Hi All,
Looking for a bit of guidance on where to even start with this.
We purchased an off grid cabin which was primarily built and exclusively plumbed by the original owner. It was meant to have a kitchen sink, a bathroom sink, and a shower, although the shower was never completed. The bathroom sink never worked properly (you have to manually turn on and off the pump to use the water due to pressure issues that cause the pump to constantly cycle, and the switch for this is in the kitchen) so we eventually unhooked it from the system while doing maintenance on the kitchen sink. Now, we only have the kitchen sink, which is cold water only. In a line we have the underground cistern (just on the other side of the kitchen wall) which has a flexible hose material that leads through the kitchen wall and to our pump. immediately following the pump is a small seaflo accumulator like what is used in RVs. A winding hose with a multitude of different fittings/adapters eventually leads up to our kitchen faucet, which I believe is a 1/4 inch female end.
The sink sputters like crazy when you turn on the pump. It probably takes close to 10 seconds for a decent water flow. If the faucet isn't opened to max flow it will cycle between a steady flow and kinda sputtering. If you shut off the faucet while the pump has power, the pump keeps cycling. There is visible air in the line (some of our tubing is clear) which seems to come from before the pump (unsure of where). I have tried manipulating the line to allow the air to come out but more seems to just come in. Then again, we don't appear to be losing prime so I am unsure if there's actually a leak that allows air, or if I just haven't been able to clear the existing air pockets.
Is there an issue with the setup itself that would cause air problems? Can you not just run a hose from the pump to the cistern and have it work? How to troubleshoot? I am kinda stuck here and our sink has had really subpar performance for the whole time we have owned it. Thanks for any help.
Looking for a bit of guidance on where to even start with this.
We purchased an off grid cabin which was primarily built and exclusively plumbed by the original owner. It was meant to have a kitchen sink, a bathroom sink, and a shower, although the shower was never completed. The bathroom sink never worked properly (you have to manually turn on and off the pump to use the water due to pressure issues that cause the pump to constantly cycle, and the switch for this is in the kitchen) so we eventually unhooked it from the system while doing maintenance on the kitchen sink. Now, we only have the kitchen sink, which is cold water only. In a line we have the underground cistern (just on the other side of the kitchen wall) which has a flexible hose material that leads through the kitchen wall and to our pump. immediately following the pump is a small seaflo accumulator like what is used in RVs. A winding hose with a multitude of different fittings/adapters eventually leads up to our kitchen faucet, which I believe is a 1/4 inch female end.
The sink sputters like crazy when you turn on the pump. It probably takes close to 10 seconds for a decent water flow. If the faucet isn't opened to max flow it will cycle between a steady flow and kinda sputtering. If you shut off the faucet while the pump has power, the pump keeps cycling. There is visible air in the line (some of our tubing is clear) which seems to come from before the pump (unsure of where). I have tried manipulating the line to allow the air to come out but more seems to just come in. Then again, we don't appear to be losing prime so I am unsure if there's actually a leak that allows air, or if I just haven't been able to clear the existing air pockets.
Is there an issue with the setup itself that would cause air problems? Can you not just run a hose from the pump to the cistern and have it work? How to troubleshoot? I am kinda stuck here and our sink has had really subpar performance for the whole time we have owned it. Thanks for any help.
