Winter

The SKP Ranch Lakewood, NM - Friday, January 25, 2019
Morning 27 Degrees, Wind SSE at 5 to 7 Mph, Humidity 48%, sunny.
Afternoon 58 Degrees, Wind ESE at 4 to 12 Mph, Humidity 19%, sunny.
 
Winter, to me it is cold, and I do not like it, cold. We have had a couple of “snaps” of really cold nights but not too bad as of late. In preparing for the winter I purchased a “winter water hose” it comes with a heater that turns on as the outside temperature drops below forty degrees. The park has switched to a new system of protecting the water supply at the lot. Five years ago we used heat tape insinuation and plastic outside pipe but the valve was exposed.

This has been our park configuration for five years
Blue is the new heated water hose

There were freezes where the valves frozen and heat tape failures. Now the park has added a layer of insulation inserted in a heavy plastic garbage bag (to protect the insulation) and laid over the top of the water riser and valve.

Covering that with a plastic thirteen gallon garbage container and a brick on top for weight.

In this picture  you can see I have the access open to
get to the inside of the water port.  This is the test
with the check valve removed from the water port.
The blue heated water hose

We are in a desert and water is always a concern, or how much the park uses on a daily basis. In some areas people have let their water drip during the night the prevent freezing for the pipes, but that is not good practice here in the desert. Additionally we have “RO” water. Reverse Osmosis, we pump water from our two wells, that goes thru the RO filters and is put into storage tanks for distribution. The RO process also uses water to wash away the particles removed from the water we store for distribution. So to let water drip is very wasteful. The park has decided to shut down the water distribution at night when the temperature warrants. Some nights ten at night to seven in the morning the water is off. We keep water (full) in our motorhome tank for this and in the even the park has a water problem, pipe brakes or a pump fails.

On Wednesday I thought it was one of those days, distribution was shut down for a pipe as I knew they were shutting off streets checking for water leaks. Ours was off overnight for that test. But it never came on. Late in the day talking with the water committee they said there was no problem? This means I have a problem with Buster. The water pump was supplying us all day as needed but no water in from the park. Where the hose connects to Buster that port has a check valve inside the plunger got stuck blocking water flow into Buster.

The hose connects on the left and the white is the plunger
or check valve

The reason for the check valve is when we use the water pump water will flow out the port if it is not checked. Yesterday afternoon I accessed the inside of the port and removed the port and the plunger came out after I turned it over. I put the port back in place with out the plunger and hooked up the hose, park water now works.

This is the new water port being tested.
I am leaking water from the elbow fitting
during this quick test 

 Today was a trip to Roswell RV parts store to purchase a new water port, install, test and put everything back together.