Van Conversion Plumbing System
#vanlife #vanbuild bathroom
A van conversion plumbing system needs clean running water to the kitchen sink, toilet, shower and/or bathroom sink. It also needs a draining system to take dirty or used water away.
The concept is simple, right? Some water here, some water there. We see it in theory all the time.... can't be that hard.
Well, it's not that hard - once you know what you're doing.
The problem is, the "once you know what you're doing" piece is a BIG one. There are so many little parts and pieces that get missed in the "how to install a plumbing system" online DIY mainstream, that it can feel hopeless.
Parts is Parts
We can't tell you how many blogs we read and videos we watched that lumped "all the little parts and pieces" into a non-essential category of not-even-worth-mentioning. What?! Those little parts and pieces are what make the whole plumbing system come together - and actually work - and you're not even going to tell us what they are?
We didn't know which parts and pieces we were missing - or what those parts and pieces were called. We just knew we were missing something! So, we spent hours- literally HOURS- searching for things like:
- "how do you connect the pump to the strainer"
- "how do you get water into the water pump"
- "connecting the strainer to the water pipe"
- "fresh water tanks for dummies"
- "plumbing for dummies"
- and other extremely basic (novice) terms that we cant' even remember now.
It seemed as if every plumbing video on the planet just assumed that everyone watching already knew what they were doing, or at least knew what all those little plumbing parts were called. Ugh. Come on, a "how to" video should be that.... how to.
Anyway, we finally stumbled upon a very helpful diagram (pictured above) that didn't skip over the little parts and pieces of plumbing!!
While we didn't want the exact same system set-up, the diagram gave us the names of the little connector parts we were missing (there are hover pop ups on their diagram). That was enough to fill in all of our missing pieces (connect the dots, so to speak), and complete our own van plumbing system diagram.
The Water Pump
We saw several pictures and videos where the van builders placed the pump directly near the water source- usually the sink. We thought, if that's the case, will we have to put a pump at every water source- the sink, shower and toilet... and possible an outdoor shower, if we go that route? That seems like overkill.
We checked out some traditional plumbing videos and found a helpful one that explains how a pump works and where we should place it. The video also told us that we will want a way to bypass the pump. This would allow us to continue to receive water in our van even if the pump breaks. That was the first we had ever heard of this tip in all of our water pump research! (It seems obvious now, but like we've been telling you, you just don't know what you don't know so it's easy to "not see" some things along the way.)
If you would like a list of all of the supplies- including the mysterious tubing, connectors, adapters, and other parts, please scroll below.
The parts we used to create our fully contained plumbing system are:
Fresh water tank
Gray water tank
Black water tank
(see How to select your tank sizes here.)
Water Pump
(see How to secure your pump so it's not so noisy here.)
Pump Silencing Kit
Pipe Strainer
Accumulation Tanks
Tankless Water Heater
Water Fill Inlet
Drinking Water Hose (for inlet fill)
Pex Pipe
PVC Tubing
Male and Female Adapters
Couplings
3 flow Y valve (from pump to heater, sink and shower)
2 flow Y valve (for dual drain to outside and gray water tank)
Shut off valves
(see a great educational site about plumbing parts here)
Plumber's Putty
Toilet
Sink
Drain
Universal Drain Kit
Go to Choosing Your Tank Size
Go to Water Weight from Tanks
The concept is simple, right? Some water here, some water there. We see it in theory all the time.... can't be that hard.
Well, it's not that hard - once you know what you're doing.
The problem is, the "once you know what you're doing" piece is a BIG one. There are so many little parts and pieces that get missed in the "how to install a plumbing system" online DIY mainstream, that it can feel hopeless.
Parts is Parts
We can't tell you how many blogs we read and videos we watched that lumped "all the little parts and pieces" into a non-essential category of not-even-worth-mentioning. What?! Those little parts and pieces are what make the whole plumbing system come together - and actually work - and you're not even going to tell us what they are?
We didn't know which parts and pieces we were missing - or what those parts and pieces were called. We just knew we were missing something! So, we spent hours- literally HOURS- searching for things like:
- "how do you connect the pump to the strainer"
- "how do you get water into the water pump"
- "connecting the strainer to the water pipe"
- "fresh water tanks for dummies"
- "plumbing for dummies"
- and other extremely basic (novice) terms that we cant' even remember now.
It seemed as if every plumbing video on the planet just assumed that everyone watching already knew what they were doing, or at least knew what all those little plumbing parts were called. Ugh. Come on, a "how to" video should be that.... how to.
Anyway, we finally stumbled upon a very helpful diagram (pictured above) that didn't skip over the little parts and pieces of plumbing!!
While we didn't want the exact same system set-up, the diagram gave us the names of the little connector parts we were missing (there are hover pop ups on their diagram). That was enough to fill in all of our missing pieces (connect the dots, so to speak), and complete our own van plumbing system diagram.
The Water Pump
We saw several pictures and videos where the van builders placed the pump directly near the water source- usually the sink. We thought, if that's the case, will we have to put a pump at every water source- the sink, shower and toilet... and possible an outdoor shower, if we go that route? That seems like overkill.
We checked out some traditional plumbing videos and found a helpful one that explains how a pump works and where we should place it. The video also told us that we will want a way to bypass the pump. This would allow us to continue to receive water in our van even if the pump breaks. That was the first we had ever heard of this tip in all of our water pump research! (It seems obvious now, but like we've been telling you, you just don't know what you don't know so it's easy to "not see" some things along the way.)
If you would like a list of all of the supplies- including the mysterious tubing, connectors, adapters, and other parts, please scroll below.
The parts we used to create our fully contained plumbing system are:
Fresh water tank
Gray water tank
Black water tank
(see How to select your tank sizes here.)
Water Pump
(see How to secure your pump so it's not so noisy here.)
Pump Silencing Kit
Pipe Strainer
Accumulation Tanks
Tankless Water Heater
Water Fill Inlet
Drinking Water Hose (for inlet fill)
Pex Pipe
PVC Tubing
Male and Female Adapters
Couplings
3 flow Y valve (from pump to heater, sink and shower)
2 flow Y valve (for dual drain to outside and gray water tank)
Shut off valves
(see a great educational site about plumbing parts here)
Plumber's Putty
Toilet
Sink
Drain
Universal Drain Kit
Go to Choosing Your Tank Size
Go to Water Weight from Tanks
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Here are some links to those plumbing connectors and parts:
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Tags:
Van Conversion Plumbing System
DIY Plumbing for Beginners
Fully Contained Plumbing System
What are the parts I need to build a plumbing system
How to install plumbing in conversion van
Camper van plumbing
Van shower
Van bathroom
Van Conversion Plumbing System
DIY Plumbing for Beginners
Fully Contained Plumbing System
What are the parts I need to build a plumbing system
How to install plumbing in conversion van
Camper van plumbing
Van shower
Van bathroom