No water even when pump is working or sounding like it is.

[nevadadave]

Just hooked up my 2003 25' Safari. I'm a newbie, and orientation was a month ago so don't remember anything they said about certain things. Emptied the winterized tanks and filled it back up but there was no cutoff and the bathroom flooded. I shut off the water and emptied again. put more in but turned it off after a few minutes. Tried the taps, one spurt and then they stopped totally. Still nothing comes out when I try. Ran the furnace all day at 56 to see if they needed thawing. That wasn't the answer either. Water in the tanks, pump on as far as the sound indicates. Nothing out of the taps. Any ideas?

[rmkrum]

Check that you hooked up your city water hose to the correct inlet. One of them is a black tank flusher. That would explain the flooded bathroom.

[GCinSC2]

Nevadadave,

When you are describing your situation let folks know if you are on the water pump or hooked to city water.

If using the pump, they start up, run and then slow down and finally stop as pressure is built up in the system.

If city water:
Check the hose to trailer water connection these may have a debris screen, see if it's clogged.
Remove an aerator at the lav sink, test for water flow w/o it in place. If you then have water clean or replace it. Continue checking aerators elsewhere and flush the pipes with them removed.

If you find crud in aerators might also want to do a thorough hot water tank flush.

Did you find the source of the leak? I'm confused on that.

Good luck.

Gary

[RFP]

Yep, it really sounds like you hooked up to the black tank flush.

[mcneon]

If you have any air leak at all on the inlet side of the pump, it will not pump water. Clue here is that the pump won't shut off. It will run continuously.

Bob in Nashville

[Sport 16 STL]

Agree, sounds like black tank flush. I need to double check myself each time I use either on. Should be marked better

[GCinSC2]

Ok two posts suggesting it’s the black tank flush.

Anybody have an explanation for how that floods the interior of a trailer?

[rmkrum]

Overfill the black tank enough, and you either get water out the roof vent, or from the lavatory sink if it’s plumbed to the black tank.

Or it leaks out of an unglued joint or unconnected black vent line which has also been known to happen.

He did not state the exact source of the flooding.

[GCinSC2]

Rmkrum

Agreed OP has not detailed source of flooding. If a sink was plumbed into black tank that should leave a wet sink.

I pulled my AS toilet one time years ago but no exact memory for how it sealed etc. foam ring gasket maybe?

No fish flush city water connected goes thru back flow preventer into flush head at tank. Mine makes a decent water spray sound while running etc but the use of it does not flood the trailer interior. You need to be attending the tank flush while in use.

Gary

[Wazbro]

Another possibility for pump making noise and not working is valve set to winterize, pump anti-freeze from jug.

[greghoro]

I find that I need to make sure all taps are closed when starting up after the pump has been run dry.

If a tap is left open, it will run but won’t pump water.

Once primed, ok until next winterization.


Greg

[cbburke]

Originally Posted by nevadadave

Just hooked up my 2003 25' Safari. I'm a newbie, and orientation was a month ago so don't remember anything they said about certain things. Emptied the winterized tanks and filled it back up but there was no cutoff and the bathroom flooded. I shut off the water and emptied again. put more in but turned it off after a few minutes. Tried the taps, one spurt and then they stopped totally. Still nothing comes out when I try. Ran the furnace all day at 56 to see if they needed thawing. That wasn't the answer either. Water in the tanks, pump on as far as the sound indicates. Nothing out of the taps. Any ideas?

Dave,
Your description is a bit confusing. Your reference to "winterized tanks": typically the grey, black and fresh water tanks are emptied not winterized. As several have suggested the most direct way to flood the bathroom is by connecting a shore water source to the black water flush fitting. Filling the fresh water tank is a completely separate access. Behind a locked door on the side of your coach.
Depending on who/how the coach was winterized and water is in the fresh water tank it is not uncommon for the water pump to fail when first turned on in the spring.
Open one faucet and turn on the pump. With water in the fresh water tank one would typically hear the pump change pitch as it picks up water. If you don't hear a change that indicates the pump is not drawing either because there is an air leak in the line between the tank and pump or the pump has failed internally.

[azflycaster]

There are a lot of unknowns here. From the description, it appears that the owner is not experienced with this trailer. Some of the issues could be; no water in the fresh water tank, a winterization issue and city water not attached to the correct inlet.

Hopefully, the owner will check back and help us help him.

[n2916s]

The OP seems to have gone silent...

[jcanavera]

While the problem does sound a lot like an overfill of the black tank via the wash out port, a common lack of water through the pump of a trailer can be a clogged filter at the pump. Had it happen to me a couple of years back on my 2004 Classic. Once that screen in the filter gets covered with sediment, the water will stop even though the pump is working hard. What surprised me is looking at filter you might not be able to see the debris as much as you think. I pulled my filter and with a long nail scraped the element of the filter. Then I realized that the filter was coated with a fine layer of sediment.

With a trailer that age, it probably would be good to replace the filter anyway.

