Repair RV Water Lines
You will be repairing mostly freeze-damaged pipes. In the old days, RVs had copper tubing and that's easily repaired by pushing the seamed tubing back close to round and then adding a touch of solder with a BernzOmatic torch to the tear-out. But now you'll need to do something different, so read below for more information on how to repair RV water lines.
Steps
- Take a squirt trigger bottle and put a half inch of good dish washing detergent in the bottom of it, and fill it the rest of the way with water.
- Rig an air compressor to the outside water entry and pressurize the line with air - you don't want over 30 PSI. To get the air in, you can buy a small brass cap that has something that looks like the place you put air in a tire in its center. These are about four dollars at any RV supply store, and they let you blow out the line so it won't freeze next year.
- Spray your soapy water on suspected leaks. Modern RVs have plastic lines; they resist freezing better than the copper ones did, and if you have a freeze break, it will usually be at one of the fittings. You can buy right angle, straight connectors and other fittings at most RV supply stores. Find one of your existing fittings and take it off and with you so you get the right size and type. If your break comes in the middle of a line and you can't get to it ... find both ends of the damaged section, take them loose and tie a stout cord to one end and pull it out until you can repair the damaged part with a coupler. Pull the cord back the other way--the air compressor doesn't leave you with a lot to clean up.
- Work from the water entry to the first leak. The water storage tank seldom breaks, but if it does, use your BernzOmatic torch to heat up a flat tip screwdriver and use the hot tip to weld the break. The little water pumps usually can be repaired with the bondo that is used for car body repairs. After you've replaced the damaged parts with a bed of bondo, use a good grade of epoxy and coat the whole of the outside. This doesn't always work, but saves a lot of money when it does.
- Get a replacement shower head/hose at Walmart, Home Depot or Lowe's. If a faucet did give up and break, replace it with a cheap one from a home supply store; you can generally use the old fittings to make final connections. If not, take it out and with you to the store.
Things You'll Need
- Fittings that simply screw together -- available at any mobile home supply store
