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How to layout a PEX-A Water System in your Camper Van
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May 3, 2025
How to layout a PEX-A Water System in your Camper Van
View Video Transcript
0:00
[Music]
0:07
welcome back to the shop in today's
0:10
video we're going to show you an example
0:12
of how to lay out your van water system
0:14
we'll show you a recommended path on how
0:16
the water flows throughout your van so
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you get a better idea of how to tackle
0:19
this project if you have any question
0:21
please put those in the comments below
0:23
and we'll be happy to answer those in a
0:25
future video
0:30
hey guys welcome back to the shop have
0:33
an interesting layout here for you guys
0:35
and I wanted to do this because
0:37
sometimes when you're Plumbing your
0:40
water system it can get really confusing
0:42
and one of the easiest ways to do it is
0:45
just take the parts and literally lay it
0:48
out and actually draw it out
0:50
do you understand where everything's
0:52
coming from
0:54
so we're finishing up the water system
0:57
on the 2020 medium roof van this is
1:01
Thomas's van
1:03
and we are working our way from the
1:05
water heater
1:07
as well as the water pump
1:10
all the way to the back of the van where
1:12
we're going to have our tank fill port
1:16
and then we're going to have our hot and
1:19
cold mixer valve for our wash down
1:22
station out there in the back
1:25
so these are all the parts we're going
1:27
to need today to do the install but I
1:31
want to take some markers here and
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actually draw out how everything is
1:34
going together and how the system works
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because it can kind of get complicated
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when you're running hot and cold lines
1:40
as well as make blending them into a
1:45
mixer valve there's a couple of special
1:47
fittings you're going to need
1:49
some adapter fittings as well as all the
1:52
90 elbows
1:56
and stuff like that so yeah let's go
1:58
ahead and get started I got some markers
2:00
over here color coded to try to help
2:04
this make sense
2:07
so we're going to start over here and we
2:09
need to draw our
2:12
um
2:13
imaginary hot water heater so that is
2:16
right here
2:21
all right and then we got two ports
2:23
on the hot water heater
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we're going to have our Port over here
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which is going to be our hot water
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and this is going out
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then
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the middle port
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which that is cold water going in
2:45
and then our Port back here
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all right so this first Port is our hot
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water coming out
2:52
this second Port if I mess this up this
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is actually our
2:57
color this in this is our pressure
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relief valve
3:02
um and then this Port right here is our
3:05
our cold water going in
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so we'll mark this our pressure
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relief valve
3:17
and so this valve
3:20
is not going to be used but we do have
3:23
this tapped in there
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so we'll go ahead and we will color this
3:29
one red
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and then we'll color our cold water in
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blue
3:59
okay so we have our hot water heater
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we've got our hot coming out
4:03
this is our pressure relief valve
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which needs to be plumbed and we showed
4:08
in the first video and then we have our
4:11
cold water in
4:15
and then over here
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we have
4:29
this is our pump
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and the pump is coming out
4:40
so this is our this is our water pump
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water
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all right
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so we got a water pump
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and then if we go up further
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see how we can fit this in here
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let's move this over a little bit
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this is our
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this is our water tank
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the water tank is being plumbed out
5:29
and the water tank goes into our water
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pump
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so let's start where the water comes in
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and then we'll get to the water pump
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we'll go through the water pump going to
5:40
its cold out to the mixer valve
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and then we'll go to the water pump
5:44
going into the hot water heater out the
5:47
hot water side into the mixer valve
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that's pretty much what we're going to
5:51
accomplish today
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so over here
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we have the
5:57
Aqua aqur
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this is the really nice wash down system
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it actually has let me go over here and
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grab this
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comes in a really nice kit
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foreign
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and you may have seen this
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on a couple other YouTube channels but
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awkward makes the one where it has a
6:25
self-sealing spring inside so you would
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attach this to a garden hose or your RV
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water supply as you Campground
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make sure you always attach your filter
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onto it and then you're going to take
6:40
this and it has these threads so when
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you squeeze and twist it locks into
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place it depresses the spring and allows
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water to flow
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a lot of people like these because when
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you go to disconnect it it reseals and
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doesn't allow water to come back out
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so helps you reduce the amount of
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drips and stuff like that you get from
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filling your water tank
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and uh
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so I'm pretty much going to indicate all
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this Flow by either hot or cold and
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obviously this is
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water coming in
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so the water is going to come in the
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valve
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and then we have a 90 that goes down
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and the reason I'm using all these
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fittings is because later we'll show you
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that we've cut out a template
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and on this template we have
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we'll be cutting out a hole for our
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water fill
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we'll be cutting out
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a hole for our mixer valve
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and then we'll be cutting out a hole on
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this back end to thread in our spray
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down hose
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so we need these fittings because this
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piece of board is going to be like this
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and we need a way for the tubes to get
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around
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and make their way to the water tank
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so the water is going to come in
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go through these 90s
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and each one of these 90s is going to be
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based on how you need to move around
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your van in order to uh
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get the water to where it needs to go
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we come down we got 290s and then we
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have this special fitting right here so
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this is a half inch
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fitting going from PEX a to half inch
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and this half inch is actually going to
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we're going to use thread sealer and
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we're going to take it and we're going
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to screw it into
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our fill Port right here
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on the top of our water tank so there's
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a fill Port right here
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as we go as the water comes in and fills
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up our water tank
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to the water
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it's got the water filled up it's
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filling up the tank
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then it's going to come through here
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and it's going to make its way
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down
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into the water pump now we've already
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showed you this was a complicated run
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because we got that shelve that that
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pull out shelf that is making this have
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it be a really weird jog but remember
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the the uh you need to know how many
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feet
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from this point to this point
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uh
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how many feet that is because the water
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pump that we have
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the length
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can only be a Max of six feet
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so you can have a length of six feet and
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that's the maximum length
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um until this water pump can no longer
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function properly
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what that means is it can't pull enough
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suction to get the water moving
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so we get our water pump
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and the water is taking the water from
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the tank and now
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this is getting ready to move it into
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all of other stuff that we need
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so the first quick easy run that we have
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is it's going from the water pump and it
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is going directly into
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our hot water heater
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so the pump is feeding the hot water
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heater
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hot water heater Heats it up and then it
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goes out the hot water side
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not only is it coming out of the water
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pump and going down here but now we need
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to Branch off from this and start
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supplying our faucet
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so over here we're going to have the
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water line come off
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let's kind of go up
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and I'm basically just showing you the
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flow when we get to these fittings it's
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going to be more accurate as far as
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uh where the water is actually going
