Scamp water pump operation

[Dan Jones]

Hi folks. I'm curious to know how the Scamps electric water pump works. We are debating whether to go pump or electric faucet.

Does it
(a) only run when the faucet is turned on, in other words does a switch in the pump detect a drop in line pressure or does it
(b) simply keep the water tank constantly pressurized so that it will feed water when the faucet is on?

If (b) does it cycle on and off during the day/night? And is it noisey?

Or is it something else altogether?

DJ

[Donna D.]

Dan your choices are pump or on demand (like you have in your home... a water connection is necessary... not electricity).

Pumps can cycle on and off... you could just simply turn it off at night...

[cpaharley2008]

Both, it keeps the water pressure in your lines and when you open a line the pump will come on again to pressure the line. It should not come on unless you are drawing water, if it does then it indicates you have a leak somewhere.

[Eddie Longest]

The water tank is not pressurized but the water heater is. The pump draws the water from your tank and pressurizes the lines and water heater, the pressure is held on the lines by a check valve in the pump when the pump is off. The city water connector also has a check valve to hold the pressure on the water system if city water is not connected.

[Frederick L. Simson]

Originally Posted by Dan Jones

Does it
(b) simply keep the water tank constantly pressurized so that it will feed water when the faucet is on?

If (b) does it cycle on and off during the day/night? And is it noisy

The system is "constantly" pressurized from the pump to any faucet as long as the pump switch is on. Causes for the pump to cycle intermittently are:

1. There can be some air in the system.
2. There might be a leak, say from the "city water" check valve not seating.
3. The seals in an older pump might deteriorate.

I had an old pump with worn seals that sounded like a semi's Jake brake when it cycled on. I replaced the whole pump system.

This was my old water pump under the street side bunk:

Water tank to the front (bottom) with the white vent hose, outside wall with "City Water" fitting to the street side (right), water heater to the rear (top), with kitchen and bath beyond... Note:

1. The pump is bolted directly to the floor. There is a thin inadequate sheet of rubber under the aluminum base plate.
2. The pump output is connected directly to the (gray) plastic water pipe.The regular plastic pipe is NOT flexible enough to isolate vibrations from the pump transmitting to the tank and plastic pipe which transmits to all other fixtures.
3. The pump input from the tank is short. While the white hose is "flexible" it is too short to flex.

These 3 items were the cause of most of the noise.

This is the new pump system:

The new "Whisper King" pump is very quiet. I had to re-orient it to fit everything in.

1. Flexible hoses loop from the tank to the pump and from the pump to the accumulation tank. They are now long enough to actually "flex" isolating vibrations!
2. The pump has a thick isolation mount for each "foot"
3. Addition of the accumulation tank also reduces noise

[Dan Jones]

Frederick, I like your new installation. The accumulator tank seems like a good idea.

I forgot to mention that we are going for an all-electric Scamp. We stay at parks with shore power 99% of the time with our tent trailer. One of our goals is a trailer that is as quiet as possible.

BTW we will be using a single burner butane stove. We have used on for years and love it.

DJ