Date: Sun, 25 Feb 2007 21:42:14 -0500
Reply-To: "Peter T. Owsianowski" <pnoceanwesty@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: "Peter T. Owsianowski" <pnoceanwesty@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: Priming the friggin' sink pump
In-Reply-To: <45E1FA2B.3090100@gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
Installed a new GoWesty pump (the black one) on JoesVan and you can hear the
water working it's way up to the faucet each time. Has worked well for 2
years. The old one had a funky ball valve that got stuck in the closed
position. Maybe yours is intermittantly getting stuck.
A little side story: Got that old pump out and my brother was looking at it
and said: "It just seems clogged", so he blew really hard into the hose end
not realizing the faucet end was pointing right at his eye. We had been
testing so it had water in and looked like a 3 Stooges episode as the water
blew out and hit his right eye. ...that was a really good laugh in a bus.
by the way, did you remember to flush the tank with baking soda/
bleach/water?
On 2/25/07, Michael Elliott <camping.elliott@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Mellow Yellow's sink pump gave out last summer. The motor and the
> impeller were no longer on speaking terms so they went their separate
> ways. I hear they are both doing well
>
> The pumps were temporarily out of stock wherever I looked, so a fellow
> listee loaned me a spare for a week. When the new pump arrived, I
> installed it and it worked fine.
>
> Last month I took a cruise up Highway 1 on the Pacific Coast
> (California). I started with the water tank dry, no sense hauling water
> before I need it, I feel, and when I got to Montana del Oro campground
> near Morro Bay I put water in the tank. I would probably have filled it,
> but the water supply there comes from large tanks that are filled
> periodically by whoever's job it is to fill those tanks. They were all
> pretty close to near empty so the water just trickled out of the hose in
> a pitiful little steam. I waited as long as I could while water dribbled
> into my water tank, but the flow was so slow that I didn't wait until
> the red water level LED camp up. But I figured there was enough for the
> pump to suck.
>
> But it didn't. I could hear the pump motor whirring, but nothing came
> from the faucet.
>
> This had me a little concerned, but the next night, farther up the
> coast, I filled the tank at a National Forest campground the the pump
> pumped cheerfully thereafter. "Probably hadn't put enough water in the
> first night," I decided.
>
> Well, this weekend I struck out with a dry water tank again, and filled
> it before I entered Joshua Tree National Park. This is desert camping
> and there is no water anywhere nearby at all. Even if someone did drill
> down to the water table, the water has too much radon to be healthful.
> Lots of granite thereabouts.
>
> After settling, I went to make a cup of coffee, and the pump did it
> again: the motor whirred, but no faucet water. I popped the top off the
> water tank, figuring that if worst came to worst I could just dip up
> what I needed from the tank by hand. I wondered if there was an
> obstruction in the water line, but the hose was too tight at the elbow
> at the top of the tank for me to remove it without risking breaking
> something, so I fished the pump up off the bottom and pulled it out of
> the tank. I set it on its side and reached over to the faucet to turn on
> the sink -- I wanted to watch to see if the impeller blade spun. It was
> a stretch grabbing the faucet while keeping an eye on the pump. As soon
> as I turned on the pump, water came out of the faucet.
>
> <image here of chimpanzee dressed like human guy scratching head in
> puzzlement>.
>
> I dropped the pump back into the tank and it worked fine, without a
> hiccup, for the remainder of the trip.
>
> I can't recall who I bought the pump from - one of our usual online
> vendors. It's not German. It is labeled "LEISURE PRODUCTS" and "CERRITOS."
>
> Pump shouldn't have to be primed, should it? I would think that having
> it sit under a foot of water would do a right fine job of priming any
> pump, unless it is trapping a bubble inside.
>
> --
> Mike "Rocket J Squirrel" Elliott
> 71 Type 2: the Wonderbus
> 84 Westfalia: Mellow Yellow ("The Electrical Banana")
> 74 Utility Trailer. Ladybug Trailer, Inc., San Juan Capistrano
> KG6RCR
>
--
Pete
'79 Westy "Aardvark"
'87 Westy "Joe's Van"
'02 Audi A6 Avant
WWW. Busesbythebeach.com
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