Nuevo (2011) water pump

Hi I am having trouble getting the water pump to work.When i switch the pump on electric panel and turn tap on no water comes out and no pump noise. I have checked all the fuses. Any help will be helpful. thanks Micky

Mine went suddenly and for no apparent reason. I replaced with a Shurflo for convenience but am having some problems with excess pressure, particularly on cold flow. Had to fit control valve on shower head to enable easy hot/cold mix. Check out Factsheet section for more details.

wondera wrote:Hi I am having trouble getting the water pump to work.When i switch the pump on electric panel and turn tap on no water comes out and no pump noise. I have checked all the fuses. Any help will be helpful. thanks Micky

What sort of water pump do you have - a Shurflo diaphragm or Whale submersible?

Hi, we had a submersible, lasted barely 2yrs from new (not misused once) replaced with a Shurfow, I believe it was "moggy minor" who detailed on here how to do it  Best of luck Regards    Paul

Hi you could try the pressure switch anti clockwise but mark your starting point
Geof

paul bullock wrote:Hi, we had a submersible, lasted barely 2yrs from new (not misused once) replaced with a Shurfow, I believe it was "moggy minor" who detailed on here how to do it  Best of luck Regards    Paul

Two years?
TWO YEARS?


Crikey, whatever you do, don't let Whale know. They are designed (according to an ex-Swift Caravans director) to last two weeks annual holiday plus three weekends away. That is what Whale have decided is the average use of a caravan and therefore the submersible pump is designed accordingly. That brings them to the end of their one year warranty.

As soon as I got an A/S the first thing I did was to chuck the Whale in the sewer where it belongs, and I fitted a Shurflo. The last time I bought a new campervan with a Whale it lasted the two weeks that it was designed to. Nauturally I fitted a Shurflo. I took the Whale to the NEC and the nice lady swapped it for a new one with no questions asked. I put the new one on ebay and got half the cost of a Shurflo for it. My Swift Caravans ex-director said that Whale know that it is cheaper to just supply a new pump every time someone asks, than it is to make one properly.


Actually now I think of it, to remove the old Whale submersible you (that is to say I) would have to drop the fresh water tank. You don't have to actually remove the submersible, you can leave it in situ and fit a Shurflo to the tank outlet which in my case (Nuevo) is under the offside bed with all the other water piping. The Shurflo is powerful enough to suck the water through the Whale submersible. I suppose in theory if the Whale is still working you can just add a Shurflo in series and get a real waterfall of a shower.
. . . . I've just thought ..  . can you run the toilet flush from the cold water tank supply? I have never figured out why they would design one with its own water tank on a vehicle that has an in-built fresh water tank. Would you have to remove the toilet? / / / / / I could, if all else fails, go and take a look !

Peter Brown wrote:

gassygassy wrote:
. . . . I've just thought ..  . can you run the toilet flush from the cold water tank supply? I have never figured out why they would design one with its own water tank on a vehicle that has an in-built fresh water tank. Would you have to remove the toilet? / / / / / I could, if all else fails, go and take a look !

Some Auto-sleepers have that configuration.  I wouldn't want it as I use the van and toilet when the main freshwater system is drained and I also prefer to have an additive in the flush tank.

The current Nuevo draws its flush water from the on-board fresh water tank.  We use a plastic spray bottle with a made up solution of flush additive to keep it sweet.

That's a point Peter, although you don't have to flush a toilet, you can as Caraman says just use a spray bottle with flush additive diluted. In fact I have seen it advised that to make your reservoir last longer, never use the flush, just keep a spray bottle of additive close by and just spray a bit each time it is used. I have done that and it works well. If you think about it, a lot of what you chuck down the drain is water that you have carried around and flushed into the holding tank. Emptying the reservoir only has to be done half as often if you just spray. That can be important either if you are a bit squeamish about doing it, or if you don't like driving round looking for public toilets that are open. I very much dislike the prospect of having to pay £20 to park on someone's grass overnight and use their watering facilities once a week.

Hi, as gassygassy said ,just connect the Shurflo to the existing outlet from the useless submersible ,works a treat , not all submersibles are rubbish ,we had one on our from new  Hymer ,it lasted 8yrs+ never missed a beat ,primed itself without fail everytime! Im with Peter on the toilet supply , prefer to add additive and when our submersible packed up suddenly we did at least still have toilet flush! Regards      Paul

paul bullock wrote: and when our submersible packed up suddenly we did at least still have toilet flush! Regards      Paul

That's a good point - we were on a CL with no facilities when our Whale packed up after 4 days use.  As the shower couldn't be used, we kept a bucket of water there for flushing the loo but we didn't bother with the additive!

