Horizon water system rant

[Stogie]

2002 Itasca Horizon. Just a rant and opening for anyone with any fixes.

And to elaborate, I love my Horizon, its just the water system that has me frustrated, I like everything to work perfectly.

The fresh water system on my Horizon is horrible, the accumulator and its feed lines sit right against the thin metal bottom of the lower water compartment. The compartment gets very little heat from the furnace and has no insulation. Had to replace the accumulator due to its freezing and cracking. Put in a larger one 30psi and raised it up off the floor along with insulating the compartment, wrapping the lines with heat tape and more insulation and installing a 60 watt light bulb for those really cold nights. I put a pigtail with 3 outlets from the block heater outlet. 1 for heat tape, one for the light bulb and one to plug in the block heater.

The pump by the way is in a much better insulated compartment but there is no room for the accumulator there also.

In addition it leaks, no matter how much time I take checking the fittings and tightening them it always leaks when on the road, this small amount of leaking water freezes and turns the lower compartment into an ice box.

They use fittings like they own stock in the factory. On one line there are 6 fittings to attach one splice, 4 plastic and two brass.

I refuse to winterize, I bought this coach to travel year round and if I cannot have running water I may as well stay in motels.

Next project is better quality fittings and a couple of switched outlets in the water compartment.

Ok end of Rant, any suggestions are appreciated.

[RickO]

Hi Stogie...

I feel your pain and frustration. Sounds like you created a pretty cool little network that operates off of your engine heater switch though.

No great insight here, but one option might be to eliminate the accumulator tank and replace your pump with one of the newer pumps which don't use or need a tank. There's a good chance your leaks are coming from all those fittings and this would at least simplify the set up and eliminate a bunch of fittings.

BTW, I love the saying you've attached to your signature. Ain't it the truth.

Best of Luck

Rick

[Stogie]

Rick, the newer pump without an accumulator is a great insight. Never thought of or knew that.
How is the pressure on those new kinds of pumps? The 30 psi accumulator rather than the 25 it came with allows my wife to use up the fresh water in half the time. LOL

[RickO]

Hopefully someone who's using one of the newer pumps will chime in here. I actually added a tank to my 07 Ellipse which didn't come with one. It was only after adding the tank I learned about the new pumps. Here's one at CW but looks like the reviews aren't great. SHURflo Extreme Series Smart Sensor Water Pumps - Product - Camping World

Good Luck...

Rick

[autofish]

Stogie..I had the same problem repaced the pump with the surflow 5.7 love it. I also glued a sheet of 1 inch foam sheet to line the compartments. While I had the water bay open I also rerouted a lot of the water lines to reduce the number of fittings works much better now and no leaks. Asfar as freezing I put a 400 watt heater in that bay that is on its own breaker that also runs to all the other bays. Good luck on the fixes.

[Stogie]

My current pump only puts out 2.8 GPM, the Surflo extreme puts out 4 gpm, don't think I need that much. Especially not at over $180.

Was looking at the FloJet 4406, 3.2 GPM, can get it and strainer for under $100.00.

Autofish: The heater is a good idea I have one I can plug in, but I often Boondock in cold weather and would have to run the Gen full time to use that heater. The light bulb uses much less amp. with the heat tape as backup.

My latest OCD challenge is to reduce amp draw to batteries. Along with reducing the need to heat that compartment I am installing LED lights in all the fixtures.

Also put in a Auto Start for the Generator so I don't have to spend all my time monitoring the battery state.

In my research of the pump I learned that the accumulator is not really necessary, all it does is reduce the shock and bounce to pipes when the pump comes on. It is just a bladder surrounded by water that absorbs the shock. Have to see how bad the noise is without it.

[LK23]

Stogie,

I have a 2005 Horizon and after several mods I am very pleased with my water compartment. To keep from freezing, I installed an electrical outlet with a light bulb on a digital thermostat. Here is a link to my web site:

Thermostat Controlled Heat Light in Water Compartment

I might add that I seal all air leaks around the water and sewer lines when camped in cold weather.

My coach came with the ShurFlo 5.7 Extreme series pump. When it is running it can provide up to 60 psi. However, I have replaced 7 pumps in 6 years of owning my coach. ShurFlo is great about replacing under warranty at Camping World with over the counter exchange. I have become very adept at changing out the pump in the Camping World parking lot.

I recently purchased an AquaJet ARV pump that is a close match to the ShurFlo 5.7 pump. I have read good reports on this pump but have not installed it so I cannot speak to its performance.

I think you could get by without the accumulator if you had a constant flow pump like the ShurFlo 5.7 or the AquaJet ARV.

Good Luck

[Duner]

Here's a good price and quick delivery for the 5.7 Shurflo:
SHURflo Extreme Series Smart Sensor 5.7 Pump - $167.99

I had to replace mine just one time in 7 yrs and that's with 3.5 yrs of fulltiming. Sometimes the calcium builds up and the pump check-valves will allow leak back and you'll hear the pump cycle for just a second. It's pretty easy to pull the head off the pump and soak the diaphragm and valve assemblies in vinegar or CRC to de-calcify.

Stogie, I think maybe some if not all of your leaking problems are caused by a hard freeze in the water system. It probably stressed all the joints and and pipes causing little cracks or stretched some of the plastic so the seal is not real tight.

Good luck,
Billl