Water accumulator

[Mainiac]

We are going to purchase the 182-200 water accumulator. Evidently they are now standard equipment on the new units. I have seen a picture of one installed, but it doesn't show the hook-up. Does anyone have a picture, or a step by step description of what I need to do, or the addition parts I might need?  How much does it weigh? What is it mounted to? Does the bladder force it empty when system is empty, or do you have to empty to winterize?

[Raspy]

I don't have mine installed yet in my Ollie, but I do have one on my boat and it is an identical system.  I can answer a couple of your questions.   It weights almost nothing as it's just plastic and holds about a quart, there are different models that the water passes through or that just tee in.  Either is fine.   The bladder will push all the water out of them when the pump is off and the faucet is opened.  They can usually just lay in a convenient spot or be clamped to something, as they can be in any position.

 

On the Oliver, I'm looking at under the sink where it can be mounted to the plywood cabinet structure and teed into the faucet pigtails.  I'll post pix when it's done.

 

The main function I want is that when the water heater is turned on and no water is run, the pressure in the system goes clear up to the relief point and pops the pressure relief at about 125 PSI!  The accumulator tank will stabilize this.  It will also tame the pump and make it run in longer cycles.

[DavidS]

Canoe, I am also considering installing the water accumulator. I found a pretty good (if too long) how-to

. Looks pretty easy.

 

Amazon says it weighs one pound.

 

Where to mount it is the hard part. I winterized my Ollie last weekend, and I looked at the water pump. The water pump is mounted on a white board; I don't think it is wood, but I don't know what the material is. The water accumulator should be mounted vertically. I am thinking of mounting the water accumulator with the screws mounted edgewise into the right hand edge of this white board. I don't know if there is sufficient vertical clearance for this mounting plan. 

 

The Shurflo instruction manual says "To winterize, drain all water from the system. blow system out with low- pressure air, or add potable water anti-freeze."

[John E Davies]

The bladder will push all the water out of them when the pump is off and the faucet is opened. They can usually just lay in a convenient spot or be clamped to something, as they can be in any position..

 

In a house it could be positioned horizontally but in a trailer it really should be positioned so that the water fitting is at the bottom, so it can drain completely. And the connecting hose to the tee should be absolutely as short as possible.

 

Do these units have a service valve at the top, to add air to the bladder compartment?  If so, consider ease of access for that. Under the bathroom sink would not be a good spot.

 

I’ve never had the hot water heater over-pressurize, is this common?

 

This is yet another item that needs to be provided as a complete kit with all hardware and instructions. The instructions could be added to the Technical Bulletins subforum, which is what it was intended for, though nothing much seems to be added there. The last important one was added over six months ago.

 

John Davies

 

Spokane WA

[T-Oliver]

Just attached to pump with supplied coupling and looped hose under and around.

[SeaDawg]

We have the same "composite" ie plastic accumulator on our boat. It helps a bit. I think it's about a pint and a half... Pump still runs, but not immediately. That tank has been there for many years, but the boat is bigger, and much more complicated, than our trailer.

 

On our home system, we recently upsized our accumulator tank. So many water efficient appliances  take water for a few seconds, and quit, making the cistern pump run unnecessarily. We're trying to find the sweet spot for our house. We don't (yet) have an accumulator tank in our trailer.

 

Looking forward to find out if the little surflo actually makes any difference.....

 

Sherry

[Mainiac]

We ordered the 182-200 accumulator today. Seeing our system is winterized we won't get to see if there is any difference for 5 or 6 months. We really have not had any issues, but if the factory is adding them to new units, there must be enough of an issue somewhere. We will see. The spec sheet says it holds 2 to 4 oz of water at static pressure, so not expecting earth shattering results.

 

Gathering water into a cistern and then distributing/using is a lifestyle choice that almost doesn't exist anymore. I can only imagine it has evolved to solar powered UV or clorinator water treatment options. I remember seeing older systems that used rainwater collecting stone/cement tanks in the basement and a pitcher pump next to the slate sink in the kitchen upstairs.

[SeaDawg]

Canoe12,

 

Yes, we're old school, I guess. We collect the rainwater from our roof, and filter it 7 times before the uv sanitizer.   And that is solar powered. Whole house pv, grid tied.

 

Battery availability wasn't great when we built, but we've ordered battery backup now since hurricane Irma blew through. Post Irma,  we shared one of  our camping gensets with the  neighbors for a week.... Enough to keep two fridges, a few lights, a few fans, and the cistern pump running... On the bigger Yamaha. And power the ignition on the gas instantaneous water heater, so everyone who wanted to could use our outdoor shower. It's amazing what 3000 watts can do, if you are careful, and have good extension cords. We were sad that our trailer was in North Carolina... That would have given us more options. But, it was safe.

 

The new battery backup should allow us to live off grid, when the grid goes down, even in town, except for sewer. Septic is no longer allowed here...

 

We collect 100 per cent of our water, and more than 100 per cent of our power needs, and no polluted groundwater discharge to the bay behind us. Paul put a lot of time into research and planning on the rainwater collection system and cistern. Our project engineer had to jump a lot of hoops to get it done in code, because no one does it anymore, so few people understood what we were trying to accomplish. ... But, we got it done.

And we are very happy to collect our own sweet, naturally soft water and power our home with quiet, clean solar  power.

Sherry

 

 

[ScubaRx]

...The main function I want is that when the water heater is turned on and no water is run, the pressure in the system goes clear up to the relief point and pops the pressure relief at about 125 PSI! The accumulator tank will stabilize this. It will also tame the pump and make it run in longer cycles.

 

This doesn't sound right, your water heater should not be heating to the point that it pops the pressure relief valve.

 

We had one of these in our first Oliver Elite.  I couldn’t tell that it made much difference in decreasing the run time of the pump.  I still have it with all the hoses and fittings in a box somewhere.  If you install one, you need to have EASY access to the air fitting so that you can fill and check the pressure without jumping thru hoops.

 

 

[SeaDawg]

Actually, in our area, most homes have an accumulator tank. It might even be code now.

 

At Lowe's, they're located in the water tank area,, and I'd have to look up the name, but they're called something like an expansion tank. Designed to eliminate said issue. At home, at, least.

 

Never had that issue in our older 2008, but we don't have the same tank fill/drain issues, either.

 

Sherry