How to Properly Connect the RV City Water Inlet
Dave SolbergDescription
The RV city water inlet is an easy way to provide pressurized water into your RV unit. The RV city water inlet on the outside of the RV makes it possible to hook up to an outside source, such as a campground or residential faucet using a hose, and have pressurized water running on the inside.
To hook up to the RV city water inlet, you must first remove the outside cap and get a hose that is designed for drinking water. A specialized RV drinking water hose is drinking-water safe and made of materials approved by the National Sanitation Association, which means it contains no toxins, rubber, or lead. Attach the hose to the unit directly or you can use an elbow connector to make it easier to get connected and disconnected to the RV city water inlet.
Once connected to the RV city water inlet, pressurized water will come into your unit, bypassing the water pump. This provides pressurized water to faucets, showers, and toilets. On newer models with an enclosed service center, you can also fill the freshwater tank by switching the valve inside near the tank.
Be careful of the pressure when connecting to the RV city water inlet, because some campgrounds use wells with a pump and can have high pressure levels. Even outside garden hoses can have high pressure levels. It may be necessary to connect a regulator to the hose before attaching it to the RV unit. This will keep the water pressure coming into your RV around 40 to 60 psi. Another suggestion is to attach a filter to remove any sediment and water contaminants before the water enters the unit.
Having pressurized water coming into your RV will give you the water you need to cook, take showers, and use the bathroom. This is definitely one of the benefits of connecting to a water source while taking an RV vacation.
Another video from RV Repair Club shows you how to install a quick-release adapter to your RV city water inlet to make it easier to connect to water sources.
The city water fill is an easy way to provide pressurized water inside your rig. Typically it'll be on the outside of the vehicle like this one here, some of the newer models, the basement models, will have it down in a service compartment but it works this way. And take the cap off of here. And you would take pressurized water from an outside source, your campground source, at home, whatever. And you want to make sure you have a a hose that's rated for drinking water. And then you would just literally hook this up onto the system here. And you'll notice this is a little tough to get at. So there's a couple of aftermarket items you can get. You can put this little elbow on, makes it a lot easier to get. This just would stay on automatically. Or you could do a quick disconnect that allows you to come in, put this unit in and just pull it out with a series of these little connection pieces like this. But the way the system works we have pressurized water that comes into the unit. It's going to bypass our water pump inside. So we're not using that. We don't have the constant prom prom prom, and it provides pressurized water to the faucets, to the toilets, to the showers, everything inside. On some models, you can also fill the freshwater tank. There's simply a little shutoff valve. This one doesn't have it, but there's a valve that will either say city or fresh water. So I can fill my fresh water tank right inside without having to unhook this and going back over to the gravity feed. So this is going to give you pressure from what you have in the campground source. One of the things you have to be careful of is pressure. Some of the campgrounds will have a well with a pump. There'll be running 60 to 70 PSI, maybe even more than that. Some of your outside garden faucets in your, even in your residential will have high pressure. So you want to make sure you put a regulator on before you run it through. It's also a good idea to do a filter. You can either do the typical whole house filter like this or they make a real easy inline filter this way. But in any case make sure you use a hose that's rated for drinking water, provide city water in here, pressurize the whole system. You get a nice even flow of water inside.
I always hook up to the hose bib, then turn the water on before connecting to the RV. This clears the air out of the hose, to minimize hammering when faucets are turned on. I also let the water run a little bit before connecting to the RV, in case there is any rust in the supply lines.
I need a new connection as the plate is rusted. The round plate mounted on the RV. I see replacement parts online - but are these basically universal? I cant fine a real store that I can visit that carries these so I need to order online and afraid I will get the wrong one.
Dumb novice question - once you're connected, is it safe/correct to leave the water flowing into the RV continuously, or do you turn it off and on as needed? Is there an internal mechanism to prevent overfilling? Thanks
recent purchased a 20014 Milan trailer, discover a water spot right at doorway of bathroom wihtin 10 minutes of turning it on where can this possibly come from
I see someone already suggested that r pressure regulator should be a faucet, minimizes possible hose bursting.
We have brand new 2018 5th wheel we were trying out the water ..we weren't sure if we had anti freeze from dealer in lines... while connecting to city water...we have water in bathroom and toilet..but our kitchen sink is in the rear of camper... no water...we have the bypass off..which is located in compartment of storage..... any suggestions on why this is happening???
This vid should be replaced. Tell us to put the pressure regulator at the tap; one filter at the coach; and a finer filter under the sink for drinking water.