Jack

[gjsittler]

I decided that I would winterize the 1999 Safari 25C last fall, and bought all that pink stuff and pumped it into the system. There was a specific procedure for all this:
DRAIN THE SYSTEM
1. Run the pump until the freshwater tank is dry, letting everything out through the kitchen sink until air comes out and the pump is obviously pumping no more water from the tank, THEN TURN OFF THE PUMP. Drain the grey water tank while you're doing this. You can dump the stuff anywhere since it is environmentally safe, even if you drink some of it. (But it tastes awful - hmmm, how would I know?)
2. Drain the water heater by removing the drain plug and let all the fresh water run out. Reinstall the plug when no more water runs out.
3. Close the valves to the water heater inlet and outlet, so it won't fill up with all the pink stuff from the freshwater tank when we start pumping that around.
4. Find the low point drain-out valve and open it, so remaining fresh water will dribble out on the ground.
5. Open the kitchen sink taps, and the bathroom sink taps, and turn on the shower as well, and allow all that fresh, freezable water to drain out through the low point drain. Don't forget to stand on the flush valve for the toilet while you wait for the water to drain out.
6. Turn off all those taps, and CLOSE the low point drain. Now we are ready to charge the system with pink stuff.
FILL WITH PINK STUFF
1. I put about 3 gallons of pink stuff in the freshwater tank.
2. I started running the pump to pressurize with pink stuff, while opening the cold water tap in the bathroom.
NOTE: The pump didn't want to pull from the freshwater tank. This was annoying to say the least. I finally got my shop vac and hooked its hose up to the bathroom faucet and pulled a vacuum until I heard the pump change its tune and start pumping pink stuff into the lines. This is a technique you can use to prime your pump if it's not picking up from the tank (provided the filter screens are not plugged with muck).
3. Run the bathroom cold water until pink stuff comes out. Turn it off.
4. Run the kitchen cold water until pink stuff comes out. Turn it off.
5. Run the shower until pink stuff comes out. Turn it off.
NOW, YOU HAVE TO BACKFLUSH THE HOT WATER LINES INTO THE EMPTY WATER HEATER.
6. IMPORTANT! Open the outlet valve on the water heater, but leave the inlet valve OFF.
7. Start with the shower. Turn the shower head OFF (it has that handy pause valve feature!) then open both hot and cold water valves to the shower. This will cause pink stuff to flow back into the water heater from the shower. Give it about 15 seconds to fill that line, then shut it off. Your pump should run when the water is flowing and stop when you turn off the taps.
8. Turn on the bathroom sink hot water tap, hold your big thumb over the faucet so water can't get out, and turn on the cold water tap to force water to flow back to the water heater for about 15 seconds, then turn them both off.
9. Turn on the kitchen sink hot water tap, hold your big thumb over the faucet so water can't get out, and turn on the cold water tap to force water to flow back to the water heater for about 15 seconds, then turn them both off.
10. Last but not least, stand on the flush valve for the toilet until pink stuff is obviously running into the black water tank.
AT THIS POINT - You should have pink stuff in all the lines, and a noticeable amount in the hot water heater, which might be slightly pressurized. (So what?) Turn off your pump. You won't need it anymore.
NOW, FILL THE CITY WATER LINE WITH PINK STUFF!
(OK, you will need a way to pump pink stuff into the City Water hookup. I bought a $15 drill-driven pump to pump pink stuff from the gallon jug into the system.)
1. Open the cold water tap in the kitchen sink.
2. Connect your cheap drill-operated pump to the City Water inlet and pump a couple quarts out of the gallon jug of pink stuff into the City Water connection.
3. Check to see that pink stuff is flowing out of the kitchen faucet, then turn it off.
4. Disconnect your pump and seal up the City Water inlet for the winter.
YOUR SYSTEM SHOULD BE FILLED ONLY WITH PINK STUFF BY NOW.
TREAT THE DRAINS!
1. Pour at least 2 cups of pink stuff into the shower drain, the bathroom sink, and the kitchen sink. This should be enough to fill the traps and keep them from getting freeze damaged.
ONE LAST THING:
OPEN the low point drain so pink stuff can flow out and fill that line as well. You can leave it open, or close it for the winter. It's your choice.

[Wazbro]

Originally Posted by gjsittler

1. I put about 3 gallons of pink stuff in the freshwater tank.

I would never do this, takes a ridiculous amount of time to get the pink stuff out of fresh tank.

Originally Posted by gjsittler

NOW, YOU HAVE TO BACKFLUSH THE HOT WATER LINES INTO THE EMPTY WATER HEATER.

If you have an actual water heater bypass this is unnecessary you should just be able to run the hot water taps like you did with the cold water lines. I suggest you install a bypass if you don't have one, sounds like you only have a water heater shutoff if you need to do this.

[aftermath]

You should not put pink stuff in the freshwater tank and NEVER put it in the HW tank. I did this once by mistake and boy, it was a long time before things got settled out.



