Pump keeps running

[Alden Miller]

We had our first opportunity to boondock a couple weeks ago. Right on the edge of the Casco Bay in Freeport, ME. It was beautiful.

Being my first time where I needed to use the water pump I read up on it in the manual. It says that the pump will shut off when it reaches pressure. I turned it on and let it run (and run and run and run). I got concerned that it would burn itself up so I turned it back off.

After this we just turned the pump on whenever we needed water pressure, seemed to work fine but I like the idea of the pump only running when needed.

Is there a pressure switch or something that I should look for? Any ideas?

Thanks! -Alden

[RichardT]

Depending on the type of pump you have it may have an internal or an external pressure switch.

When you turn on the pump is any water coming out from below the trailer? If so you may just have an open valve that needs to be closed.

What pump do you have?
Check for leaks?

[Peter&Denise]

I assume that you've used the shore water prior to this and don't have any leaks, so take a look outside and see if water is puking out of your shore water inlet. If not then maybe your pump is getting weak, but that seems unlikely if is seems to work well otherwise. If you have the standard-issue for that vintage belt-driven Par pump, there is a pressure switch on the pump body. It has two wires going to it, so it should be easy to find, just make sure that the wires are hooked up. Generally if the switch was NFG, then the pump would run up pressure till it started to hammer, and cycle a lot slower as it tried to continue pumping against the excessive pressure. That would definitely burn it out. If it just runs steady, but won't quit, and you have sufficient fresh water in the tank then you must be losing water somewhere. My bet would be on the shore water inlet. Hope this helps. P.

[wahoonc]

Pump might be pulling some air too, I have had a hairline crack on the inlet side of an RV water pump that was pulling in just enough air to keep the pump running and running and running, but it was not showing up as a leak. It took a while to track down. I used the turn the pump on and off method for quite a while....

Aaron

[FrenchBern]

One more problem could be a pin hole in the diaphragm which is not allowing to built enough pressure to flip to pressure switch. Connect a pressure gage on the output if you know what the switch is supposed to operate at.

[sander17]

Like Wahoonc says, it could be a cracked strainer bowl. Does air come out with the water from the faucet? A crack may not leak water, but will let enough air in to keep the pressure switch from working.

[Alden Miller]

Ok, all good thoughts. I believe it is the belt driven pump. I'll check to see if it is leaking out the shore water side. It does spit a little air out of the faucet at first but once it has run for a few seconds that stops. I figured that is just normal air in the lines.

Thanks for the input, now I have a couple things to investigate.

-Alden