Water Pump Cycles On/Off 2020 Travato

[Oneilkeys]

I have had a problem that just recently reared its ugly head. After I replaced the water filter in my 2020 Travato, the water pump started cycling on and off for 1-2 seconds every 30 seconds. I went through every step I could find in every thread available but I could not find the air leak. There was no water leak anywhere. I even went so far as to replace the Shurflow pump and that didn’t solve the problem. Finally, in desperation, I cycled through all the valves in the cold and hot water lines. When I shut off the city water valve, the issue went away. Apparently air was leaking from the city water intake valve, past the check valve between the city and tank inflow lines and leaking into the tank water system, causing the water pump to cycle on and off. I never use city water, but I bet if I did water would leak past the check valve into the water tank.

 

[RayIN]

Somewhere you have a water pressure leak = water leak. To prove that turn off the pump 12V after the pump stops. wait a few hours and turn in a faucet and observe water pressure flow compared to when the pump is powered.
It's time for your easter egg hunt, for water spots.
OTOH, it could be the backflow portion of the pump head. IT might have a piece of dirt in the backflow valve, cleaning will resolve that usually. If the pump is well-used it might need rebuilding with a kit from an RV supplies store.

 

[Oneilkeys]

Somewhere you have a water pressure leak = water leak. To prove that turn off the pump 12V after the pump stops. wait a few hours and turn in a faucet and observe water pressure flow compared to when the pump is powered.
It's time for your easter egg hunt, for water spots.
OTOH, it could be the backflow portion of the pump head. IT might have a piece of dirt in the backflow valve, cleaning will resolve that usually. If the pump is well-used it might need rebuilding with a kit from an RV supplies store.

Thanks for your reply. I replaced the pump (cheap try) and isolated the back flow valve by turning off the valve to city water. That solved 99% of the issue. I still get a one second “burp” about every 45 minutes, but I can live with that. I’m not sure I will live long enough to find that.

 

[Morich]

IF you get excited and want to study this a bit more?
I can ignore lots of small complaints but some bug me more and get me to do something!
Are you aware of the interactive parts catalog that lets us look at things like the plumbing without doing too much crawling around?

Parts Catalog

You don't say which floorplan you have or early or late build but with that info in hand one might be able to go through the drawings and look at where suspect points might be!
I play with that section a lot here on the forum and now find it easy to move around. But it has a learning curve built in!

I did a quick look at one of the models and picked a few points where I might think water and pressure could get out without being noticed.
You may want to do a slow thoughtful check for yourself but some ideas that you might take a quick look at for leaks?
There is often a really, really, cheap little plastic "flap" at the water input port where you attach the hose. Basic little plastic disc that a spring holds against the rest to seal water from the pump pressure going out that hole.
If the pump action changes when you do something with the hose, is that showing the little disk is not sealing the hole right?
You can often see that little disk when no hose and you look in that hole! There may be a screen over the hole but I often take that screen out as I don't feel the need to strain the city water I use! Maybe a quick look or putting a plastic plug in that hole to test what happens would be worth the effort?

A second idea of where water might go and not be seen is underneath the RV where all those drains dump to the ground!
Those or the suction valve and tubing for antifreeze might let a dribble of water out in a place we might never look! Any drips showing underneath?

Congrats on getting the problem down to what is "passable" but if it still bugs, you might want to give more thought on some nice day!

 

[Oneilkeys]

Thanks. I have a copy of the plumbing schematic - which helped a lot - and went over it and checked all the connections that were reachable after removing the driver’s side bed. One area that I think might be my very minor issue is the outside shower connection behind the rear passenger door. The shower does not work when I hook up the blue hose. I took the drawer out under the closet to get at the back end and there is water pressure there when I loosen the line. There is no water leak, but there might be a very slight air leak through that connection. It’s such a bear to get at that fitting that I am not keen on breaking it and not being able to replace it. Since I have never used that shower I am not missing anything. I also noticed that the shower attached to the toilet also no longer works. I haven’t taken that apart yet to see if I can get it working. As far as the water inputs, I have shut off the city water valve and that seemed to be where the majority of the issue was coming from. I have never used city water so I won’t miss it. I also turned off and on the tank input valve to
see if that would solve the rest of the problem, but it did not seem to make a difference on or off. Luckily I don’t seem to have any actual water leaks anywhere, so I guess I will live with this small air leak unless I can think of somewhere else to check. I’ll play with the parts catalog and see if anything pops up to me. Thanks again.

 

[RayIN]

FWIW; I can run my water pump until it stops at pressure setting, turn off pump. A week later the plumbing still has the same water pressure.
If a water pump"burps" once in a while, with nothing using water, there is a leak somewhere.
The exception is if the automatic ice maker is powered, it will eventually use enough water to turn on the pump.

