filling fresh water tank

BarbaraG · 03-16-2014, 11:36 AM

I'm getting ready to fill my fresh water tank for the first time. It's currently empty. Found a thread that describes how to sanitize the tank (thank you very much) by pouring bleach into the hose with a funnel, then hooking up the hose and putting water in the tank. I have two related questions:

When I'm sanitizing the tank, how much water should I put in? And...

How do I know how much water I've put in, and specifically, how do I know when it's full?

Thanks,

Barbara
2014 FR3 30DS

Ford Idaho · 03-16-2014, 11:43 AM

I would fill the tank full or over just to flush out the over fill line.

I would also cap the overfill with a screened cap of some type to keep mud dauber and the like out.

rattleNsmoke · 03-16-2014, 12:36 PM

There should be an indicator in a gauge cluster inside the trailer? You'll also be able to hear it get close to full because the tone sort of changes as the water level nears full. When you fill, go slowly so the air has a chance to purge out and it'll be easier to determine when your getting close.

BarbaraG · 03-16-2014, 01:28 PM

Thanks, much. Is there a vent pipe or something for the air to escape or do I need to leave taps open or something?

B

Ford Idaho · 03-16-2014, 01:44 PM

There may be an overfill drain tube that would vent the air but there should be no problem if you just crack open a tap.

Just be sure to keep an eye on the gray tank as that water will fill it.

BarbaraG · 03-16-2014, 03:27 PM

Okay, I have no idea what the heck just happened.

Background: when I bought my FR3 in September, it had ~1/4 tank of fresh water (based on what the monitor read). I have never used it as I have always been in full-hookup parks. At some point I decided that water was probably getting murky, so I unhooked the city water, turned on the water pump and opened the faucets until they ran essentially dry. By the way, after that, the monitor read full--big surprise, these monitors are almost useless as far as I can tell.

So, I just went out and hooked up the city water to the water tank and turned on the faucet. I could hear it filling. I stood there less than 2 minutes (no way it could have filled 50 gallons in that time) when I started hearing water pouring out somewhere. Huh? So, I turned the water off and walked around the RV. On the right side, I saw water pouring out of a low-point drain onto the ground. There are three little hangy down pipes down there. Two seem to have white caps on them. The one that was draining did not. So does that mean my fresh water tank drain was open? If so, how the heck did it get that way since I didn't even know where these drains were before just now looking.

By the way, the monitor stills reads full...

Any ideas?

Barbara
2014 FR3 30DS

Ford Idaho · 03-16-2014, 04:00 PM

The fresh tank has an overfill vent/drain.
As I understand this will also cause water to siphon out if the tank is full or nearly.

rattleNsmoke · 03-16-2014, 05:09 PM

The fresh water drain will have some sort of 'twist' handle on the pipe for easy draining. It should look different than the low point drains.

Bobb36 · 03-16-2014, 07:32 PM

The two tubes with caps are the fresh water tank drain and the low point drain, the other tube which is open all the time is the fresh water vent/overflow tube that lets you know when the tank is full when your filling it.

BarbaraG · 03-16-2014, 11:16 PM

Thanks to all for the suggestions. What I still can' figure out is why water would be coming out of the overflow tube when I thought I had emptied the fresh water tank previously. Maybe I was trying to fill it too fast.

B

cucamelsmd15 · 03-17-2014, 07:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BarbaraG

Thanks to all for the suggestions. What I still can' figure out is why water would be coming out of the overflow tube when I thought I had emptied the fresh water tank previously. Maybe I was trying to fill it too fast.

B

I'll take "bad check valve for $5 Alex". Seen this happen before, the check valve on the city inlet is bad, and it slowly trickle fills the fresh tank.

FWIW, the only drains are the fresh water and low point drains that are together underneath. The screened tube is the overflow.

The panel where the water pump and valves are located comes out with 4 Phillips screw's. Take it out and you can visually see the fresh tank and how full/empty it is. I'd wager its probably full based on what you described.

BarbaraG · 03-17-2014, 07:15 AM

Okay, that makes sense because the only reasonable explanation for this behavior is that the tank is full; yet I didn't (knowingly) fill it. I'll check out behind the panel.

