Shower Head Replacement

[Overland]

Interesting mod.  So it looks like you get about 30 seconds worth of high-pressure water then you say a 2 minute wait while it recharges - I'd have to experiment to see if that would work for us.

 

The water pressure in your first video isn't at all acceptable - something has to be wrong with either the pump or the installation.

[Try2Relax]

Thank you. That is what I was trying to find out originally, the first video is how my system has always looked which is why the pump was changed. When it didn't change the performance I started changing out the system, I have the ability to isolate each output from the rest and even with just the shower a straight shot from the pump it looks similar. So I figured that it was just the performance level of those pumps.

 

This ended me up at putting in the tank. In doing everything else I see no leak anywhere in the system and the only other thing I have left is going at the faucet.

 

When the pressure has dropped enough that the pump kicks in, the pump just doesn't seem strong enough to carry the flow. As you state, 30 secs of high pressure, that drop off would only be to what ever your current flow rate is now, if yours is stronger than what I have then that is what it would be during recycle.

 

If someone could post what their normal flow is when the pump is running, I would know what I should be expecting and what to shoot for.

 

Attached is a photo of where the tank lives.

 

 

 

 

[joelatx]

Thank you for the post of your modification, that's a clever way of increasing your pressure, if only intermittently. The flow rate from my shower was similar to yours. After pump replacement I experienced a slight improvement. One observation I think is worth noting is our pumps are placed above the level of the fresh water tank. This I think would increase the possibility of drawing in air from a bad connection on the suction side of the pump. Also every fitting, elbow, and valve between the tank and pump may have a greater impact on performance than fittings on the pressure side.

 

Thanks, Joel

[Try2Relax]

Thanks Joel, that was my realization yesterday, so I removed the little prefilter before the pump and then ran out of time, I will eliminate what I can and let you know of the effects.

[Try2Relax]

SUCCESS! I removed the "T" valve with the rear draw connected to it and straight connected the tank line to the pump input, with the pump running (bladder tank removed) shower water pressure remained strong the whole time. MY pressure weakness is either the way the connectors were on the valve or the valve itself.

 

The connectors on my unit are all of the plastic variety, I will be removing them all and putting better ones in, I've also replaced all the original sort hard flex lines with longer braided lines with metal ends and gaskets.

 

With it the way it is now, the pressure tank would not be necessary for workable pressure, but if we want serious maintainable pressure it can be installed and the pump would now keep up easily.

 

I hope this helps whomever might need the info, feel free to ask anything about it.

 

Thanks for the info everyone provided.

[joelatx]

That's great news, sounds like an easy fix. I'll bet the cause of my low pressure is the same, thanks for sharing.

[Overland]

Nice - glad you found the fix.

[rideandfly]

Since she is the driver of this project, she has opted to try out the shower feature before going to the Oxygenics Spa Thanks to everyone for your feedback. 

 

Just returned from a camping trip in the NC mountains and tried the shower feature with city water connected to the camper. The shower feature with city water pressure works great. Have not tried it using the 12V on board pump yet.

 

 

[rideandfly]

Just tested our shower with 12V on-board pump.  As previously mentioned, the 12V pump system does not have as much pressure as the city water connection, but still found our on board pump to be adequate for a shower using the faucet shower feature. Ran the faucet for over 20 seconds and worked OK.

 

May be system pressure differences to cause previously mentioned low pressure problems.

 

Using 12V Ollie pump system,

 

Faucet feature:

 

Shower feature:

 

The previous owner used this inline gallon meter while filling the  fresh water tank, it came in handy today to partially fill the tank during testing:

 

 

[MattE]

Hello all. Crystal bought a new Oxygenics shower head kit, and I was trying to to swap it out in place of the original in our 2018 LEII. However, while the thread on the new wand is the same as the old one, it's not an "easy swap", because of the difference in design of the two.

I investigated the other end of the hose, under the sink, and the Oliver supply line does not match the 1/2" fitting of the Oxygenics hose. 

I've read through this 4 year old thread, but can't see where anyone actually reported back on having swapped their original out for an Oxygenics. Before I go off in search of elusive adapters at True Value I thought I'd ask here, in case I'm missing something obvious. Not that that would ever happen. 

Thanks in advance. Be safe. 

 

Matt 

[Overland]

I ran into the same problem when I replaced mine.  You can read through this thread for a description and link to the adapter I used, but I'd honestly just recommend that you replace the entire faucet.

[WhatDa]

I was looking at duplicating overland's work, and came to the same conclusion he lists above, best to just replace the whole fixture.  I just haven't gotten that far as I think I may do a few other things while in there...like maybe throwing in a valve to let the hot water go into the fresh water tank so I stop wasting fresh water and gray water waiting for warm water.

[mountainoliver]

This my bathroom shower/faucet arraignment and was installed by Oliver when our trailer was built. I wanted to have my choice of shower heads and also have the same faucet in both the bath and kitchen. 

[Overland]

That's a nice setup.  I actually have the parts in hand now to do something similar with mine.  I bought this shower valve and this faucet, and I'm pairing them with a stainless vessel sink that I found on closeout.  Oliver sold me an uncut vanity top to use with the sink.  Right now I'm debating whether to mount the shower valve centered over the shower caddy, or on the closet wall.  My wife prefers it on the wall, as do I, but of course that leaves exposed plumbing in the closet.  But I think I could protect it, and don't really travel with anything in the closet that might damage it.  

