Water pump runs once every minute or so (?)

[ramori]

Opened my TT up for the summer last month. Now my water pump activates every 2-3 minutes, with a short 1-second burst of pressure, then silence. All day long. This has been going on all week. Everything seems to work fine, good pressure at the faucets, etc. Fresh tank is full, and I use gravity fill for fresh water, no city water available.

I turn the pump off at night, as the pump noise is very annoying. Is it trying to prime the system somehow? Could there be a vent issue? Any thoughts?
I have a 2020 Jayflight 27, only one year old.

[Midnightmoon]

You likely have a small leak somewhere that is releasing pressure in the system.

[Grumpy]

Could be the check valve in the pump letting water leak back to the tank or as Midnightmoon said a tiny leak at a fitting

[Geotech]

I agree with both above answers. It's a matter of process of elimination now. I would start by isolating the pump from the fresh (water) tank while it's still under pressure. Do this by shutting the inline valve before the pump. Also check the toilet. There can be a very tiny flow of water that it low enough to not hear. This is also easy to detect by checking the level of water in the bowl. After that it's in a line/fitting somewhere else (hopefully not hidden in a sealed off undercarriage! That's a homeowners nightmare!

[bearcat77]

Do you have an outside kitchen sink that slides in and out? Our waterline to that would constantly try to unscrew itself, causing a small leak. I would look there first.

[Lake Huron]

Easy way to isolate is hook it to the city water water connection, even at home turn the water on and pressurize the system, run water thru the faucets to bleed out any air and make sure there is no leak with the hose and fittings. Shut the water off and let it sit overnite or for a good day even and then check and see if you have water pressure on the hose and lines in your trailer. If you dont, you have a leak somewhere, if you do then most likely it's the pressure valve in the pump and that's where I'm betting it is. Mine was leaking, my buddy's trailer had the same issue and so did a co worker of mine. And we all got different make trailers.
Mine did it a few times then all of the sudden it quit doing it and has been fine ever since.

[Jagiven]

Agreed, you have a leak somewhere. Hard part is locating it.

1st place I now check is the outside shower faucet. Many times, as I am closing it up, the hose, cracks opens a valve.

After that check the water heater, both front side and backside. Reset the pressure relief valve.

Check the pipe connections at each faucet.

Checking the check valves (2x), can be hard to check.

If you suspect a water leak, but cannot verify it. Wrap a little TP, in the spot. When it gets wet and dries, it gets a unique wrinkle and texture to it. So you can tell it got wet.

It can be a slow process, it it is not an obvious spot.

[Racinforthefinish]

I had an outside low point drain that was leaking one drop at a time causing the pump to cycle. Had to replace the quarter turn valve.

[JimD]

Had the same problem after a year on my 2017 Greyhawk. All of a sudden the pump would cycle to build pressure for no good reason. Could find no leaks so I replaced the pump. Problem solved. Has not returned in 3 years.

Something I should have tried first is to adjust the pump's pressure switch. That may have solved my problem. See what pump you have and Google it to see if it can be tweaked. Can't hurt to try.

[gprapim]

Originally Posted by ramori

Opened my TT up for the summer last month. Now my water pump activates every 2-3 minutes, with a short 1-second burst of pressure, then silence. All day long. This has been going on all week. Everything seems to work fine, good pressure at the faucets, etc. Fresh tank is full, and I use gravity fill for fresh water, no city water available.

I turn the pump off at night, as the pump noise is very annoying. Is it trying to prime the system somehow? Could there be a vent issue? Any thoughts?
I have a 2020 Jayflight 27, only one year old.

I've been RVing for over 40 years and have come across this many times. First, I look around to see if I can find loose fittings or a small leak in obvious places. Having said this, as with anything else that sits or is used in city water for any extended time, has calcium build up on parts (RV water pumps are no different). I find that when my water pump cycles, as your is, I take the pump section off of the motor, disassemble it and clean all of the parts, especially the diaphragm and its retaining parts (I have found in a couple of instances where the diaphragm has a crack or hole in it and it must be replaced), but this is generally not the case. After reassembly, I find this almost all of the time takes care of the cycling problem. If this does 't, then most likely there is a leak of some kind somewhere in the system and you will need to see if you can find it.

[Jagiven]

Originally Posted by Racinforthefinish

I had an outside low point drain that was leaking one drop at a time causing the pump to cycle. Had to replace the quarter turn valve.

That is another good spot. Mine tend to leak every couple years. I finally got tired of putting a little plumbers grease on the o-rings, and used a watts brand sharkbite 1/4 turn ball valve inline last week.

[GuanoJuano]

My pump was doing that on my last trip. It ended up being a low point drain valve that was a little open. It's in a storage area and I must have bumped it while getting set up.

[che57vy]

Check the outside shower if you have one, I had a valve cracked open dripping

[Flyrotor]

My pump started doing this a couple years ago, started with cycling about once an hour, gradually increased in frequency, no evidence of a leak anywhere.

Three weeks ago while camping the frequency increased to once or twice every 5 minutes, when I came home I hooked up to city water and could hear water running, looked everywhere for a leak, none found, closed the valve between the pump and the fresh water tank, water stopped running. Yep, back pressure valve was the culprit. Changed the water pump, fixed the problem altogether.

After I purchased the new pump, I also found on line that I could have just replaced the bottom half of he pump for around $20, new pump was $65. Not too worried because I’ve been wanting to buy a pump to use as a transfer pump anyway, so now I have one. I’ll probably order the parts and fix it right and have a spare on hand.

[ramori]

Thanks everyone for the quick responses. Wow, the forum comes through again!
My trailer is about 4 hours away (in Traverse City, MI) but we're going up there in a few days for a 2 week stay.
I'll start by checking the easy stuff, and work my way through all your suggestions until I find root cause.
Wish me luck, I'll report back in a week or so.

[garywilson]

It took two years for me to find my leak... one 'burp' every couple of hours.
It finally started leaking bad enough to get the floor wet under the bed.

[robert9999]

Check the clear plastic filter drain cap on the pump. they are only hand twisted on & tend to get loose with vibration. I found mine loose after I had a similar issue with pump pressuring up every 20 minutes or so. Small drops of water were found on floor. It is located under the sink & may have a small wood panel covering it.

[Sundancer330]

If no signs of a leak it sounds like the check valve. Mine was doing the same so I bought a Sharkbite 1/2" check valve at Home Depot, cut the water line before the water pump plugged the open ends into the valve and all was fixed, no more sputter of the pump, easy fix for less than $10.

[cmg1558]

Mine was doing the same thing this spring. Could not find any leaks or dripping water from a faucet. Ended up being the check valve built into the city water inlet. I could see water dripping from it on the outside where you would connect the garden hose. It only gets used to blow air through the lines to winterize. I don't camp at places that offer full hookups.

[Rock]

Had the same issue and no leak. Changed the pump since it was cheap and still the same issue. On my water panel the valves I have to change to go from filling to dry camp were the issue. I have to move them to dry camp and turn them hard and that cycling stops. Of course the repair shop said they are fine and did not replace under my extended warranty. So I will be replacing them before I break them twisting closed with a lot of force. It took me a year to figure out what was doing this about every half hour for just a split second but annoying at night.
Rock