No water from shower but kitchen okay?

[Purrfecttune]

Tried to have a shower in our Motorhome for the first time in a while but the pump kept cutting in and out delivering practically no water.
Tried the kitchen sink tap and delivery was absolutely fine with no issues.
What can cause no water to the bathroom when it is okay to the kitchen?
There are no obvious leaks anywhere.
Thanks for any advice.

 

[Landy Andy]

What make van?
possibly broken wire in tap.

 

[Purrfecttune]

Swift escape 674

 

[Stealaway]

If you turn the sink tap on a little so the pump start's is the shower ok?

 

[jwells]

Check if there is a mesh filter in the hose to shower hand set, that may need cleaning. Same thing in the tap nozzle gets blocked, and can cause those symptoms!

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[Purrfecttune]

Hi all

Thanks for all the advice.

We drove home which was about 35 miles and parked up on electric. I went out to try the tip above; (turning on the sink tap slightly) but before I did, I tried the shower again and it worked perfectly. So I unattached the electric and tried again in case it was some sort of power problem.
It worked perfectly!
I can only think that maybe there was an air lock which dislodged on the drive home?
Any other possibilities out there?

 

[Stealaway]

I think it will be faulty tap micro switch or connection

 

[Purrfecttune]

Thanks Stealaway, I will have a look tomorrow and if I find anything, will report.

 

[Landy Andy]

If it is a failed switch, or it’s wires, it will start aa an occasional fail of operation building up to never work situation. The tap in a certain place at a certain force will work, but if in a different place and different force it won’t. That’s my experience of switched water systems.

 

[Purrfecttune]

Update:
I had a look under both taps this morning and could see no evidence of a wire or wires.
The bathroom tap is very curved with what looks like a small, stuck on disc (about 5-10mm) on the upright part showing red/blue.
The kitchen tap had a very small/tiny ‘pop out’ on top with the same colours on either side of it. I found my smallest screwdriver and underneath was an equally tiny screw holding the top of the tap on.
This may suggest that the system I have uses one, central micro switch somewhere?

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[Stealaway]

Can you hear a pump running?
Where is the pump?

 

[autorouter]

Microswitch and pressure switch are the two different kinds of MH water system, because of the two different ways to switch on the pump.

If there's a microswitch in each tap, that's what switches on the pump as the tap is turned on. If you listen carefully you may hear a faint click as the switch trips, and then you can hear the pump fire up. There's a pair of wires going to each tap, including the shower, and also the toilet flush switch.

A pressure system has a single pressure-activated switch, near the pump or usually built into the pump. When you open the tap, the pressure in the pipe drops and the pump turns on. When you close the tap, the pressure builds up for a second or so, and the switch activates and turns off the pump. These systems need a master switch to cut power to the pump when the MH is not being used. This switch is usually on the control panel.

The first thing is to find which of those two systems it is. Usually microswitched systems have a submersible pump inside the tank, and pressure systems usully have an inline pump in the pipes near the tank.

 

[Stealaway]

Can you hear a pump running?
Where is the pump?

 

[Purrfecttune]

I believe that the pump is in the water tank and that it is a pressure system.

Being a bit clumsy and the water filler cap being a bit flimsy (in my opinion) I have got through two of them by accidentally breaking one of the lugs. The last time, the pump would not stop and barely any water was coming out.
I tried pushing hard on the filler cap and everything worked as it should, consequently, my current filler cap is a much better one sold in the marine industry (you may have seen it in some adverts, it is white not blue).

I definitely cannot see any wires near either tap.

 

[Puddleduck]

Microswitch and pressure switch are the two different kinds of MH water system, because of the two different ways to switch on the pump.

If there's a microswitch in each tap, that's what switches on the pump as the tap is turned on. If you listen carefully you may hear a faint click as the switch trips, and then you can hear the pump fire up. There's a pair of wires going to each tap, including the shower, and also the toilet flush switch.

A pressure system has a single pressure-activated switch, near the pump or usually built into the pump. When you open the tap, the pressure in the pipe drops and the pump turns on. When you close the tap, the pressure builds up for a second or so, and the switch activates and turns off the pump. These systems need a master switch to cut power to the pump when the MH is not being used. This switch is usually on the control panel.

The first thing is to find which of those two systems it is. Usually microswitched systems have a submersible pump inside the tank, and pressure systems usully have an inline pump in the pipes near the tank.

Thank you for such a clear and easily understood explanation which will be of great use to people new to the systems.

We've had both systems on different vans