Date: Thu, 20 May 1999 19:59:03 EDT
Reply-To: Ssittservl@AOL.COM
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: S Sittservl <Ssittservl@AOL.COM>
Subject: Re: Westy Sink faucet mods
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
> Date: 5/20/99 12:48:16 PM CDT
> From: bpchristensen@MINDSPRING.COM (Brent Christensen)
>
> OK - after a couple of camping trips now, I have decided that I HATE the
> sink/faucet in my '89 Syncro Westy. I'm wondering if anyone has come up
> with some good modifications. Here are the things that are bugging me:
>
> 1. The stream of water is too forceful (and directed). It splashes
> everywhere when using the sink.
>
> 2. The faucet valve (round, notched) is impossible to use if you have
> soapy/wet hands, since it cannot be gripped.
I found exactly the same problems. I also found that I used a lot more water
than I really needed to, and dripped a lot all over the sink, while trying to
get the knob turned on and off. It's also hard to find the "off"
position, since it's an unmarked spot somewhere between "city
water on" and "pump on".
> Has anyone attached some sort of diffuser to make the stream of water
easier
> to manager?
I tried just putting a little screen where the water comes out, to reduce
splashing, but it didn't help.
To solve the knob problem, I wired a momentary contact pushbutton in
parallel with the knob switch, and mounted it in a little box next to the
faucet, with the button facing toward the user. That way, you could
press the button with a finger while hoding your hand under the faucet,
to get just the little bit of water you needed to wash up with. I tried to
make
the button as waterproof as possible.
It worked pretty well, but unfortunately, I did a poor job constructing it,
and it broke down after only a few weeks. I could make another, better
one, but the faucet has recently developed a "problem" which actually
makes it in some ways easier to use: the knob got left in "almost but
not quite on" position for a while, and the contacts arced a lot and
were eaten away. Now, the pump runs only as long as you turn and
hold the knob all the way against the stop, and shuts itself off a second
or two after you let go. That's actually turned out to be more convenient
in a lot of cases.
I'm thinking of replacing the faucet with a Shurflo faucet from West
Marine - the same one that's used in the Eurovan camper. It has an
aerator to reduce splashing, and a much better control lever - you can
actually adjust the flow rate when the pump is on. (The lever turns on
the pump, but then the water still goes through an adjustable valve
controlled by the same lever). It also rotates into more positions than
the Westy faucet. The disadvangtage is that there's no built-in provision
for both a city water and pump connection to the faucet - I'd have to add
a tee valve (probably under the sink) and a cut off switch for the pump in
order to use city water. On the other hand, we've never used the city
water connection, and I doubt we ever will, so I could just ignore it.
-Steven Sittser
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