Water Dripping from vent in the Freshwater Inlet cabinet

[KerriO]

We're staying at a place with full hookups (city water, water pump turned off), and there's probably an eighth of a tank of water in the fresh water tank.

This morning I went to open the gray water dump valve (we're keeping it closed until it's full for a couple of reasons) and noticed some water on the ground nearby. It was dripping from under the door to the freshwater inlet. This was the first time I've noticed it, and we've been here for over a week. I didn't think too much of it, then went to take a look again this evening, and there's still water dripping out. It's coming out of a little vent just down and to the right of the fresh water inlet valve.

What is that about? Is it a leak, or is that what's supposed to be happening? We've been running the A/C, so maybe it's the A/C watter run-off? But I thought that came out from a tube that's under the wheel well (it's nearby, but completely dry).

[A W Warn]

I'm not familiar with your trailer layout, but there may be two condensate drains, one from the fridge and one from the ac.

[KerriO]

Oh, the fridge drain would make sense, because we accidentally left it open a crack yesterday, so there was probably a bunch of condensation. Would it still be dripping a full day later?

[tpi]

Just to clarify, you said the fresh tank was 1/8.. is it still 1/8 full? I gather it is but just to be sure. A failed check valve would let it fill up while on city water.

[TBRich]

You might want to check the hand-tightening on any plumbing connections above or near that area. If there is a slow leak from one of those connections is could be dripping down or traveling down the pipe and skin to the bottom, finding a place to leak out. This happened on our rig...one of the hand-tightened connections near the vanity where the city water comes in was a little loose. I tightened it a bit and that was that. One hint if you have a leak somewhere is if your water pump cycles on without opening a faucet anywhere.

Condensation could be a source as well, especially if you are in humid weather, your AC is running a lot, and you are seeing no condensation coming from the condensation discharge tube in the wheel well where you'd expect to see it. Our fridge condensation drains to the fridge vent on the outside behind the fridge...but you have a different style fridge in your trailer...

[KerriO]

tpi, BINGO! We've had the systems monitor off, because it's so…welll, useless… but I think it at least knows the difference between a 1/8 full tank and a 100% full tank. Sure enough, when I went to check, it's completely full now! Well, more than full apparently. It looks like I have the exact same issue as Bambi_Bandit in this thread.

I turned off the city water least night and just started using water from the tank rather than draining for now. So, the new questions are:

1) Assuming that the only issue is a faulty one-way valve on the water pump, allowing water to flow into the tank from the city water inlet, and that the tank overflowed: I am choosing to believe that since the tank is below the subfloor, there is little chance of the subfloor plywood having gotten wet from this. Is this a safe assumption?

2) Any idea what part of the pump these "one way valves" Bambi_Bandit mentions are? I found diagrams of the pump, but nothing citing any familiar keywords. Should I just be opening up all of the connections and looking for debris?


ETA: So there is this—could this be the thing?

[azflycaster]

The picture is the strainer which prevents larger items in the tank from getting to the pump.

The check valve is built into the pump.

[KerriO]

Oh, so it's something that they'd need to fix, then, huh?

[Gene]

I have seen photos on some threads showing a check or one way valve in the pipes to prevent city water from getting to the fresh water tank. There may be one in the pump too, or that may be the only one. You could check with Airstream to find out what is what for your year and model.

Gene