Water pump question...Blue pressurized cannister?

martyc5674

Hi,
Just about finding my way around the camper van!
Located the water pump which is working fine and noticed a blue cannister beside it...its pressurized and has a nozzle on top the same as a car tyre...what is this for??...should i be pressurizing it?
Cheers,
Marty.

peasant

Never seen one of those canisters, any chance of a pic?

Usually there are two types of pumps:

- little submersible ones that are inside the tank and get triggered by a switch (and wire to the pump) at the respective tap.

- slightly bigger pressure pumps that are situated outside the tank in the piping. These pressurise the whole water system and kick in again once the pressure drops (when a tap is opened or you've sprung a leak)

martyc5674

I could maybe get a pic tonight...the pump is outside the tank alright "its an Aqua 8"...it has this blue canister mounted on the wall beside it..ill try get a pic later :-)

martyc5674

FOund one on the interweb!
http://images.google.ie/imgres?imgurl=http://www.fiamma.it/products/imgProducts/P136/foto1.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.fiamma.it/products/QMP.asp%3FFam%3DP08&usg=__BSzoznZQHzIznjW4hDWoAMHEsIk=&h=159&w=256&sz=11&hl=en&start=6&tbnid=bXhi0GaXwWupVM:&tbnh=69&tbnw=111&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dfiamma%2Baqua%2BA20%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den


Its a fiamma aqua A20 expansion tank.. ?? what it reall.y does ive no idea

Gonzales

martyc5674 wrote: »

Hi,
Just about finding my way around the camper van!
Located the water pump which is working fine and noticed a blue cannister beside it...its pressurized and has a nozzle on top the same as a car tyre...what is this for??...should i be pressurizing it?
Cheers,
Marty.

It sounds like a pressure accumulator. Basically its a cylinder with a rubber bladder seperating 2 compartments. One compartment has water inside (bottom) & the other has compressed air inside (Top). When your pump runs it pumps water into the blue accumulator there by compressing the air in the top compartment. So that some pressure is stored & you don't need to run your pump every time you draw water therby reducing the pump duty cycle & increasing the pumps life.

Simply put: The blue tank is a pressure resevoir.
To answer your question yes it should br pressurised to a level slightly below the working pressure of your water pump. Get a professional to advise on this & pressurise it (using a bike pump or similar.).

peasant

Well, it says it there in the text:

It eliminates the pulsating operation of normal pressure pumps.

Having a pressure pump without expansion tank in my MH, I can see how this would be a good idea

EDIT:
what Gonzales said

martyc5674

Cheers,
It says 0.9 bar on the side of it...so i assume i can pressurize to that.
Cheers,
Marty.

boyoh

Two things to remember, self priming and precharged, make sure your system is broken before you try to fix it. I also have this gadget on my pump circuit and I have never needed to do anything with it,so walk softly...............................b :)

martyc5674

Cheers boyoh,
Yeah got that..and was wondering the same..so why is there a car tyre nozzle on the top of it?...it must be for pressurizing it...??:pac:
Or is it simply to put a guage on it??..im only asking questions here..have no intention of going near it unless it gives grief!!
Just curious really!
Marty.

Gonzales

martyc5674 wrote: »

Cheers boyoh,
Yeah got that..and was wondering the same..so why is there a car tyre nozzle on the top of it?...it must be for pressurizing it...??:pac:
Or is it simply to put a guage on it??..im only asking questions here..have no intention of going near it unless it gives grief!!
Just curious really!
Marty.

the nozzle is for both gauging the pressure & subsequently topping up / releasing excess pressure.

as said above, if it ain't broke...

A fault with your system would manifest itself as very regular switching on & off of your pump.

now find something else to play with before we collectively break it talking about it.

boyoh

martyc5674 wrote: »

Cheers boyoh,
Yeah got that..and was wondering the same..so why is there a car tyre nozzle on the top of it?...it must be for pressurizing it...??:pac:
Or is it simply to put a guage on it??..im only asking questions here..have no intention of going near it unless it gives grief!!
Just curious really!
Marty.

The valve is for priming the system (you can also use it for checking the pressure) it is only necesseary to do this if you have a problem,all pneumatic systems have this (emergency) valve..............b:)