City Water Inlet Fitting Problems

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whemme
Posts: 2110
Joined: Mon Aug 15, 2005 8:05 pm

City Water Inlet Fitting Problems

Post by whemme »

I learned something not to do concerning the pressurized city water inlet connection on the Born Free coach. Mine started to leak when pumping water from the fresh water tank using the coach's internal pump and the inlet not connected to an outside pressurized water source. I thought the internal one-way valve had just worn out so replaced with it with a new inlet fixture - actually some work to accomplish.

These inlets use a round white plastic spring loaded valve equipped with an o'ring to effect the seal. Water pressure into the inlet pushes the spring back and opens the valve to let water in. When the coach's pump is used to supply water from the fresh water tank, that pressure works against the o'ring valve holding it closed so water can't leak out the inlet.

However, my research including the rv.net forum shows that I caused this valve to fail - it did not wear out. Here is how to break your inlet's valve easily as I now understand. With water in your fresh water tank and your pump turned on, just go out side and push in on the little white plastic shaft that you see when looking inside the hose fitting to this inlet fixture. Water will splash out into your face, but worse is that your doing this has a great chance of causing the o'ring on the internal white plastic valve to unseat itself. There is no way to re-seat this o'ring that I could ever figure out.

Then you will get to buy and install a new inlet fixture like I had to. This part is shown in the 1st photo below. One source for this inlet fitting is Ace Hardware under their P/N ACE# 89594. The fitting is manufacturered by US Hardware under their P/N RV-318C and can also be purchased from several other online sources.

If you can't repair the leaking check valve on the existing city water inlet fixture and you don't want to replace the fixture at this time, you can add an external shut-off ball valve to the inlet fitting as suggested by Bill Cope. Refer to the valve shown in the 2nd photo below. This will work providing your city water inlet fixture is behind a hatch door and there is adequate space? This should stop any leaking (and streaking).
Attachments
View of city water inlet connection that is standard on Born Free motorcoaches
View of city water inlet connection that is standard on Born Free motorcoaches
RV-318C City Water Inlet Fitting.jpg (9.86 KiB) Viewed 7682 times
Add-on exterrnal shut-off valve.
Add-on exterrnal shut-off valve.
shut-off valve.jpg (5.85 KiB) Viewed 7683 times
Bill Hemme - Spencer, Iowa
E-mail: whemme@earthlink.net
2002 Born Free (Ford E-450 V10) 26' RSB
2016 VW Golf GTI - toad

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