There are a few luxuries that make the difference between roughing it and living normally. Refrigeration is probably the most important to me, followed by running water. So it was increasingly annoying that the freshwater system on our boat would consistently stop working after being idle for a few minutes. I would then have to go to the power panel and recycle the breaker. In some cases we would need to wait several minutes before turning the breaker back on.

The pump is the same as what we have in the RV. It should only operate when the water pressure drops, but otherwise should sit idle and wait until it is needed. Close inspection of the water pump revealed that the pump was moving, albeit very slowly, all of the time. I figured it could be a leak in the system somewhere, but repeated searches through the bowels of the boat did not suggest any sort of systemic problem. So earlier this spring I ordered a replacement pump and stored it as a project for some future date.

This Saturday I decided that it was time to (hopefully) remedy the problem once and for all. The process was made simple by the fact that the pump is designed with quick connects on the intake and output sides. So I simply had to remove the lines, cut the old power wires, and then crimp the wires for the new pump onto the power wires.

The new pump did the trick. We now have running water whenever we need it.

It also enabled another luxury that we sometimes take for granted: ice. Since the ice maker relies on water pressure, it wasn’t making ice most of the time so I just left it off. With the newly working pump in place, I am making ice like Mr. Freeze!