First Trip, First Repairs for 2017 - New Shower Faucet!

[PaintyLiz]

We're on the first week of our first two month trip of the year....Campers come with crummy faucets, almost totally made of plastic . . . actually, I think it is TOTALLY made of plastic, not 'almost'

So, I get ready to take a shower and the stupid shower valve pulls right off in my hand! It is badly designed, you have to yank up on a thin plastic piece every time you want to take a shower. Obviously, this thin plastic piece is not going to withstand too much yanking.

I get on amazon and check - for $25, I can get another crummy plastic faucet. Hmm, there has to be something better! All of a sudden, I stumble across this amazing thing:

I can add a separate shower control! This will be great! This is an amazing little faucet - the right knob maintains the water temperature you set and the left knob varies the amount of water flow. You can turn it on and off and still have the same temperature!! I am really looking forward to this! AND it's less than $40 and it's SOLID BRASS!! Apparently, they are commonly used in Europe.

Because I am going to have to mount it on the side of the sink cabinet, I want the shower hose to connect to the top, but there is another model that has the connection on the bottom if you're able to mount it higher.

So, I have ordered it, it should be here tomorrow, gotta love Amazon prime! Has anyone used one of these in their Camper? Any hints of things I should look out for? Thanks for any tips!

Liz

 

[twinster2]

So is your plan to add Y connectors for the hot and cold so that you supply water to both the temperature control unit and a sink faucet? You are still going to have to replace the current faucet with one that does not have the pull up water diverter. I curious how the temp control unit will work with the relatively low pressure and flow rate on the trailer. Keep us posted.

 

[PaintyLiz]

The present faucet works without leaking as long as the diverter is not pulled up, so it will last this trip. I will replace the sink faucet with a nice "real" sink faucet from my stash of old house parts when I get home. It will be a big improvement.

I plan on putting tees in the sink lines and mounting the shower control on the shower side of the sink cabinet. This is a little lower than I'd like, but has the advantage of not requiring any lines across the walls. Since this maintains the temperature setting between uses, it shouldn't be too inconvenient.

I won't know exactly what/how until I get it in my hot little hands.

Liz

 

[PaintyLiz]

The faucet arrived today! It's bigger than I expected, and heavy. Made the first trip to home depot and ace hardware. First challenge is working with pex lines. Bought the wrong thing on recommendation of the ace guy...plain brass fittings and did not include the brass insert to make it work with pex. So going to buy shark bite fittings at home depot tomorrow, now that I know what I'm looking for. Update to follow.

Liz

 

[APD]

Looks like a neat item for sure! Yes update please.

 

[twinster2]

The faucet arrived today! It's bigger than I expected, and heavy. Made the first trip to home depot and ace hardware. First challenge is working with pex lines. Bought the wrong thing on recommendation of the ace guy...plain brass fittings and did not include the brass insert to make it work with pex. So going to buy shark bite fittings at home depot tomorrow, now that I know what I'm looking for. Update to follow.

Liz-

Did you ever try out the faucet? I curious as to how it worked. Let us know.


Don

 

[dogs_rule]

I am curious as well. I have a good older pull-out Moen kitchen faucet that I'd LOVE to install in the trailer as the one in there is leaking everywhere and is so low, it's hard to even rinse a pot. Does anyone know the size difference between pex and 'usual' trailer plumbing flex pipes? I am a newby, but think over time I'd love to replace all the plumbing with pex but don't feel competent enough to do it all at once...

 

[PaintyLiz]

I am curious as well. I have a good older pull-out Moen kitchen faucet that I'd LOVE to install in the trailer as the one in there is leaking everywhere and is so low, it's hard to even rinse a pot. Does anyone know the size difference between pex and 'usual' trailer plumbing flex pipes? I am a newby, but think over time I'd love to replace all the plumbing with pex but don't feel competent enough to do it all at once...

Your sink faucet in the camper should be NPT (National Pipe Thread) and fit the same as your kitchen sink you want to use to replace it ~IF~ it is an old fashioned kind.

If it is the newer kind with the flexible (usually copper, sometimes braided) lines coming out of a single hole, then you will have to buy an adaptor for each line. Not difficult, just a male/female from whatever the faucet has on one end (female end) to whatever the supply lines are (male end) Just bring the faucet to HoDe with you and find the things that fit. Actually Ace might be more helpful for this.

Under the sink it is put together like this:

The black nut holds the faucet to the countertop and the white is the fitting from the Pex line.

Hope this helps! I replaced my rv faucet with this Gooseneck It was only $35 and has held up really well. At first it came apart, but I realized that the base is two parts and you just need to tighten it really well. Also, you can add a second o ring, the mfg sent me one free when I asked.

Liz

 

[PaintyLiz]

Liz-
Did you ever try out the faucet? I curious as to how it worked. Let us know.
Don

Hey Don,

Ain't it funny how time slips away? Well, it is installed, but I haven't run water through it yet. Can't get hubby out of the house to go camping LOL. Also, it takes forever to get 'good' photos of projects, clean them, logo them, upload them . . . yada yada and I'd rather be building something than sitting on the computer.

By the way - I built a really neat towel/drying rack that ought to almost hold the whole load of clothes from my tiny washer (WHICH I STILL HAVEN'T GOTTEN TO USE!!!!). I also redesigned/made really neat adjustable awnings, replaced the power cord end, took down and rebuilt the medicine cabinet even larger, made a new cushion covers and a quilt for the bed and yuck fixed the water heater in the house. I want to GO CAMPING! LOL

I'll get the tutorial up today if it kills me. I think the faucet will work great, but I came up with some neat tricks for installing it, since it is made to fit into threaded pipes in the wall and has an odd offset fitting.

Liz

 

[PaintyLiz]

If you want, I can take some pictures of the fittings/etc under my kitchen sink, but I really don't think you'll need it

Liz

 

[PaintyLiz]

Ok, the pictures & info are up! Let me know what you think, any comments or suggestions greatly appreciated! https://wackypup.blogspot.com/2017/05/no-more-crappy-faucets-installing.html

Liz