Country Coach Owners Forum

Country Coach Restoration, Repair & Parts Forums => Country Coach Archive => Topic started by: Don Seager on April 04, 2013, 01:46:54 pm

Title: Kitchen Sink Water Pressure
Post by: Don Seager on April 04, 2013, 01:46:54 pm
Yahoo Message Number: 86893 (http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Country-Coach-Owners/conversations/messages/86893)
Hi all with pressure problems.

I struggled with low water pressure in the kitchen sink for the 10 years that I owned Country Coaches. I was never able to effect much more than marginal relief.
One big underlying problem is that CC typically installed stick house type fixtures to promote the non-RV feel but plumbed it up with RV type plumbing. That is how it was in all three of my CCs. The piping is too small for the nominal flow of the faucets. This introduces additional resistance to the water flow thus reducing the pressure at the faucets. This can typically be seen by the fact that the kitchen sink is the furthest away from the source and suffers the most from the problem.
Obviously this is a difficult situation to correct and probably impractical at any price. The best you can do is to not use an overly aggressive filter cartridges in the on board filter, Don't use additional pressure reducers beyond that already on board in most coaches and increase that one.. Remove any restriction like the one found in the shower head. I have found that once I get above 50 lbs pressure things get much better. Of course one doesn't always have much control over that but on my land in NH I could control the well pump pressure. The more filters, water softeners and reducers that you add the more they will restrict the flow and the water pressure at the extremities of the system.
You can try all sorts of things and I have but the kitchen sink is always going to run slower than the bathroom sink as long as the kitchen sink is the farthest away from the source. It is in fact true in stick houses but just not as noticeable. These big rig buses are after all still RV's.

Don Seager

Former 2004 Allure Owner
Title: Re: Kitchen Sink Water Pressure
Post by: Chris Herron on April 05, 2013, 12:04:34 pm
Yahoo Message Number: 86910 (http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Country-Coach-Owners/conversations/messages/86910)
I have also gone a couple of rounds, and after seeing this post, decided to make one more attempt. In our 2000 Magna 5912 we have a Grohe faucet in the kitchen.

I removed the hand sprayer from the hose and turned the faucet on to test water flow without any restriction. Full flow. This meant that the restriction was all in the head. The rubberized final water exit has a 15/16 inch hex formed into its surface, so it was easily removable. In the center of the full flow portion was a restricter/aerator screen that pushed out easily. I put it back together and lo and behold, full flow! the flow is not "bubulated" like it would be when it goes through a diffuser screen, but the defuser veins formed into the exit orifice soften and form the flow quiet adiquatly!
I hope this helps, it sure made my wife happy!!
Chris and Cheryl
Title: Re: Kitchen Sink Water Pressure
Post by: Sallylillian1 on April 06, 2013, 08:56:33 am
Yahoo Message Number: 86924 (http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Country-Coach-Owners/conversations/messages/86924)
Well I have my solution too.

I dismantled the faucet and found a non return valve in the head attachment. I removed that, but no improvement. I removed the ceramic mixing cartridge and obtained a low pressure version. No improvement. The pipework to the faucet is 1/2 inch so should not be an issue; I could not find any kinks, and in any event so many are reporting this problem it seemed unlikely.
So I thought I will replace the monobloc cartridge based unit with a more simple monobloc with 2 control levers and simple ceramic washers. Sourced a nice looking replacement, I also decided to do away with the removable spray head and have a simple swivel arm, the principle being to eliminate any flow restrictions.
I completely removed the old faucet and then found the problem The hose connection to the faucet body had ANOTHER non return valve!!!! This one was a pin hole!!!
I decided not to stay with the old unit and installed the new purchase in any event. Wow what a flow.
So for those with bad flows, look at the flexible tube connections to the faucet body (it connects to a copper tube at the body end) and the shower head and remove the non return valves, they are only in there for water board rules I suspect.

Michael

2008 Allure 31683