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Old 01-17-2016, 03:10 PM   #1
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Mysterious DRIP...

As the title states... over the last week, my rig has developed a mysterious drip that I cannot identify.

As I'm sitting watching TV, or reading a book... about every 30-45 seconds... DRIP!

It's not constant, and I haven't been able to pinpoint it relating to anything I've recently done. At first I thought it was only after running water in the kitchen sink, but that wasn't it. Then I thought maybe as I was using my washer/dryer... or maybe after I took a shower... etc. But there appears to be no rhyme, reason, or steady pattern to base it off of.





Here are 2 photos of the area from where I sit... the latter with the small cabinet door open. Looking at the photo, I have pinpointed the sound to a location just to the left of the drawer under the oven, and under the small cabinet door.

I have opened the cabinet doors, removed all of the drawers, and can't find any evidence of a water leak. Thinking that maybe it's just not something I'd readily see, I've sprinkled the entire area with baby powder... but still no signs of any wetness.

It's additionally frustrating because I can see the hot & cold water supply lines, and the larger drain line... which all run left-to-right along the floor directly under the drawers. With me laying on my belly, with my head right there by the water & drain lines looking at them... I can still hear the drip, and it sounds as if it may be coming from UNDER the floor!

So my next step was crawling under the RV, and seeing if the underbelly was wet or damp in that area... and I couldn't find anything unusual there.

At this point, I am completely stumped. From both sides under the sink, I can see all of the kitchen water lines, and trace then from the sink to the point under the stove. Nothing is wet, nothing is damp... it's all dry. Yet I know something ain't right.

Has anybody got any suggestions?
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Old 01-17-2016, 05:21 PM   #2
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Tom,

I would say that you hit it with the underbelly, if it's kind of a dull thud.

Jim
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Old 01-17-2016, 06:16 PM   #3
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You might remove the louvered panel under the refrigerator, that's where the water heater lives. Also the water lines that go back to the baby crapper and the W/D service box.


This is a long shot and this happens on mine after a rain or frost thaw or heavy moisture. I get a dull thud dripping sound from droplets falling off the front side of the living room slide. The slide skirt folds under the slide an inch or so and the water lands on that fold creating a heavy thud. It took awhile to find that guy but finally did. To keep the noise down I stuffed a piece of rolled up Styrofoam packing material in the fold, now the water drips on something soft.
You could be experiencing run off from the A/C doing that and driving you crazy.
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Old 01-18-2016, 06:31 PM   #4
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Ok, spent much of the day yesterday during the football games going over everything I could think of to find the cause... fast forward tot he result: still no luck.

Quote:
Originally Posted by hddecker View Post
...I would say that you hit it with the underbelly, if it's kind of a dull thud.
Well, that's just it. It isn't a 'dull thud'. It's more like an... IT'S RIGHT THERE!... kind of sound. As if a drip is impacting the kitchen floor right in front of me.


Quote:
Originally Posted by sundancer 87 View Post
You might remove the louvered panel under the refrigerator, that's where the water heater lives. Also the water lines that go back to the baby crapper and the W/D service box...
Yeah, I've done that too... as that was kinda of my first thought, since I just had the water heater replaced last month. But I pulled the grate, and everything's dry there, just as it should be.


Quote:
Originally Posted by sundancer 87 View Post
This is a long shot and this happens on mine after a rain or frost thaw or heavy moisture. I get a dull thud dripping sound from droplets falling off the front side of the living room slide. The slide skirt folds under the slide an inch or so and the water lands on that fold creating a heavy thud. It took awhile to find that guy but finally did. To keep the noise down I stuffed a piece of rolled up Styrofoam packing material in the fold, now the water drips on something soft.
You could be experiencing run off from the A/C doing that and driving you crazy.
Well... where I'm at here in AZ, the temps have not gone below freezing all winter. The closest we got was around 39 degrees one night, but that was before New Year's. The last rain we had was over a week ago... and with temps no higher than 65 yet, I've had no reason to run any of my AC units since October.

Be that as it may... as that's the only thing that I hadn't investigated, I crawled back underneath the rig during halftime and looked at all of that. Nothing out of the ordinary that I can detect... and, no damp spots on the ground either.

Bottom line to all of it... as I say, I can lay down on the floor, and hear that it's coming from somewhere directly under the kitchen cabinet, just to the left of the oven drawer. And, I'm pretty sure as I've narrowed it down to a drain issue... in that, the only water I used yesterday before the football game was my shower & toilet. Well since the toilet drain doesn't go anywhere near the kitchen, I'm pretty sure I can rule that out... and when I sat down to watch the game, it had been a good hour since my shower.

All the more frustrating, because when I remove the oven drawer, I CAN SEE the black drain pipe, dry as a bone... yet I CAN STILL HEAR a drip from somewhere that has to be located not more than 18 inches from where I'm looking!!

GRRRRR!!!!!
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Old 01-18-2016, 07:33 PM   #5
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Could the drip actually be inside the pipe? Possibly a piece of debris or a rough edge causing water in the pipe to back up a bit and drip? I have had that happen with house plumbing before. Drove me nuts.

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Old 01-19-2016, 12:45 AM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by wahoonc View Post
Could the drip actually be inside the pipe? Possibly a piece of debris or a rough edge causing water in the pipe to back up a bit and drip? I have had that happen with house plumbing before. Drove me nuts.

Aaron
That could do it.

The strange thing about sounds in an RV is they can telegraph along way from the source.

Time for the stethoscope. Check the auto parts stores for an inexpensive mechanics stethoscope. The probe will allow you to reach into some of the places you may not be able to see.

The probe is very sensitive, so it takes a steady hand and patience to track the source of the sound.

I wonder if they have an app for that?

Jim
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Old 01-19-2016, 10:01 AM   #7
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im prolly not gonna be much help. ( I'm trying to learn from you guys- not teach the class LOL). the only thing i had happen like that was, the rain gutter from the slide was dripping and hitting the fender flare. on my cyclone, the flares are plastic and it was loud, so it was easy to find. very hard to have an idea that hasn't been suggested ... at 30- 45 sec I would say its not condensation..unless it a big surface area with lots of forming drops. could it be in a tank ?? are the tanks dry and hitting the plastic bottom ...?

research the timeline...happen after shower...washer?

doubt that helps, sorry. tom
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