Fixed my plumbing (At Last) (1 Viewer)

[Gromett]

Ever since I fitted the boiler/plumbing in the van there has been a water leak underneath. It was not enough to concern me so I only got round to fixing it a month ago when I had a few spare pennies and some time.
I had thought it was the safety dump valve. This is thermostatically controlled so that if it drops below 4C it will release all the water out of the boiler to protect it. I thought an internal seal in this was leaky.


At the same time as I was doing this I decided to redo the plumbing to get rid of what I consider bodge parts. These consist of the connectors on the boiler, the kitchen tap and the dump valve. Because these three items are not speed fit parts they require a little bit of clear hose with jubilee clips, then an adapter with more jubilee clips then the quick fit straight connectors. They look horrible and jubilee clipped pipe does leak especially on the hot side.


I found out you could get replacement taps for the SMEV sink, Replacement dump valves with speedfit connectors and replacement adapters for the boiler. I bought all these and some parts from Magnums.


I fitted these all in and everything seemed fine for a couple of days.. What I found out while fitting this was that it wasn’t the dump valve it was the cold water entry to the boiler that was leaking and the water was running down the pipe to the dump valve. I couldn’t see this from inside the van as it was hidden.


Anyway to cut a long story short, The entry point still leaked… I have just got round to spending some time on it and ended up stripping it all down again. When I looked inside the connector on the boiler side I saw that the O ring was split and crushed. I took one out of the old fittings and connected it all up…..


I now have the boiler filled again and no leak. However I have switched the boiler on to get it hot and do a pressure test on it. Fingers crossed this is all sorted now and I have a dry van…


It is times like this that I am glad I have a selfbuild. Otherwise I would have been booking into a dealer and paying a fortune to hang around all day..

 

[hilldweller]

It is times like this that I am glad I have a selfbuild. Otherwise I would have been booking into a dealer and paying a fortune to hang around all day..

Ah, but the dealer may have spotted the real leak first time.

Dealer 1 O-ring 10p
Grommet New valve, new fittings, new pipe, 2 days labour £1754.32.

 

[Snowbird]

The main advantage of building anything yourself is that if you built it, you can fix it when it goes wrong. Some of the crazy machines I have built over the years only I could repair.oh:

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[aba]

what you do is buy a really expensive motorhome then re-build it yourself to put right what the manufacturers got wrong then you have the best of both worlds.

incidentally the new fiat X-250's who ever decided to put the screen wash filler in that location wants shooting.oh:

 

[Sundowners]

Ever since I fitted the boiler/plumbing in the van there has been a water leak underneath


Everyone was blaming the weather for flooding at Peterborough and all the time it was your leak

Nigel and Pamala

 

[Snowbird]

what you do is buy a really expensive motorhome then re-build it yourself to put right what the manufacturers got wrong then you have the best of both worlds.

incidentally the new fiat X-250's who ever decided to put the screen wash filler in that location wants shooting.oh:

Talking of daft places to put things on motorhomes,have you ever seen where they leave the header tank to the radiator on older A class Fiats. The only way you can top them up or check the coolant is with a hosepipe. Haven't a clue how you would get antifreeze in there. They build the body on the original cab and leave the header tank up on the bulkhead so you have dificulty even removing the cap oh:

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[aba]

Talking of daft places to put things on motorhomes,have you ever seen where they leave the header tank to the radiator on older A class Fiats. The only way you can top them up or check the coolant is with a hosepipe. Haven't a clue how you would get antifreeze in there. They build the body on the original cab and leave the header tank up on the bulkhead so you have dificulty even removing the cap oh:

the only time these things become apparent is when you have to actually use the vehicle

 

[Gromett]

Ah, but the dealer may have spotted the real leak first time.

Great sense of humour there

Dealer 1 O-ring 10p
Grommet New valve, new fittings, new pipe, 2 days labour £1754.32.

Gromett 1 O-ring 0.00p

New fittings were needed anyway as I don't like jubilee clipped garden hose type bodges. It's now all speedfit :thumb: So no additional costs there.

Gromett's time per hour £0.00. Dealer time per hour £40+Vat (possibly more)

Gromett's actual time on job today 30 minutes.

Dealers time on job. Drop it off in morning and keep your fingers crossed that they get round to it before they close and leave you homeless because you are a fulltimer

3 trips back to the dealer to fix the things they broke fixing the first thing.

Chances are dealers wouldn't touch my van as it is self build and rough as houses. I don't clip cables, pipes or vents so it's a bit of a rats nest in the boiler compartment. But I know what every cable pipe and connector does. Once I have finalised the layout I will go back and reclip everything neatly but as most self builders will know these things are never finalised oh:

 

[Geo]

Talking of daft places to put things on motorhomes,have you ever seen where they leave the header tank to the radiator on older A class Fiats. The only way you can top them up or check the coolant is with a hosepipe. Haven't a clue how you would get antifreeze in there. They build the body on the original cab and leave the header tank up on the bulkhead so you have dificulty even removing the cap oh:

When you have done a few its very easy Dave,
Simply remove windscreen and drill 2"hole in dash just above tank:thumb:

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[TheBig1]

what you do is buy a really expensive motorhome then re-build it yourself to put right what the manufacturers got wrong then you have the best of both worlds.

incidentally the new fiat X-250's who ever decided to put the screen wash filler in that location wants shooting.oh:

have you noticed that when you take the cap off, the filler pipe telescopes upward and out for filling:thumb: Not the easiest to fill though, and even more difficult to replace the washer pump if it burns out. hidden behind the nearside light, right under the wing

 

[Gromett]

RESULT!!!!!

Boiler has been on for a couple of hours, had a shower. Checked for leaks...

Nothing

Being a sparky by original trade the electrics have never held any fear for me.
Plumbing and gas I have always avoided like they plague as neither plays well with electrickery.

However I did it all myself on this and the previous self build and I must say Gas is a doddle. Plumbing was a nightmare. Much better if it is all speedfit though.

If it had been speed fit all the way through I could have plumbed the whole van in an hour

 

[Gromett]

Just looking round the van and I have one last job tomorrow.

I have to strip the kitchen sink out to fit the new tap units. I am also lowering the worktop by 2 inches.

Means i have to disconnect the gas and water to the kitchen area and rebend a really complicated bit of gas pipe. I am getting pretty good at it now though.

I don't like elbow joints in gas pipe so I bend the pipe to fit. There are absolutely no joins in any of my gas pipes except where it meets the manifold or appliance:thumb: I feel joints are another bodge on a par with jubilee clips on plumbing.

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[artona]

I refused to use any speedfit when I built our van.......the fittings need to be 100% in a vehicle that moves and bumps etc.

We were lucky, not one leak and no leaks 2 years later.........touching wood

 

[Gromett]

I refused to use any speedfit when I built our van.......the fittings need to be 100% in a vehicle that moves and bumps etc.

We were lucky, not one leak and no leaks 2 years later.........touching wood

The speedfit have been excellent:thumb:. Absolutely rock solid providing you use the John Guest stuff and not cheap copies... Top quality British Engineering

None of my Speedfit connections have had a problem. The problems have always been on every other bloody join...

 

[TheBig1]

I agree.... good quality speedfit are excellent and allow some leak free movement in the system.... avoid the cheapies as they break to easily

never used to like them when first on the market, but was converted a few years back.

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[Gromett]

I won't touch anything but John Guest.

 

[artona]

I guess we all have our preferences.......