I got a new SHURflo Smart Sensor pump from fellow Barthmobile member Robin McCullough and received it December of 2009. I installed it shortly before our 8000 mile trip to Florida last February.

Although the pump was new and never installed or used, it was a defective pump from SHURflo. Not anyone's fault except the manufacturer, here is a write up of the saga and what looks like a good final outcome!

House water pump replacement

Here is a picture of the final installation. In the .PDF, I used landscape mode for the picture for greater detail.



I am sure I will need a bigger fresh water tank now to handle the long showers wifey takes!

This may be a dumb question but here goes.....How does the Autofill function work? Every time I fill the tank I open one of the valves and it allows me to fill the tank completely and then close the system again. Thanks for your patience!

Not a dumb question at all. It took me awhile to figure it out too.

When your connected to city water you just flip the auto-fill switch. That opens an electric valve and the tank will start filling. When the tank get near full a buzzer on the switch panel will buzz.

The first time I connected my Barth to city water I got a big surprise. The electric valve must have been stuck open. I went in to eat lunch and came out to water running down the driveway and I freaked. I had visions of water running down the floor. Turns out there is an over-flow built into the tank and it was draining out there and not in the coach.

After some playing around with the auto-fill switch it must have worked itself free and its never been a problem since. I'm going to check that valve one of these days to be sure it isn't limed up. My pump is kicking on every minute or so for a few seconds and I think it's the valve. It's aways down on my list things to fix at the moment.

If you look at the picture you will see the manual fill valve. This is the top valve in the picture and is shown in the off position. If this valve is open and you are connected to city (or other source of water) it will fill the tank and NOT shut off, water will pour out of the overflow until it is shut off.

The lower valve is a manual shut off in case the solenoid valve fails, I had this happen once but am careful to watch now while filling.

If I want faster filling, I will open both valves, the auto fill electrical AND the upper manual valve. After filling I generally close both valves until I fill again. I have had the solenoid open and it will allow the pump to run continuously if open.

BTW, be sure to shut off the pump while filling or the pump will run continuously while filling. If you have city water you don't need the pump anyway. In some cases the city water pressure was to low so I use the pump in addition to the city water for a better shower, but not while filling.

Thanks for the "posts" !! Somebody has to round out the curve and that would be me! Hope you guys have a great holiday weekend.