When I was away on my last caravan tour, I got up one morning to find no water at the taps. After breakfast, I set about trying to find out why. With the tap opened, there was no voltage at the pump socket and the impeller appeared to be seized. Replacing the blade fuse restored the power to the socket, and my Cheapo reserve pump kept the taps supplied (rather sluggishly) for the remainder of my stay. However later in the day, I found the pump was working, but without raising any water. I suspected an air leak around the O-rings on the socket. I replaced them and the pump worked correctly for the rest of my stay.

There used to be a time when I could hear the buzzing of the pump in the Aquaroll. But now, even with hearing aids, I don’t hear it when it’s working. It’s very likely the pump had worked for several hours during the night, before eventually overheating, seizing and blowing the fuse.

It was time for a modification. What I needed was a light to show when the pump was switched on. Several positions were considered for the light but finally, I decided the most accessible place to install an LED, was below the pump switch itself.

The faceplate was removed and drilled for an 8mm hole. An LED was glued into a broken mount rescued from the scrap box.

A length of cable was soldered and then covered with heat shrink to the two leads.

The cable was sufficient to run across to the side of the van, then alongside the water pipes to the pump socket. It was connected to the two terminals on the rear of the socket.

LEDs are polarity conscious so positive needs to go to positive and neg to neg. It won’t work if reversed.

Now, when a tap is opened, the light flashes – but more importantly, should the pump startup because of a fall in pressure, the light will alert me to the pump working its way into the rubbish bin.