 

[JR314]

I have had a problem that just recently reared its ugly head. After I replaced the water filter in my 2020 Travato, the water pump started cycling on and off for 1-2 seconds every 30 seconds. I went through every step I could find in every thread available but I could not find the air leak. There was no water leak anywhere. I even went so far as to replace the Shurflow pump and that didn’t solve the problem. Finally, in desperation, I cycled through all the valves in the cold and hot water lines. When I shut off the city water valve, the issue went away. Apparently air was leaking from the city water intake valve, past the check valve between the city and tank inflow lines and leaking into the tank water system, causing the water pump to cycle on and off. I never use city water, but I bet if I did water would leak past the check valve into the water tank.

I’m not sure how your city water valve works, but mine is 2 way. One position is labeled city water and the other is tank fill. The only time I move it to tank fill is to actually fill the tank. Whether I am connected and using city water or pumping from the tank, the valve needs to stay on city water side to operate correctly. If I have it on tank fill, my pump stays on constantly and provides very little water pressure. My valve started going bad several years ago and I had the same issue you described - pump coming on for a few seconds intermittently and my tank filled and overflowed while connected to city water and with valve in city water position. Obviously, the tank should not fill when the valve is in city water position. I replaced the guts of the valve and my problem was fixed.

 

[Oneilkeys]

In the Travato there are two hose inputs on the exterior of the van - one for city, the other tank. The backflow valve is inside and it is automatic.

 

[Morich]

I spend a lot of time looking at these drawings but I like to have the correct RV before looking too deep. Can you tell us which floorplan and if you have the early or late build.
That second item can be found looking at the serial number. If a one in 7th digit, it is early and 2 if later in the year.
Kind of a different idea to have two fill ports but there are lots of small difference that are easy to miss, so maybe I've just not happened across the right RV!

When you mention the backflow, are you speaking of the little disk at the fill port? Those are sometimes pretty suspect as they may not fit perfectly flat or have small nicks.
One semi-easy way to rule that out is putting a plastic hose threaded plug into that port to seal it against any chance of pressure leaking out at that point.

Sometimes chasing trouble is a bit like an easter egg hunt? We have to just keeping looking under all the bushes!

 

[Oneilkeys]

Mine is the K (twin bed) model and it is an early model with a 2019 Promaster chassis. In the Travato, as I understand it, there is a valve that separates the city and tank water systems. If this fails the tank can fill up when you use city water. I have never used city water so I have no personal experience with this, I am just going on what I have read.

 

[fred21]

I have had a problem that just recently reared its ugly head. After I replaced the water filter in my 2020 Travato, the water pump started cycling on and off for 1-2 seconds every 30 seconds. I went through every step I could find in every thread available but I could not find the air leak. There was no water leak anywhere. I even went so far as to replace the Shurflow pump and that didn’t solve the problem. Finally, in desperation, I cycled through all the valves in the cold and hot water lines. When I shut off the city water valve, the issue went away. Apparently air was leaking from the city water intake valve, past the check valve between the city and tank inflow lines and leaking into the tank water system, causing the water pump to cycle on and off. I never use city water, but I bet if I did water would leak past the check valve into the water tank.

Did you try removing the new filter as see if that fixes the problem?

 

[fred21]

Did you try removing the new filter and see if that fixes the problem? Sometimes tolerance on new supplier of parts causes an issue

 

[Oneilkeys]

Actually this problem was occurring, albeit very occasionally, before the breakage of the filter. It got much worse after I replaced the filter but it calmed way down after I turned off the valve to city water. Now it cycles on/off once or twice an hour for a few seconds. So it is a very small leak that I cannot find. It probably is around the tank - which is difficult to access or in the tunnel between the shower and living area. I have decided it is not worth pulling everything apart and risking breaking something to find it. Unless I see a water spot somewhere, I am going to ignore it and turn the water pump off when we are not using it. The on/off switch is near the bathroom door so it is not too much of a pain to turn it on or off.

 

[fred21]

I also had a small leak under the kitchen drawers which can be removed easily and checked if you haven’t looked there

 

[Oneilkeys]

Thanks for your reply. I have done that. I have pulled up the whole bed on the drivers side and the drawers to the right of the sink. The fridge is under the sink and I am not going to remove that. I have not found any evidence of water.

 

[Lv2Roam2]

If you have an on/off lever on the shower head make sure it's always off (let's water flow) and the faucet is turned off. You're not allowed to ask how i know this after hours trying to find a 'leak.'

 

[Oneilkeys]

Thanks. First I had heard of this possibility but it makes sense.I will try it out!