I am curious as to how much flow resistance a dead Whale presents to the Shurflo suction side. Out of curiosity I might measure the water flow with the Whale in place, and then drop the tank, remove it, refit everything and see what the difference is. I am used to measuring water flows when installing new combi boilers. I have a feeling that the Whale does present resistance to water flow because from previous experience I would have expected a faster flow rate than I get.
The obvious response to this post is that a dead Whale would certainly present quite a considerable flow resistance. I just want to know by how much! and if you cut it open would you find Jonah inside?

gassygassy wrote:I am curious as to how much flow resistance a dead Whale presents to the Shurflo suction side. Out of curiosity I might measure the water flow with the Whale in place, and then drop the tank, remove it, refit everything and see what the difference is. I am used to measuring water flows when installing new combi boilers. I have a feeling that the Whale does present resistance to water flow because from previous experience I would have expected a faster flow rate than I get.
The obvious response to this post is that a dead Whale would certainly present quite a considerable flow resistance. I just want to know by how much! and if you cut it open would you find Jonah inside?

When the AS Service Centre at Willersey fit them, which they do regularly, they remove the redundant Whale pump.

Hi , well mines been working perfectly for 5yrs with a dead whale and Jonah still in the tank , no probs all OK   Regards     Paul

paul bullock wrote:Hi , well mines been working perfectly for 5yrs with a dead whale and Jonah still in the tank , no probs all OK   Regards     Paul

As a matter of interest, did you fit a water strainer to the Shurflo's inlet?  I have heard it said that that the dead Whale can act as a strainer and therefore save a few pennies by not buying one to fit to the pump.

My limited experience of impeller pumps is that they don't have a lot of internal resistance to water when not running.

I fitted one inline on the outlet of the water tank on a Flair, which was used only when priming the water system. It was not used at all in normal operation (which used a Shurflo higher up) and it did not restrict the water unduly.

I always get the shurflo pump with the strainer and pressure valve. I have had bits collected by the strainer before now.
At the NEC and in other showrooms I have noticed that there are quite a few different makes of submersible pumps. There was a German company at the NEC last year and theirs looked the same as Whale, but made of a different colour plastic. Without dismantling them of course you can't tell what's inside.

Hi, yes ive got the inline filter that is fixed to the inlet on the Shurflow , there really isn't a problem with flow leaving the whale in the tank , the only big difference is it is reliable , easy to get to not being sunk in the water tank and it just performs as it should ,self priming ,no problems if it was to run dry ,basically a no brainer ,unless you are A/S and are trying to get as much profit as possible from its products , having owned  3 M/Hs over 22 yrs ,I was amazed when our Whale failed after 2 Yrs !! Still we still love our Nuevo even so!!  Kind regards             Paul

Paul, how have you got on with the somewhat increased pressure and the consequent pulsing/hammering at low flow rates on cold water. On hot the water tank acts as a stabiliser. Did you fit an accumulator?

paul bullock wrote:Hi, yes ive got the inline filter that is fixed to the inlet on the Shurflow , there really isn't a problem with flow leaving the whale in the tank , the only big difference is it is reliable , easy to get to not being sunk in the water tank and it just performs as it should ,self priming ,no problems if it was to run dry ,basically a no brainer ,unless you are A/S and are trying to get as much profit as possible from its products , having owned  3 M/Hs over 22 yrs ,I was amazed when our Whale failed after 2 Yrs !! Still we still love our Nuevo even so!!  Kind regards             Paul

Yes. Agree with every word. 

Ron. If it helps, ours and that of a friend both hammer a bit as you describe. The sound comes from within the bathroom sink swing wall and we've concluded that it's a poorly fixed pipe. (No surprise there then!!  )

It's awkward to get in and fix it, and the noise is not bad enough to really irritate, so we have both decided to leave it alone. No ill effects in two years or more, so it doesn't look like causing a problem. An accumulator would surely stop the noise, but we're too idle to bother! 

Exactly, Gromit. The pulsing means your pump is working, just as an engine noise means your engine is running. I get the same hammering from somewhere behind the bathroom swing wall. I assume it is a pipe that is touching the plastic. It is something I would fix if I could get to it, but not being an A/S assembly operative I dread to think of the work involved so I am not bothered.
I might say that on the quality German motorhomes, all the pipes have insulation round them to stop this sort of thing. As well as that it keeps the hot water pipes hot. That is a requirement of modern house building - did you know? All hot water pipes in a new build house have to be insulated. Being sceptical I wondered about the benefits, and as insulation costs virtually nothing I did it to the hot pipes in my house. What a difference! Two hours after you run a hot tap, you turn it on again and hot water comes out, you don't have to wait for all the cold to run away down the drain first.
A/S don't want to pay 8p / metre for it of course . . . .

The Shurfo has a natural throb to it which is noticeable in the bathroom but not a problem for us.  If anything I would say it is quieter than the Whale in the rest of the motorhome.  I believe that the problem inspiredron describes is of the pump rapidly switching itself off and on (pulsing) which it will do if the flow is constrained by not opening the tap fully.  This also happened with the Whale and is normal.

HI thanks for all the help-just one last question what size pump should i fit-30 or 20 psi type? thanks Micky

Willersey fitted a Pentair Shurflo Model No 2095-204-112 20psi/1.8 gallons per minute 1.4bar /6.8 litres per minute which works fine in my 2019 Nuevo.  They also fitted the water strainer on the inlet side of the pump.