Date:         Fri, 24 Mar 2000 00:12:51 EST
Reply-To:     Ssittservl@AOL.COM
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         S Sittservl <Ssittservl@AOL.COM>
Subject:      Re: Water leak from faucet
Comments: To: Steve@northwestwatch.org
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"

When I removed my refrigerator to replace the fan last
summer, I discovered that the city water inlet leaked like
a sieve, and apparently had soaked the insulation in the
wall the couple of times in the past I'd hooked it up to try it
out.  The inlet is a cheap plastic fitting with a relatively heavy
brass fitting screwed in behind it, connected to a stiff hose.
I'm surprised any of them survived the boat trip from Germany
without cracking.  Not the most reliable bit of engineering to
bury inside a wall.

The tank fill also leaked - it's a thin-walled plastic tube, which
tore slightly near the hose clamp that clamps it to the filler inlet.
More water in the wall at every tank fill.

I replaced the city water inlet and fixed the torn fill hose (by
cutting off the torn portion and pulling the rest up a little further
onto the filler inlet).

I've never come up with a reason to use the city water hookup,
though.  It's useful in a bigger RV with, say, a couple of sinks,
a toilet, and a shower.  But with just the one small sink in the
Vanagon, the tank lasts a long time, and it's pretty easy to refill
it when necessary.  So, I capped off the city water hose
where it connects to the faucet.  That way, I could always
reconnect it if for some reason I ever felt the need.

My faucet died around the same time - burnt-out switch
contacts, bad valve, and stripped knob.  I can't say I was
sorry to see it go - it was splashy and inconvenient, with
only two settings: off, and thin hard splashing stream.

I replaced it with a Shurflo faucet.  The Shurflo has
an aerator, which means less splashing.  It also runs
the pump water through a valve, so you can control the
force of the stream.  That saves a significant amount of
water, since you can use just a trickle for hand washing
and such.

The Shurflo lacked the clever pump-or-city valving that
the original faucet had; that's one reason I capped off my
city water line.  However, that can be remedied with a couple
of check valves and a wye fitting (the Shurflo manual shows
how) - I just didn't find it worth doing.  Also, I needed to make
an adaptor plate to fit the faucet in the old hole in the countertop.

Overall, I'm very, very happy with the new setup.  If my computer
ever comes back home from the Comp USA service department,
I'll try to scan some pictures and put them up on my web site
(http://members.aol.com/ssittservl/Westfalia).

                                          -Steven Sittser