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Old 01-07-2023, 04:41 AM   #1
Jumper
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underbelly water hook ups??

Trying to keep unit warm and insulated underneath and noticed a hot and cold water line coming out of bottom of Rv. I thought this would be a good option to connect my water to since it is inside my skirting that has heat and would allow me not to have to have a heated water lines. I ran water supply’s from my house under ground that come up inside skirting area. I found no literature on what the purpose is for those two water lines. Can I connect water supply to them?
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Old 01-07-2023, 05:11 AM   #2
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Low point drains. For draining water, not input.
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Old 01-07-2023, 05:13 AM   #3
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Ok thanks so much
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Old 01-07-2023, 08:11 AM   #4
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Ok so if I put a valve right after the hot water heater to shut it off and bring hot up through that drain port, why wouldn’t that work? For that matter, I could put cold as well there I mean correct me if I’m wrong the only worry I would have his back feet to the hot water heater if I saw that hot and cold to go on those two lines and supply the RV? Is my thinking on point here?
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Old 01-07-2023, 08:20 AM   #5
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I think the cold side MIGHT work. I wouldn't try to modify the hot side.
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Old 01-07-2023, 09:58 AM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jumper View Post
Trying to keep unit warm and insulated underneath and noticed a hot and cold water line coming out of bottom of Rv. I thought this would be a good option to connect my water to since it is inside my skirting that has heat and would allow me not to have to have a heated water lines. I ran water supply’s from my house under ground that come up inside skirting area. I found no literature on what the purpose is for those two water lines. Can I connect water supply to them?
I could see the cold incoming possibly using the low point drain, but what/why would hook anything to the hot drain?
I don't understand what you hope to gain by doing this?
If it's extremely cold fill your fresh water tank & use it, you stated it's skirted with heat, fill when needed. Sounds to me like you're trying to figure out a way to fix something that ain't broke!
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Old 01-07-2023, 11:31 AM   #7
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Hooking up to the low point drains would cause a lot of confusion in your plumbing.

The cold would run OK at all of the faucets.

The hot would also run nothing but cold, and water would never fill into your water heater tank. Why? Because the water heater (cold "in" line) is plumbed to fill the tank from the water pump or from the normal garden hose attachment in the wet bay. Somewhere along that line is a T that splits. One line is for cold, the other goes to the water heater. Water flows only one direction.

If you hook up to the low point drains, you are hooking up water "after" the "out" going water from the water heater. You would be attempting to force water into the water heater backwards. It simply will not and cannot work this way. First, the water is running the opposite direction into the water heater. It's receiving cold water "in" form the hot water "out" side. ..... Well, this won't work either, because on the "out" flowing side, there is always a check-valve or a by-pass valve that will prevent any water from "back filling" in the water heater.

Your plan will never work if you want hot water. Now.... if you want cold water only, it will work. But you'll be best to drain your water heater after turning it completely. It will never fill with water this way.

Your are best to connect the water hose via the convenience center. If you need to, drill a few holes under the trailer to feed the garden hose through so it will remain inside the skirting, and bring it up through the trailer so it can connect. You can add a "T" near the connection, on the same "in" line that you connect the garden hose too if you have a garden hose connection on the outside wall of the camper. Make sure you put a valve or a check valve in the line so nothing will spew out original garden hose connection, and put a valve in the new "in" line so if you want to hook up to the original connection you can shut the new one completely off too.

It will work this way then.
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Old 01-07-2023, 11:51 AM   #8
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If he hooked up the cold side, I’m thinking it will fill the water heater tank. The water heater uses cold for in and hot for out. The one way fitting is in the hot out of the tank.

The hot low point drain will drain all the hot side lines not the cold side, and the cold low point drain will drain the cold side including the in to the water heater tank.
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Old 01-07-2023, 02:56 PM   #9
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You can absolutely connect to the cold low point drain. Water doesn't recognize direction, it simply flows to the point of least resistance; i.e. an open faucet. The only down side would be standing water between where the fresh water factory connection is and the new connection point as that water won't move and may become stagnet.
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Old 01-08-2023, 05:49 AM   #10
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Originally Posted by travelin texans View Post
I could see the cold incoming possibly using the low point drain, but what/why would hook anything to the hot drain?
I don't understand what you hope to gain by doing this?
If it's extremely cold fill your fresh water tank & use it, you stated it's skirted with heat, fill when needed. Sounds to me like you're trying to figure out a way to fix something that ain't broke!
My mom is staying here until the addition is finished. I want to give her more hot water than a 3 gallon water heater. There was no connection for hot water. I piped hot and cold under the trailer from house. I wanted her to benefit from taking a 10 minute shower instead of a two minute shower.
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Old 01-08-2023, 05:58 AM   #11
Jumper
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Originally Posted by dutchmensport View Post
Hooking up to the low point drains would cause a lot of confusion in your plumbing.

The cold would run OK at all of the faucets.