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through the fittings
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but it's going to come down through the
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water pump into the hot water heater
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then it's also going to come
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so right here for example you would have
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a t
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so it'd be like a Pex a t
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then you would have a 90
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and these aren't represented because
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they're already in the van in that last
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video we did
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then this is going to come up we got
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another 90 right here
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and you can see by drawing this out you
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start to make your parts list so we're
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going to go from this 90 and now we get
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into the fun part
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so these two valves right here are going
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to be the valves that we use for our
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faucet
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so depending on what faucet you have
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this is too big for the table obviously
12:00
so it's not on the table but depending
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on what faucet you have you're going to
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have a hot and cold water line some
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people just want a cold water tap
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others want hot and cold
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so this and the here and here is where
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you're going to
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attach your faucet so this is the faucet
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that goes in your kitchen galley
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so just
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make a note that this these two fittings
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are actually what is supplying hot and
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cold water to this
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all right next the water is going to
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keep making its way
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and we will have one another T
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um
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so this T will actually be a continuous
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line and it'll go into
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this valve
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so now this valve is being supplied uh
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water
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go into our sink we just talked about
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all right next the water is going to
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continue
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uh because we need water to make its way
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to our wash down cold side
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so it's going to come through
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and then we got these fittings here
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because we got to make a jog
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these fittings are actually the water
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tank is located right here in the van so
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the lines are going above the water tank
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then they're coming out the back of the
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water tank going down
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and then they're coming this way
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the flows going here and then it's going
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into
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this first line of the rear wash down
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mixer valve
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so we gotta Branch off to the water here
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in this first place comes branches off
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goes into the sink and then comes
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branches off and goes to the wash down
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and then from here this
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and will actually just make its way into
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this mixer valve right here
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so we'll just draw a line we'll just
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come around
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and that actually goes into the mixer
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valve
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that is how the cold water system works
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on this van
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next up
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we've got the hot water system
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so the hot water system starts with the
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cold water entering the hot water tank
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it's going to come out right here
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and it's going to go into
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the first 90
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and then it's going to travel this way
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and then we're going to Tee It Off and
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this is going to supply the hot water to
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our
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sink like we just talked about
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next we're going to come over
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I'm going to keep going down we need
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water to get over here
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and the hot water is going to make its
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way down
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these fittings
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and this uh this jog right here
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it kind of mimics this one but the
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reason we're doing this one is because
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we already have right here a way that
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we're getting around the tank this part
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is going to take double the amount of
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fittings because we got to go another
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Direction
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so just keep drawing it out and it'll
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all make sense to you
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so we got that and then this is going to
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come over here
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it's going to go into this fitting
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jog over
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and then here is where it's actually
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going to go under
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this piece of uh this will be actually a
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piece of quarter inch plywood
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for the mounting surface
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and these arrows are just to help you
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guys see the uh the water flow
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Direction
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it's going to flow here then it's going
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to go and flow all the way up
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once we make our connection here
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now notice when you get these mixer
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valves the thing is scandivic is the
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company
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it's really low profile
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what's really nice is you can turn it
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off or on
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and then you can twist for cold or hot
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it's a really cool device
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so you get these hoses and
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they're very tiny so you can see much
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smaller than like a normal kitchen
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faucet
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so you're going to have to adapt half
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inch
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depicts a
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on both of these
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and then you're going to have to on the
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output so you got cold in you got hot in
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so let's go ahead and draw we've got our
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hot water coming in here
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all right cold and hot
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and so cold and hot and then this third
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valve is actually going to connect to
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this and then this will be your main
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output that's mixed
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for your spray down shower
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and then there's a final fitting right
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here this is a 3 8
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to half inch
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so we're reducing or we're taking 3 8
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and we're increasing it to half inch and
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that's allowing us to connect it to our
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wash down hose
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all right so we'll do one quick
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pass through this
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water comes in through the top
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it goes and fills our tank up
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then we have
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maximum six feet so the smaller you can
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make this line the closer you can get
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your water pump to your water tank the
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better for your water pump
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to the water pump water pump pressurizes
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it it's going to go the hot water heater
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is going to fill the hot water heater up
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it's going to go over here it's going to
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supply
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pressure to our sink in the kitchen
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galley
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and it's also going to supply cold water
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to the side of our mixer valve
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then it's filling up so the pressure is
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coming from the cold side that's what
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pushes the hot water around so this is
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the same pressure
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so that'll get heated up
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goes in here
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branches off hot water side of our
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kitchen
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goes over here branches off makes it all
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the way back to our hot side
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for our mixer valve for the wash down
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combines and then goes to our spray down
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one
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all right guys that's going to make it
19:19
for that'll be all for this video if you
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guys have any questions feel free to put
19:24
those questions in the comments happy to
19:26
answer that in a future video and we'll
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see you guys in the next video
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foreign
19:34
[Music]
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