Dear Dave,
I have hot and cold running water in my bathroom but only drops coming out in the kitchen sink. When I checked the strainer at the faucet there were no contaminants present. I experienced the same symptoms 3-4 months ago. The dealer’s solution was to replace the faucet. The problem went away until yesterday. Now it’s back again. By the way, we closed the valve, went to bed and this morning we opened it. We had pressure for only a second, then it stopped again. Any advice? —Don, Salem Cruise Lite 24RLXL
Dear Don,
You would have two separate lines coming to the kitchen, one from the cold water side and one from the water heater. Since you do not have water coming from either the hot or cold side, I would assume you have a single handle faucet that has both lines coming to a junction inside the faucet. If you had separate hot and cold handles, the lines would come up independent to each side and you might have one or the other.
Common problem in RVs from campground water
This is a common problem with faucets in RVs as the water in your rig typically will be well water from the campground and will have calcium, lime, and even rust. It doesn’t take long for enough “scale” from the hard water and minerals to plug a line or faucet somewhere. I always use a filter at the city water fill area and typically at the kitchen faucet, as well; however, not on the hot side.
You did not indicate the model year of your RV; however, most of the photos that I have found online show a gooseneck-style single-handle faucet with pullout sprayer. These are notorious for plugging up and having low or no pressure.
I would start by removing the spray head only and see if you get water flow through the line. If it does flow through freely, then the clog is in the head.
The head has a screen on both sides and typically gets clogged inside. I would let it soak in a cup of vinegar and 2 gallons of water or some CLR. Sometimes it is just easier to order a new head on Amazon.
Caution
Just a note of caution: If you have the spring loaded faucet like the one in the photo, do not let the hose snake it’s way back down the spring. It has a weight underneath that will pull it through and it then is almost impossible to get it through the curls in the spring without taking the hose off! Trust me, I used mine at home as a demo and just spent an hour threading it back through!
If water does not flow out of the hose with the sprayer removed, you have a clog in the body. The water lines come up to a quick connect and then mix and go to the main hose.
I would disconnect the main hose at the white disconnect and test for water there. This can be done without shutting off the hot and cold supply, as it still runs through the faucet handle. If you have water here, the clog is in the line or connection in the faucet and you will need to remove it and soak it as well.
“UPDATE”
I always send a rough draft of these articles to the original poster and I got an update from Don on Saturday.
Thank you, Dave. As it turns out, it was actual calcium deposits in the faucet. We now have good pressure. —Don
You might also enjoy this from Dave
Why does my RV have water from bathroom faucet but not kitchen?
Dear Dave,
When I put water in the RV’s fresh water tank, I have water in the bathroom but no water in the kitchen sink. It was working fine when I winterized it last fall. —John, 2018 Leprechaun Coachmen Class C 240FS
Dave Solberg is a leading expert in the RV industry and the author of the “RV Handbook.”
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I had the same issue with water in the bathroom but not the kitchen. Before I started dismantling the kitchen faucet, I just happened to look under the sink. The hose attached to the sprayer faucet was kinked flat from being in the same position all the time. The hose is a much thinner/cheaper grade of line than found in stix & brix models and feels designed to fail. I’ll replace it in the spring.
Thank you, Dave! So thorough! 🙂 safe travels. Hopefully, Nashville’s weather today won’t persist long enough to affect the RV show this weekend. 🙂
No longer trusting water from any campground anymore, we fill our freshwater tank when we leave home and work off that until we reach our destination (if we have one). When we finally have to hook up to any water anywhere, we run it through our portable water softener (and the rest of our filter system). This has helped tremendously with calcium (and other crud) buildup. I wish we had done this years ago! The softener is kind of a PITA but well worth it.
Ditto here. I also test the water at any hook up site. Only in a few places have I not needed the softener.
How do you test the water hardness? Must be a sales link I missed.
Google “water hardness test”. Many to choose from and all very easy and quick. I use the strips.
Hey Dave, it was nice to get an up date from Don that he had solved his problem. Sounds like your suggestion of soaking it in Vinegar or CLR fixed his issue.
Thanks
Snoopy
Great article, thanks!!
We have all our water go through a standard blue RV water filter, and then through our On The Go water softener. We never run water straight into the camper without the filter and softener.
We replace the blue water filter every 60 days and replenish the water softener every 500 gallons (we have the smallest On The Go softener).
I replaced factory faucet with a pull down American Standard that was fine for a time, then got low flow. In my instance it turned out to be the back flow preventers one in the body and one in a junction in the braided faucet line. These are required in homes in case the faucet were to fall into a full sink and siphon water into the fresh water system in case of a pressure drop in the water line. As I was not worried about backflow to my fresh tank I removed them. They are quite small and clog easily especially when you get some debris from the water heater. I took me a while to figure this out, you might keep this in mind if get a similar issue.