Thank you.

Barbara

drivmsafe · 03-19-2014, 01:52 PM

Ok. The fresh water tank can be confusing. First things first. Open the compartment labeled "low point drain". Remove the 4 screws holding the black cover. It's easy to remove. Once removed you can see the fresh water tank and the low point drains. These are NOT the fresh water drains. Those you can see by looking under the coach to the rear of this compartment. There are 2 capped lines. Those are the drains. remove the caps and you can drain the tank. The 1 not capped is some type of vent. Now, back to the low point compartment. FR knows that there is a problem with the overflow line. I'm not sure if they've corrected this problem on newer units. Their fix is to add a "p trap" to the overflow line to stop the water from siphoning out. My wife noticed this when we were bringing the FR3 home. Every time I made a left turn or went around a left hand curve, water spilled out. I had another FR3 owner tell me that by the time he got to his camp area, his fresh water was almost empty. He filled it when he left home. I took ours to the dealer, they installed the trap and I've not had any problem since.
I hope this helps...

cucamelsmd15 · 03-19-2014, 02:06 PM

Excellent news on the vent siphoning. I've also experienced it, and I'll contact my dealer. Now if we could just convince them to fix the side outlets for pump and drain, we would be set.

BarbaraG · 03-20-2014, 08:07 AM

Thanks, Drivmsafe... that does help, thought I'm still uncertain as to what happened. I still think I may have a bad 'check valve' as cucamelsmd15 suggested. This is because I seem to have had water in the tank when I thought it was empty. However, it seems I need to investigate the whole plumbing situation and figure out if I need one of those P traps. Here's the chronology:

Had about 1/4 tank fresh water which I emptied by opening the faucets since I didn't know where the drain was and didn't want to dump a bunch of water on the campsite.

A couple months later (just the other day), I decided to fill the fresh water tank. Hooked up the hose, turned on the faucet for a couple of minutes at most. Heard water pouring out.

Turned off the faucet. Saw the water coming out of the uncapped drain that is next to the two capped drains. It poured out in a vigorous stream for a couple of minutes. In fact, I could swear that more came out than I would have thought I put in.

Four days ago, I moved the RV to the repair facility and have been living off the water in the fresh tank (though not drinking it as I still haven't sanitized the tank). I still have water, though it's reading down to a single little red light.

So, the mystery continues. I think I might have to have a guy look at the whole thing and see what's going on. In the meantime, these suggestions really help.

Barbara

PhotoMaster · 03-29-2014, 01:24 PM

I have the 30DS and was wondering if anyone has a diagram for the water lines?? Getting ready for the new season and want to sanitize the water system. I saw that when the coach was winterized, the anode rod was removed. I put it in hand tight and will go back out to tighten it when the rain here lets up. I'm figuring out the plumbing and plan on removing the cover over the low point drains. Is there a reason to put it back?? What is the easiest way to put in the bleach solution for sanitizing??

B D HOWie · 03-29-2014, 02:25 PM

I connect the fill hose to the coach FW tank connection. Then I pour straight bleach into the hose and connect to a drinking water supply and fill the tank. I think it only takes one or two ounces of bleach per fifteen gallons of capacity. Let set twelve to twenty four hours and flush thoroughly. Mixing a little baking soda and water in a measuring cup and pour into hose and then fill tank will help to get the bleach smell out more quickly. Paul

PhotoMaster · 03-29-2014, 03:13 PM

1/4 cup per 15 gallons is recommended so I put 1 cup of bleach in a container with water, hooked up a funnel to my water thief and tried putting it in. It was no go because the water line goes up and over the tank, so gravity wont work. I took one of my white water hoses and connected it to the fill port, hooked the water thief and funnel to the hose. poured the water/bleach mix into the funnel and let gravity take it into the hose. Then as B_D_HOWie said, I filled the water tank through the hose. (I wish I had seen his post first. I could have saved a bundle of time figuring it out) Ran it through the lines and now I'm letting it sit. Tomorrow I will drain the tank, and flush the system with fresh water. Now I know better for the next time!

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