The only potential problem that I may have to solve is that the shower caddy might interfere with the drain from the sink, since I'm pulling the sink forward.  I think it will work though, and if not, I may ask Oliver if they can ship me a shower caddy without any holes drilled in it, so that I can mount it upside down - for some reason, the bottom of the caddy had more clearance than the top.

[mossemi]

Overland,

Cool stuff!

Will the .35 GPM aerator work with the new faucet?  
And Amazon has the faucet for for $164,🙈 what a deal.

Mossey

 

[WhatDa]

2 hours ago, Overland said:

That's a nice setup.  I actually have the parts in hand now to do something similar with mine.  I bought this shower valve and this faucet, and I'm pairing them with a stainless vessel sink that I found on closeout.  Oliver sold me an uncut vanity top to use with the sink.  Right now I'm debating whether to mount the shower valve centered over the shower caddy, or on the closet wall.  My wife prefers it on the wall, as do I, but of course that leaves exposed plumbing in the closet.  But I think I could protect it, and don't really travel with anything in the closet that might damage it.  

The only potential problem that I may have to solve is that the shower caddy might interfere with the drain from the sink, since I'm pulling the sink forward.  I think it will work though, and if not, I may ask Oliver if they can ship me a shower caddy without any holes drilled in it, so that I can mount it upside down - for some reason, the bottom of the caddy had more clearance than the top.

Grohe thermostatic would be great.   Are you looking at mounting the shower valve to the caddy itself?  I've looked at that for a separate as I don't want to make anything extra to run into or hit my head on in there.  We don't use the caddy for anything other than dryign the micro fiber we use to wipe down the interior of the shower.

[thirddoor]

Does anyone have a good candidate for a replacement faucet?

Current one uses a LOT of water, hard to control, difficult to 'pause' during shower and return to the same temperature!

[Overland]

22 hours ago, mossemi said:

Will the .35 GPM aerator work with the new faucet?  

 

Jeez, I didn't even check - and the answer is no.  Oh well, I guess it's going back.  Thanks for reminding me - I would have had it installed before checking.

[Overland]

21 hours ago, WhatDa said:

Grohe thermostatic would be great.   Are you looking at mounting the shower valve to the caddy itself?  I've looked at that for a separate as I don't want to make anything extra to run into or hit my head on in there.  We don't use the caddy for anything other than dryign the micro fiber we use to wipe down the interior of the shower.

Just over the caddy, between it and the counter.  But I don't really like it there and it's too long to fit to the right like on mountainoliver's trailer.  I really think I'm going to mount it on the closet wall.  

[mountainoliver]

Keep in mind that our fresh water tanks come with a lot of built in trash and that there is a lot of trash that comes in from the many questionable water sources that we either fill our fresh water tanks with or use directly. Any faucets used should be trash/dirt tolerant otherwise you’ll be disassembling or repairing them often. I would think that an automatic temperature control may be sensitive to trash. The faucets and shower mixer that I used are made by Shurflo(?) and are the Trinidad model. The shower head is the Oxygenics brand and has a shutoff valve attached. They advertise that it is guaranteed not to clog with water sediment, and hasn’t so far. Because it’s not an integral part of the sink faucet, the shower head can easily be replaced with any brand I choose. Anyway, clogging is something to consider. 

[SeaDawg]

The Neoperl Mikado .35 gpm aerator comes in a number of sizes now. I wonder if there's one to fit your new faucet?

The aerator that's in the Ikea faucet sure looks like a Neoperl coin slot cache aerator to me. But, I'm only looking at a photo.

https://www.conservationwarehouse.com/faucet-aerators-35-gpm.html

Sherry

Edited April 9, 2020 by SeaDawg

[bhncb]

6 hours ago, Overland said:

Jeez, I didn't even check - and the answer is no.  Oh well, I guess it's going back.  Thanks for reminding me - I would have had it installed before checking.

Before you send it back: The Truma has to detect approximately .4 gpm flow in order to turn on. Operation might be iffy with a .35 gpm aerator.

[Overland]

Thanks for that, Sherry.  Looks like the TT size @ 18mm might be it, so I've ordered one to see.  Odd that Neoperl's website only lists the larger sizes.  

[Overland]

9 minutes ago, bhncb said:

Before you send it back: The Truma has to detect approximately .4 gpm flow in order to turn on. Operation might be iffy with a .35 gpm aerator.

We have the same aerator on our kitchen sink, and haven't had a problem.  But that might be because we have the truma comfort plus model with the water circulator.  So I'm curious now if anyone with the regular truma has tried this aerator and if it works for them.

Edited April 9, 2020 by Overland

[SeaDawg]

25 minutes ago, Overland said:

Thanks for that, Sherry.  Looks like the TT size @ 18mm might be it, so I've ordered one to see.  Odd that Neoperl's website only lists the larger sizes.  

I know. I've been looking for a cache aerator for a couple of home faucets. Ours are old school key type caches, on a couple of faucets.  It would be nice to replace with the coin slot cache type. There is a .5 gpm cache aerator on the website, in the 18 mm size, but not that cool basketball net pattern of the Mikado, which I  so love watching. Makes scrubbing your hands for 30 seconds much more enjoyable.  

I hope that works for you. You found a beautiful faucet! I  wouldn't be surprised if Ikea used neoperl to outfit their faucets. Actually,  it would make sense.

We used that Grohe control valve in a few places in Europe last year. Once we got used to it, we loved it. You'll probably want it at home, too, once you install it in the Ollie. 

Edited April 9, 2020 by SeaDawg