Pollensa : Repriming Water

I drained down my Pollensa for Winter. Today I decided to refill. When draining down, in addition to draining fresh and waste tanks, I opened the valve (under the rear two person bench seat) to drain the Trumatic System. Can anyone confirm how I should "reprime" the system, in particular, in relation to the Trumatic valve. Should I simply push the switch/lever down and then refill the fresh water tank as I normally would?

 As I tried to reprime todayI  also discovered a problem in that one of the hoses which I assume comes from the pump is leaking heavily under the sink in the bathroom when the pump is on. Basically, the hose is leaking just before it joins the hose which goes to the tap. It's not leaking at the connecting point but just before it where the metal crimps over the hose. Unfortunately, I can't see how easy it is to replace the entire hosepipe as I can't see the section which is on the other side of  the "panel" joining, presumably, to the pump. However, I wonder if it would be possible for someone to cut the hose and redo the join which is leaking? There seems to be enough slack to allow this. Has anyone been faced with a similar problem. Any help would be greatly appreciated. We're due to head off on our travels on Tuesday and I couldn't have discovered this at a worse time! Thanks in anticipation.

I'm not familiar with your 2006 water system but, if it's the same as mine, you should be able to refill the fresh water tank.  The Truma drain valve should then be closed as you describe before you turn on the pump.  When you turn the pump on it can then start to fill the hot water tank and, if each tap is opened, all the hot and cold water pipes.  It seems likely that when you drained down last year you didn't open all the taps and leave them open and as a result water was trapped in the pipes which has frozen splitting one of them.  If the split is at one end of the pipe and there is enough spare pipe you should be able to cut the damaged end off but I can't comment how it is reconnected without seeing it.  A photo would help which you might also take to your local caravan/motorhome workshop/dealer for advice.

Thanks Caraman. I thought I had left all the taps open but what I didn't do was switch the pump on quickly after I'd drained the system to try and get rid of any "trapped" water. I suspect that is a lesson learned!  Thanks for the reply. I'm hoping it's a fairly simple hose replacement but, as you suggest, will consult an expert and get him to do it.

Hi Martin
We have a 2006 Pollensa too. The toggle-switch on top of the water dump valve under the seat should be flicked over so it's closed.  
Regarding your pipe problem, the washroom water pipes go through the wall under the sink and connect to the various pipes under the wardrobe floor, where the electric pump is. It's all a bit spaghetti-like down there though! Lifting out the wardrobe floor is fairly easy and will give you access to the pipework. But I don't know how easy it would be to pull through a new length of flexible pipe.

One thing to check - is it the plastic pipe leaking or the braided pipe? Unexpectedly, one of the braided pipes under our Pollensa's sink started leaking, very near the lower end. At first I thought it was the plastic pipe leaking, so it may be worth checking yours as the braided pipes are easily available from builders merchants (but fiddly to fit to the washroom tap - it's easier to take the tap out first!).

If you're going away and can't repair the pipe in time, a temporary fix to get you going could be to cut the split pipe, put a bung in it and use a jubilee clip to hold it in place. that should cut off water to the damaged part of the pipe, allowing you to use the water supply for the shower, kitchen sink, etc. But unless you can plug up both sides of the cut pipe I think it means you won't be able to use the washroom sink because the mixer tap will allow water coming up the undamaged pipe to pass across inside the mixer tap and down the braided pipe that will now be open at the lower end.

Thanks for the reply Slow-Lane. It is the braided pipe that is leaking right at the lower end,basically where the metal "crimps" over the braided pipe. I had a look to see if I reckoned I could replace it myself but decided to leave it to the guy who will do the habitation check later this month. In the past I've always had the habitation check done before our first trip away but decided this year to take a three day break about an hour away on the Wirral prior to getting it done, telling the wife it would give me a chance to see if there are any problems and get us back into the swing of things before we head off on our travels proper. Not the best way to approach things in retrospect. Thank god I decided to purify the fresh water system before leaving or this would all have happened onsite! Given it was just a short trip that was planned we decided to cancel but thanks for your suggestion on the temporary fix. Hopefully, I won't need to use it but it's good to have it as a possible solution if something similar happens again. It's good to know someone on the Forum with a 2006 Pollensa given that we are relatively new to all this. Again....many thanks.

That's exactly where our braided pipe sprang a leak.  I was very surprised as I'd assumed it would be made of tougher stuff.  Fortunately, the pipes are readily available (they're the same as the ones used on domestic mixer taps), the only thing to check is the length as they vary.  

It's not difficult to fit, but fiddly! I'd be inclined to change both hot and cold pipes at the same time - if one has failed, the other may be about to.  Easiest repair is to detach both braided pipes at their lower ends, then use a box spanner to undo the retaining nut under the mixer tap and lift the entire tap upwards, revealing the top nuts on the braided pipes. Now the tap's out it's easy to unscrew the pipes and fit replacements. Reverse the process to refit the tap and reconnect the pipes, then put the pump on to check for leaks.

If you're planning on getting it done at the same time as the hab. check I'd let the garage know in advance so they can order in the necessary braided pipes beforehand. 

We've had our Pollensa for a few years now and have worked our way round quite a few niggling problems so please feel free to contact me (PM me) if you think I can be of any help.