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Our water pump, is this normal?


Leemc

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Evening all,

during the night our water pump kicked in twice, for about 20-30 seconds. The toilet hadn't been flushed or any taps used. It makes quite a racket. Should we be bothered, or turn it off overnight?

cheers

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4 minutes ago, Leemc said:

Evening all,

during the night our water pump kicked in twice, for about 20-30 seconds. The toilet hadn't been flushed or any taps used. It makes quite a racket. Should we be bothered, or turn it off overnight?

cheers

If you have an accumulator on the cold water supply, it may just be that it needs re-pressurising.  It worked for me when I had a similar fault develop.

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Sleep with an arm out of bed so you know when the water reaches you.

Seriously, either you have a leak, a faulty PRV or non return valve in the pump. Sometimes the pump will run as the hot water in a calorifier cools overnight but not several times. A incorrectly pressurised accumulator will exacerbate this problem.

Edited by hider
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If the calorifier is full of hot water you can get this happening overnight.

 

It has happened to us many time, as the water cools the pressure drops so the pump runs for a few seconds (probably not 30 seconds tho'), an hour or two later, the temperature has dropped a bit more, the pressure has dropped and the pump runs, repeat ……………………...

 

It has happened on all of our boats so is not an unusual event.

 

If you have used some / most of the hot water having showers etc, then it doesn't seem to happen.

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Thanks all,

This forum is ace as your collective brains/ experience are very reassuring for a novice like me. Alan I will go with your words (hoping) as I don't understand some of the others, apart from Hider's " hand out of the bed" ?

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2 hours ago, Rebotco said:

If you have an accumulator on the cold water supply, it may just be that it needs re-pressurising.  It worked for me when I had a similar fault develop.

My water pump comes on occasionally too. I've checked for a leak and found none and though it happens more when the hot water tank is hot (as previously mentioned) sometimes it happens anyway. Its been a long way down things things to do list for a good while now coz it never really bothers me but I appear to have stumbled across the cause of the problem. So that begs the question, How do you repressurize an accumulator? Obviously the desired answer is that you close one eye wave a pencil at it and say the magic word. The least desirable answer is you dismantle the entire water system, post it off to the Faro islands and use bottled water for 6 months whilst waiting for it to come back  after parting with a years supply of beer money. Advice please. Before you ask what accumulator it is, its red(useless but true) and in the least accessible part of the boat (also useless coz you already knew that) but ill find out if its relevant.

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It probably has a black plastic "knob" on top a bit like the base of a saucepan lid knob. This unscrews to reveal a car type tyre valve. Used a car pressure gauge and any pump with suitable adaptor to pressurise to about half the pump cut out pressure or the pump cut in pressure. Both are more or less the same and accuracy is not that important.

 

No plastic knob thing or valve then it is not pressurised. You could then  try removing the whole thing, shaking it down, and ensuring there is no water still in it before refitting.

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17 minutes ago, Tony Brooks said:

It probably has a black plastic "knob" on top a bit like the base of a saucepan lid knob. This unscrews to reveal a car type tyre valve. Used a car pressure gauge and any pump with suitable adaptor to pressurise to about half the pump cut out pressure or the pump cut in pressure. Both are more or less the same and accuracy is not that important.

 

No plastic knob thing or valve then it is not pressurised. You could then  try removing the whole thing, shaking it down, and ensuring there is no water still in it before refitting.

 

Capture.JPG

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Cheers Tony. This is also a very desirable answer answer, Knob and valve exactly as described so i gave it a few with a bike pump. If it cuts in again I may even find a pump with a gauge and endeavor to find the specs. At least I dont have to try and find a pencil. 

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