By Russ and Tiña De Maris
If you’ll be camping in a park with “city water”—that is, water from a faucet—there are some good accessories to keep in your RV storage compartment. These can make your visit easier—even safer—for your rig. These RV water gadgets are inexpensive and you’ll be glad you have them when you need them.
Water bandit
Even before you hang the hose on the tap, there are a couple of helpful devices you might need. First, there are situations where the “threads” on the water faucet are stripped, or deliberately not there to prevent folks from hooking a hose to an otherwise good spigot. Assuming you have the right to the water, a little device known as a “water thief” aka “water bandit” can help out here.
The “thief” is a rubber sleeve (that blue thingy above) that snugs over a spigot, and at the other end is a brass threaded connection that allows your water hose to hook up normally. If you’re filling up your tank, just slip the thief on the faucet, hook up your hose, and fill away.
If you’ll be putting any real pressure on the hose—say, hooking it directly to your “city water” inlet on the RV—you’ll need to use a hose clamp to snug the rubber sleeve end onto the faucet.
Water pressure regulator
A water pressure regulator (above) can also save you lots of headaches. Typically, RVers complain that the pressure they encounter in a campground or RV park is too low, but it only takes one case of over-pressurization to blow a fitting in your rig to really make your blood boil. A simple RV water pressure regulator can prevent overpressure from doing real damage.
Where do you put it? We’ve seen plenty of RVers who hook the things between the water hose and the city water inlet on the rig. But why not protect the water hose too? Hook it on the campground faucet, then to the hose, and all your bases are covered. Yes, there is a slight fall-off of water volume when you use this rig, but the peace of mind is usually worth it. Is it worth the extra money to buy the fancy “adjustable” water pressure regulators? Not from what we’ve heard—some say they simply don’t work as advertised. Here’s a simple plastic one from, you guessed it, Amazon.
Hose elbow
And finally, a fitting you probably do want between the hose and the city water inlet is an entry elbow. If your water hose kinks or bends where it mates up with your water inlet, you can be sure water flow will be impaired and a premature death of the water hose is likely.
You can buy a metal elbow that allows the water hose to hang vertically, rather than crimped. Of course, it wouldn’t be fitting if we failed to foist an Amazon push. Here you go.
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RVDT2892
Per the water bandit, all I would say is if the hose bib does not have threads, the likely reason is that it is not intended to be used as a temporary (length of stay) water connection.
But if it’s been cross-threaded by a previous user, chances are that it will get cross-threaded again and again, so you may need something…
Water bandits are meant to be used to fill internal tanks, not supply your RV’s faucets. There is very little static pressure when water flows through a hose. In my experience, even using a clamp, a water bandit will not stay long on smooth faucets if there is more than maybe 30 psi of static water pressure.
When we winter in Florida, the city water has some iron in it, and I was getting rust on some surfaces, so a simple blue inline water filter stops the iron.
Here’s the order of connection I use;
Faucet
Hose
Whole house sediment filter
Pressure regulator
Hose
RV
I’m using the filter to protect the RV but in this order it also protects the regulator. One tiny speck of sediment in the regulator and it no longer works.
Thanks for this tip. I didn’t think about sediment getting into the regulator.
There are exceptions. I’ve seen a weak weld on a filter give way, that wouldn’t have done so if the regulator was in front of it. But it is pretty rare that I encounter a park system greater than about 70 psi. (I also carry a stand alone water pressure gauge.)
The elbow also helps take strain off the water inlet since the hose is in a vertical position and also being supported by the ground below.
Instead of an elbow I use a screw-in faucet that has an additional connection. I use the extra connection as the elbow and the faucet gives me an additional outside water source. The faucet also allows me to release pressure on the hose before disconnecting. I got the idea from someone on RvTravel. Sorry no picture but I got it from Amazon.
This is what I use, instead of a rigid hose elbow, at both ends of the hose. Its flexibility is also helpful at the spigot especially when it’s close to the ground.
https://amzn.to/4mZ2Kgn
Those will keep the hose from kinking, but do not prevent the weight of the hose from pulling down on the inlet.
For us, we use an adjustable water pressure regulator. Set at 60 PSI (413 kPa) we feel it protects our water system and gives the flow that meets our needs/wants. I’ve found, in my experience, both the adjustable and brass preset can be taken apart and cleaned if necessary.
I use a Watts water pressure regulator set at 60 psi. I tried several less expensive regulators but they each provided pressures much lower than what they specified.
Looking n Amazon – you can buy the Camco plastic thing or a good one in Brass for about 8 cents more! $13.91 to $13.98!!!
My thoughts: