Remember back in elementary school when the first thing you are taught is that water and electricity are not friends? Yeah, the same still applies! It is one of those things that just always sticks with you over the years, and surely enough, it’s one of those things that when you see the two of them in close proximity just makes you queasy. In fact, over the last year I’ve said it more and more to myself.
Almost every campsite you go to, whether a state park, private park, or anything in between, you’ll notice they have usually a 4×4 post in the ground, about 4 feet tall, and on one side of it is the water spigot coming up from the ground, and on the other side is an electrical box. Most people will wrap their hose around the post, and hopefully praying the hose doesn’t kink or leak, or they will use a hose stand stuck in the ground and coil the hose and RV electric cable to that. Again, sounds scary, but in theory, I don’t think I’ve ever heard of anything bad. Just makes you wonder 🙂
What can possibly go wrong? What a great way to ground your electrical box!
The same rings true about the post at campsites, my 1992 RV has a bay with the electric hookup on the inside right of the bay, and sticking up inside the same bay, is the water inlet valve where the hose is run. Interesting! Again, hopefully it never leaks. But, speaking of leaks, I had an unfortunate leak this past week.
It took me a few hours to realize there was an actual leak, and I’m not entirely sure what was the cause of this, but I realized there was a small quarter size wet spot in the middle of the floor, through a throw rug in the bathroom. I thought it was entirely weird and didn’t think much of it until about an hour later when I thought it would be impossible to have had a wet spot there, so I took up the rug, and as I did it, I felt it was quite wet. It turns out, water was coming from the seam of the tiles, ruh roh!
Thinking of where it could possibly be from (it hadn’t rained yet, but rain was definitely on the radar for the next several days), so I started digging a bit further. I didn’t imagine the black tank was even close to being full, so I took the cover off the hot water heater – next to the toilet and below the bathroom counter. Ahh – there is definitely something leaking. The water heater is wrapped in insulation, and it was clearly wet. In fact, it had larger wet spots that were dry, but I still couldn’t pin point where the leak was coming from. I immediately turned off the water supply, and then drained the hot water heater and turned on bypass just in case. It now made sense that my GFI outlet had tripped twice recently, it happens to be where the leak was dripping was right over the electrical connections. Yikes.
Now the hard part was pinpointing where the leak was. Of course, being in a RV, there isn’t much room to work with. I took the drawer out of the cabinet, removed the cover, and put a bucket in between the cabinet and the piping. After turning on the water to identify the leak, I found I was catching about a gallon or so an hour, so I needed to work quick. Water in the RV is not a good thing!
It was by mistake that I found it, in fact! After emptying out the bucket as it was filling up, I pushed against the pipes, and heard a hissing noise, and with the right light, was able to find a very small pin hole crack in the connector. I now determined that the water was actually spraying on the cabinet, and then dripping from there down, of course, right on top of the electrical connection.
So, fast forward to the weekend (yep, I’ve had water off for three days, and thank god for the decent bath houses at the campground and a 100 gallon water tank), I was able to finally go into town and start the repair process.
Off came the tubing, and to Lowe’s I go. This campground is soooooo far from the closest town, so I needed to get it right. A helpful worker was able to come up with a few solutions, and $4.85 later, I was on my way!
It wasn’t until I got back to the RV and started to take the pieces apart, that I realize the part which is actually broken (and two of them may actually be broken) is called a check valve. And I didn’t get a check valve, I got a nipple. (IDIOT!)
I’m not sure why I didn’t take this apart before coming home with parts. Would have saved a trip!
I wasn’t comfortable bypassing that, so hi ho off to Lowes again I go. A few hours later, I decided to use some PEX pipe, some SharkBite (which thankfully they had one last check valve with), and on my way home I go. I cut a few pieces of the PEX, got everything setup, and then realized I didn’t have Teflon tape. I know I had two rolls of it, but who knows where it walked off to. So, you guessed it! Hi ho off to Lowe’s I go. Third time is the charm right?
I used this last trip to decide on a limb to make this connection much longer with longer runs of PEX so I’m not directly over the electrical connections.
Finally, a new PEX replacement made!
And, with that said, I ordered a new insulation wrap online to have shipped here, and a water tight cover (similar to the outdoor outlet covers), so I’m hopeful this should be a chapter closed.
Here’s to no more GFI outlet trips from this issue. (I’m still going to trip power from running too much stuff at once, that’s a given!) Overall, it turned out easier than I thought. The plus side is there doesn’t appear to be any other damage, so now I’m off to enjoy a nice hot shower at home!
All setup and working again!
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