After listening to the ‘thump’ ‘thump’ ‘thump’ of the water pump in our van for the past few years (a complaint that many RV owners have) I decided to do something about it. I purchased an IRVWPC (Intelligent RV Water Pump Controller). Today, I installed the device and am really very happy with the result.
Before
A standard 12VDC RV water pump is designed to be either on or off. That is running flat out or not at all. The means that when you only need a small flow of water the pump repeatedly starts and stops causing thumping sounds within the RV. This becomes annoying after a while and makes it impossible to sneak to the bathroom in the middle of the night without waking anyone else in the rig.
To capture this annoyance, I recorded the following video of our pump located under the galley sink. The video captures the sounds made when a tap is fully open and then closed halfway and then closed to just a trickle.
Solution
Now in its 2nd edition, the IRVWPC corrects the water pumps thumping by controlling the voltage sent to the pump based on the pressure demands of the water system. As such the water pump will now spin at a variable speed depending how much water is being requested. Slick!
Installation
The kit comes with a pressure sensor which is installed just after the existing pump. This required draining the water from all pipes and then taking apart the pipe at the pump and inserting the pressure sensor before reconnecting the water pipe. Easy peasey and no leaks afterwards means I got it right.
Next came installing the controller near the pump and making the necessary electrical connections. Again, not difficult but took my time to ensure I didn’t fry my new controller by connecting it wrong. All good!
Results
I managed to keep the install to less than an hour, which I think is pretty good for working in a small space on a 30°C day.
The following video was shot in the same location as the video above with the water being initially turned on fully and then slowly reduced. You can clearly hear the change in the tone of the pump and the lack of thumping makes me very happy.
What next?
We are camping this coming weekend with friends and I’m looking forward to seeing how much we notice the difference the controller will make to how we use water.
