Anne,
The pump cycling every 30 seconds or so says that there IS a leak in the pressurized side of the trailer plumbing OR that the pump itself is leaking either internally or externally. All the pump cycling tells us is that the pressurized side of the fresh water system is NOT holding pressure for some reason.
Do ANY of your faucets drip and are there any drips from the water heater (open the exterior water heater door and check that there is nothing dripping)? If no faucets and no obvious water heater leaks, then the issue still could be the water heater itself.
Your rig is old enough to suffer from water heater tank corrosion ( a common malady of Atwood water heaters). I have had to replace the one on my 34ft twice. The last time, ONLY 30 months after installing a completely new water heater. The tanks are aluminum with a sacrificial zinc layer inside the tank. The zinc corrodes away due to galvanic action and in doing so protects the underlying aluminum. Eventually there is no more zinc left and then the aluminum starts to corrode. Once the aluminum corrosion starts it is fairly aggressive and it eats small pin holes completely thru the tank. The results are small, sometimes so small that the escaping water evaporates due to the hot tank, pinholds that eventually become numerous and large enough to result in a slow steady cumulative drip (ie causing the water pump to cycle) and that could be finding a way into the underbelly and eventually dripping at the corner. NOW, I am not saying that this is what is happening in your case, but only that it is a possibility. On my 34fter, the leak manifested itself as an outside drip BEFORE we noticed any dampness inside the trailer (ie damp carpet in the bathroom area). It all depends on how the trailer is sitting and if the water finds a path thru the plywood subfloor into the underbelly. If your water heater is on the opposite side of the trailer from the leak, then the leak is likely NOT the water heater, BUT if it is on the same side, get visual sightline to the water heater from INSIDE the trailer. If you can see it, look for ANY dampness or water near the water heater. If there is, look at the connections for any signs of leakage and if none seen, then you likely have a corroded tank. Atwood sells the tank by itself, but I can tell you as someone who did a tank replacement, if you have to pay someone to do it, the cost savings of just replacing the tank will be exceeded by the additional labor. The best way to isolate the water heater is to set the winterization bypass valves into bypass position and then remove the exterior drain plug on the water heater and drain the tank. Leave the water pump turned on and see if it continues to cycling. WIth the water heater bypassed, any pinholes leaks that might have developed are now effectively out of the loop. If you still hear the pump cycling, verify that there is NO water coming out of the drain plug opening as that would indicate that the bypass valves are NOT holding. As long as the is NO new water exiting the drain AND the pump is still cycling, then the water heater tank is NOT your culprit.
Assuming that the water heater is NOT the culprit, that leads us back to the water pump itself. You will need to locate it and visually inspect. Again, if it is leaking externally, you will see water. I would ensure that there is NO water present on the lines leading to/from the water pump. If no leaks are seen or felt, the pump cycling could be due to internal pump leakage which would have NOTHING to do with the water dripping, but could explain way the pump is cycling on every 30 seconds or so. You can check for internal leakage by connecting to city water WITH the fresh water tank completely full and the water pump turned off. If the pump is leaking internally, the city water will have a path thru the internal leak in the pump back to the fresh water tank and will over a matter of hours or so cause the fresh water tank to start overflowing out of the overflow vent located behind the fresh water tank fill door. If this is happening, a new water pump is in order, but unless you find external water around the water pump, even if it is leaking internally, that is NOT the source of your water drip.
Further investigations are needed to verify that the pressurized water system lines and fittings are not leaking anywhere. This is done visually and is not the easiest chore to accomplish. I don't know if all your pressurized water system is on ONE side of the trailer or some on both sides (the water pump itself can be the only thing on the opposite side of from the remainder of the system. If your pressurized water system has plumbing on both sides of the rig, then there is(are) crossover pipes in the underbelly which could be leaking (not likely, but hey we are running out of the easy things to fix). Assuming no leaks are found in the plumbing (BTW, other than crossover plumbing, ALL the plumbing runs along one of the outside walls behind the cabinets), then...
That leads us back to the line from the tank to the water pump, the connection at the tank and the tank itself as suspect. Unfortunately, those require dropping the tank to investigate further.
So, I think you can tell that leaks like this always become something of a detective story. You have to move from potential leak to potential leak eliminating them one by one. Sometimes you get lucky right off the bat and other times, it is the last place you look.
BTW, the pic you sent shows the housing that contains and protects the fresh water tank. It is NOT the tank itself. I do see the drip, but that does not tell us a lot. There is an outside chance that the fresh water tank has somehow cracked, but that is not likely as polyethylene is very forgiving of freeze damage and does not crack easily.
David T
On Apr 16, 2012, at 2:15 PM, Anne Pearse Hocker wrote:
> I just sent pix to Dave and David from my phone but the pump cycling may be the key.
> Anne in deep frown
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