1/30/12

Today was supposed to be easy. Dry run to the hospital to time my new commute. Pick up some new boards for leveling purposes, the old ones cracked and broke in Del Rio. Get some Laundry done, easy. Then today actually happened.

For some reason, we lost all water pressure today. The pressure at the park connection wasn't good and we new that already. They came by to fix it. When the water came back on, it was just a dribble at all of the faucets and sinks. Even the toilet got in on the act. So, I checked the pressure at the new park connection and worked my way back to the RV. Park..good. Filter...good. Regulator...good. Hose...good. Now we are back to the actual RV. Not good. This was going to require a little more.

So, we got out late and did what we needed to get done. Dry run shows a commute time of 30 minutes give or take. We hit the RV store and picked up the switch and a few specialty light bulbs we needed. I didn't really know what the full water problem was, so I didn't get anything for it. The RV parts guy suggest I check the check valve going in to the RV.

We then went to Home Depot and got the new boards for under the tires, should we need them. We decided to drop Sarah off at a laundry since we had much more than normal after our trip. Easier to get it all in one fell swoop.

I ran home with the kids and started back to work. First, a roof check. We brushed some small branches on our way in and I wanted to inspect. Hands and knees on the roof eyeballing everything. I didn't see any damage. Had to be done though as there is a threat of rain tomorrow.

Then, back to the water problem. The check valve works fine. No problem there. All the other connections are clean. What next? Went inside and found another problem. The toilet was now not shutting off. Normally, when you flush, a small amount of water remains in the bowel. It is much less than a normal toilet, 7-10 ounces or so. Now, the toilet never shut off and the water just kept right on filling up the bowel. And...the foot pedal was sticking. This was not good. I can't leave the water on like that or we would flood the place.

So, back outside and shut off the water. There wasn't time to really research or start digging in as we had to go back and get Sarah. When we returned, I started looking it up on the internet. Nothing sounded like our problem. I just decided to pull the toilet apart. As fun as that sounded.

So, I did. I pulled the toilet up from the floor, disconnected everything and cleaned and lubed all the handles and fittings. Turns out that, on the back of the bowl, connected to the flush valve is the fitting that sprays water into the bowel. It was clogged with lime scale and calcium deposits. I pulled it out and cleaned it. When I put it all back together, it worked and didn't leak.

Now, when we arrived those lime scale deposits got into all the sinks, it usually does. I pulled the screens and cleaned them. Well, they were all dirty again and that was our problem. I pulled and cleaned them all again. And then again when they clogged up again a few minutes later. So, for now, they are all working. We will see how long it lasts. We will be replacing the whole house filter tomorrow. Then, back to the regularly scheduled chore list before work on Wednesday. Ahhh...adventure.