A long time ago (during the permanent bed conversion) I installed a Shurflo Whisper King water pump and have mostly been very happy with how quiet it is. The problem is that no matter how quiet it is, it is still audible when it runs. It makes us want to keep the water pump switch in the “off” position (very annoying) because it “burps” every 10 or 15 minutes. It doesn’t seem like much but some of us are sensitive to any noise when it is otherwise nice and quiet and it bothers us.

I figured it was happening because of a small leak in the built-in check valve in the pump. It turns out that a surge tank is listed as one of the solutions to this problem by Shurflo. They also recommend using a surge tank to prolong the life of the pump – so it doesn’t constantly start and stop. I found a nice sized (about 8.5″ diameter and about a foot long) at Home Depot’s web site (a Flotec FP 7105-8).

The photos below show a mock-up of how I planned to measure the pressure in the house water system (22 pounds with the Whisper King even though it claims 30 pounds in the documentation – I guess that could be because of a power issue, so I plan to check) and then to substitute the surge tank for the gauge. I held the tank in place against the back wall by adding a brace in front of it and connecting it to either side of the bed supports. The tank is held well out of the way of the rolling drawer that slides under there too – the horizontal line in the insulation  below the installed tank in the last photo is where the rolling drawer rests.

We plan to use the coach in the next month. I will report on if and how this helps solve our “noise problems“.

Update 1/20/2014: We used the coach for a weekend trip – 3 nights – and the surge tank has fixed the problem of the water pump “burping”. We can now leave the water pump turned on when we are in the coach and there is no water pump noise except when the pump runs to refill the surge tank when we use more than around a gallon of water. When the pump runs it does so for about 30 seconds and then stops. Since it is a Whisper-King it is very quiet when it does run so, almost like home. Worth doing.