The hot would also run nothing but cold, and water would never fill into your water heater tank. Why? Because the water heater (cold "in" line) is plumbed to fill the tank from the water pump or from the normal garden hose attachment in the wet bay. Somewhere along that line is a T that splits. One line is for cold, the other goes to the water heater. Water flows only one direction.

If you hook up to the low point drains, you are hooking up water "after" the "out" going water from the water heater. You would be attempting to force water into the water heater backwards. It simply will not and cannot work this way. First, the water is running the opposite direction into the water heater. It's receiving cold water "in" form the hot water "out" side. ..... Well, this won't work either, because on the "out" flowing side, there is always a check-valve or a by-pass valve that will prevent any water from "back filling" in the water heater.

Your plan will never work if you want hot water. Now.... if you want cold water only, it will work. But you'll be best to drain your water heater after turning it completely. It will never fill with water this way.

Your are best to connect the water hose via the convenience center. If you need to, drill a few holes under the trailer to feed the garden hose through so it will remain inside the skirting, and bring it up through the trailer so it can connect. You can add a "T" near the connection, on the same "in" line that you connect the garden hose too if you have a garden hose connection on the outside wall of the camper. Make sure you put a valve or a check valve in the line so nothing will spew out original garden hose connection, and put a valve in the new "in" line so if you want to hook up to the original connection you can shut the new one completely off too.

It will work this way then.
Thanks for those suggestions. So I understand how the water goes through the system. The inlet has a valve that says fill tank or direct Watermain, which mine is on Watermain supply therefore bypassing the fill tank. I would imagine that there’s a cold, running up to the hot water heater one bypassing it and one’s filling it And now that cold becomes hot on the output side of the water heater and the fact that I said on the output side of the water heater, I can put a valve because I can access it right underneath my cabinet and I can shut that water heater off on the output side, therefore segregating the hot water side completely . Connect the hot water line to the drain side of the hot and now the hot is charged with continual hot for my house unless I’m missing something that I don’t see like backflow preventer’s or something like that. The other upside is the drain lines are already under the skirting and can be kept above freezing without me having a hose sticking out of the side of the RV that now Has to be a heated hose.
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Old 01-08-2023, 06:02 AM   #12
Jumper
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Originally Posted by flybouy View Post
You can absolutely connect to the cold low point drain. Water doesn't recognize direction, it simply flows to the point of least resistance; i.e. an open faucet. The only down side would be standing water between where the fresh water factory connection is and the new connection point as that water won't move and may become stagnet.
Fly good point. The original inlet could be fitted with a plastic valve to purge from time to time. Read my other reply. The whole point is to give my mom hot water from my house so she can shower like normal and make it easier to keep everything under unit, under skirting and away from cold. I’m new to RVing, but this seems stupid to only have one outside hose access point that sits directly in the weather which is fine if you just pop in around but if you plant your camper somewhere it would be nice if you could hook up underneath the trailer where you could protect, those things with skirting and it may be a small heater or heat lamp
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Old 01-08-2023, 07:03 AM   #13
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If you run a hot water line from the house to the trailer, how long is the run and how much temp drop will you suffer? I’d stay with the onboard water heater.
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Old 01-08-2023, 07:20 AM   #14
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... but this seems stupid to only have one outside hose access point ... it would be nice if you could hook up underneath the trailer where you could protect, those things with skirting ...

Actually, they do exist. They are called "park model" trailers. RV's are designed for transient travel. That's their purpose. A "park model" is designed to sit stationary, (that's it's purpose) but still be able to move when/and/if necessary. Plumbing, water and sewage, connects like a mobile home.
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Old 01-08-2023, 11:10 AM   #15
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You could add an additional small water heater under the rig which you could plumb up to the hot water drain. There are several at this Amazon link that run on 120 volts. https://www.amazon.com/s?k=water+hea..._ts-doa-p_1_12
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Old 01-08-2023, 02:00 PM   #16
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My mom is staying here until the addition is finished. I want to give her more hot water than a 3 gallon water heater. There was no connection for hot water. I piped hot and cold under the trailer from house. I wanted her to benefit from taking a 10 minute shower instead of a two minute shower.
Never heard of a 3 gallon water heater, 6 gallons is typically the smallest. We've had the 6 gal. turned to gas & elec together could do 2 showers back to back with about a 10-15 minute pause between them. You do have to wet down, turn off shower head, shampoo hair, turn on shower head to rinse, turn off shower head, lather up, turn on shower head to rinse. Leaving the shower head running continuously you'd be lucky to do 2 showers back to back with a 12 gallon wh. Also an Oxygenic shower head fells like good pressure yet conserves water.
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Old 01-16-2023, 06:22 PM   #17
Jumper
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Put a valve on output side of water heater. Was able to connect hot and cold to drains. Worked perfectly. Now I am able to give trailer constant hot. Works perfectly!!

Question though. Does the shower have a p-trap like standard plumbing?
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Old 01-16-2023, 07:42 PM   #18
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Depends on what Keystone installed. I’ve seen standard P traps and Hepvo.

https://www.amazon.com/All-Season-Ma...3926900&sr=8-3
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