the poly connections and hoses.  Nothing obvious but now starting to trace where the water pressure was being blocked, we decided that it must be something right at the hose connection.  After removing a hose splitter/adapter we could see into the hose bib connection and noticed some sort of spring/check valve feature that did not "look right".  So we took that apart and suddenly, after re-attaching the hose, we had flowing water again.  I guess this check valve had failed in the "closed" position... not even sure why there's a valve here????  The lines were still filled with the winterizing fluid so with water pressure we could now clear that pink stuff out and continue.  Of course re-installing the panel was a PITA but now the water works again.  I guess  I'll order a new hose bib "valve", or maybe not, since I'm still not sure why I need it... some kind of back flow prevention I guess although with the splitter there are manual valves anyway.  Soooo, if you ever run into a hose flow issue, check the hose bib connection back flow valve... FYI.

taoshum said:

..., we proceeded to remove the panel cover above the fill/normal valves and hose connection stuff.  An hour later, finally the panel is off and we can see all the poly connections and hoses.  ...

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Good story! I took a metal panel off covering up some of my plumbing (mainly the gray/black plumbing) to do something and I liked the easier access for some of the plumbing so I left the panel off. We haven't had the coach anywhere since last fall since we've been 100% engaged with a huge house remodeling project  .

The fill port check valve is there to prevent water from leaking out when the onboard water pump is used. They more commonly fail open, but it's not unheard of for mineral buildup to seal one closed if there's not enough shore water pressure to over come it.

That is a check valve. It's there to prevent water to exit the system when you're running with the water pump.  If it's still assembled, I'd leave it alone. The next time it happens, just use something soft like a pencil eraser and push it in and let it snap out. It should probably be OK. If it starts to happen more often, then I would change out the entire assembly.

I recently discovered a similar problem. The FILL valve actually shut off the flow when moved all the way to the fill position. Backing off just slightly allowed the tank to fill. Weird!

Ernie

Also make sure you install a hose screen filter where you connect the hose. They will stop sand and debris from getting into your water system plugging up all your aerators. My old shower head could not be disassembled so I don't know what I would have done to clean mine. All hardware stores sell them.

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Ernie n Tara said:

I recently discovered a similar problem. The FILL valve actually shut off the flow when moved all the way to the fill position. Backing off just slightly allowed the tank to fill. Weird!

Ernie

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That three-way city water/fill tank valve is notorious for failing, I think we're on our second replacement.

[story time]

When we were returning from the Caribbean (we took 18 month sabbaticals) in our 40' sailboat, our bilge alarm bell sounded and after about 15 minutes of furiously looking for the source of the leak I found the problem (we were on a three day passage to the Bahamas.)

It was a three way Apollo bronze ball valve (mucho $$$) that failed - the handle indicated it was in the correct position for being at sea but it lied. Every time the boat heeled, a through hull fitting just above the waterline went under water and allowed some water to enter the bilge. (it's a long story - this was for the air conditioner cooling water discharge but the AC broke and we threw it away in St. Croix.)

It also didn't help that all three of our bilge pumps didn't work, two manual and one electric  :

[/story time]