I am going to guess that you have a three valve bypass system on your HW tank. Do a little research and figure out how to set the valves. You have a line into the tank and one out of the tank. In between these you should also see another valve in a line that cuts across the inlet and outlet lines. Open this one as you close the others. You can "flush" out the hot line just like you described doing to your cold line. I have never heard of "back flushing" the hot water lines back into the HW tank.



If you end up with some water in the HW tank it will not cause any trouble. A couple of cups of water sitting at the bottom of a 6 gallon tank will have plenty of room to expand when it freezes. Don't lose any sleep over this.

[tjdonahoe]

Why would you put the anifreze in the tank...thetaste will be with you forever.....unhook the pump suction side add a hose and let the pump suck out of the jug...soooo easy..don’t need a vacuum cleaner..

[tjdonahoe]

Originally Posted by gjsittler

I decided that I would winterize the 1999 Safari 25C last fall, and bought all that pink stuff and pumped it into the system. There was a specific procedure for all this:
DRAIN THE SYSTEM
1. Run the pump until the freshwater tank is dry, letting everything out through the kitchen sink until air comes out and the pump is obviously pumping no more water from the tank, THEN TURN OFF THE PUMP. Drain the grey water tank while you're doing this. You can dump the stuff anywhere since it is environmentally safe, even if you drink some of it. (But it tastes awful - hmmm, how would I know?)
2. Drain the water heater by removing the drain plug and let all the fresh water run out. Reinstall the plug when no more water runs out.
3. Close the valves to the water heater inlet and outlet, so it won't fill up with all the pink stuff from the freshwater tank when we start pumping that around.
4. Find the low point drain-out valve and open it, so remaining fresh water will dribble out on the ground.
5. Open the kitchen sink taps, and the bathroom sink taps, and turn on the shower as well, and allow all that fresh, freezable water to drain out through the low point drain. Don't forget to stand on the flush valve for the toilet while you wait for the water to drain out.
6. Turn off all those taps, and CLOSE the low point drain. Now we are ready to charge the system with pink stuff.
FILL WITH PINK STUFF
1. I put about 3 gallons of pink stuff in the freshwater tank.
2. I started running the pump to pressurize with pink stuff, while opening the cold water tap in the bathroom.
NOTE: The pump didn't want to pull from the freshwater tank. This was annoying to say the least. I finally got my shop vac and hooked its hose up to the bathroom faucet and pulled a vacuum until I heard the pump change its tune and start pumping pink stuff into the lines. This is a technique you can use to prime your pump if it's not picking up from the tank (provided the filter screens are not plugged with muck).
3. Run the bathroom cold water until pink stuff comes out. Turn it off.
4. Run the kitchen cold water until pink stuff comes out. Turn it off.
5. Run the shower until pink stuff comes out. Turn it off.
NOW, YOU HAVE TO BACKFLUSH THE HOT WATER LINES INTO THE EMPTY WATER HEATER.
6. IMPORTANT! Open the outlet valve on the water heater, but leave the inlet valve OFF.
7. Start with the shower. Turn the shower head OFF (it has that handy pause valve feature!) then open both hot and cold water valves to the shower. This will cause pink stuff to flow back into the water heater from the shower. Give it about 15 seconds to fill that line, then shut it off. Your pump should run when the water is flowing and stop when you turn off the taps.
8. Turn on the bathroom sink hot water tap, hold your big thumb over the faucet so water can't get out, and turn on the cold water tap to force water to flow back to the water heater for about 15 seconds, then turn them both off.
9. Turn on the kitchen sink hot water tap, hold your big thumb over the faucet so water can't get out, and turn on the cold water tap to force water to flow back to the water heater for about 15 seconds, then turn them both off.
10. Last but not least, stand on the flush valve for the toilet until pink stuff is obviously running into the black water tank.
AT THIS POINT - You should have pink stuff in all the lines, and a noticeable amount in the hot water heater, which might be slightly pressurized. (So what?) Turn off your pump. You won't need it anymore.
NOW, FILL THE CITY WATER LINE WITH PINK STUFF!
(OK, you will need a way to pump pink stuff into the City Water hookup. I bought a $15 drill-driven pump to pump pink stuff from the gallon jug into the system.)
1. Open the cold water tap in the kitchen sink.
2. Connect your cheap drill-operated pump to the City Water inlet and pump a couple quarts out of the gallon jug of pink stuff into the City Water connection.
3. Check to see that pink stuff is flowing out of the kitchen faucet, then turn it off.
4. Disconnect your pump and seal up the City Water inlet for the winter.
YOUR SYSTEM SHOULD BE FILLED ONLY WITH PINK STUFF BY NOW.
TREAT THE DRAINS!
1. Pour at least 2 cups of pink stuff into the shower drain, the bathroom sink, and the kitchen sink. This should be enough to fill the traps and keep them from getting freeze damaged.
ONE LAST THING:
OPEN the low point drain so pink stuff can flow out and fill that line as well. You can leave it open, or close it for the winter. It's your choice.

Why go to all that trouble..?