Filling the Fresh Water Tank????

[wingfoot]

08' 3400RE 75 gallon fresh water tank.
We don't use our fresh water tank very often but on our current trip we had to fill the fresh water tank. I extremely dislike the system for filling the tank. All previous 5R's have had a valve that allows you to fill fresh water tank while hooked up to shore water, simply turn a valve and walla the fresh water tank fills...
Here is the problem...After attempting to fill the tank, letting it "burp" twice, filling until it begins to back flow through the fill port, I assumed it was full. I determined this by the amount of time this took and the back flow from the fill port while filling. My owner's manual states that I have 75 gallon capacity. After six days of trying to be ultra conservative with usage we got nothing but "air" from our tanks. This was using only the kitchen, bathroom lavatory, and toilet..no showers were used...Something is wrong, no way have we used 70 gallons of water with only two adults using water! My guess is that the pump is not accessing all the water in our tank. When we are about to leave, I open the fresh water drain valve and get an insurmountable amount of water drain???
Anybody got any ideas?

BTW, my gauge always shows "Full" even when empty. Typical!!!

 

[jnbhobe]

sounds like water in the vent tube

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[JohnDar]

08' 3400RE 75 gallon fresh water tank.
We don't use our fresh water tank very often but on our current trip we had to fill the fresh water tank. I extremely dislike the system for filling the tank. All previous 5R's have had a valve that allows you to fill fresh water tank while hooked up to shore water, simply turn a valve and walla the fresh water tank fills...
Here is the problem...After attempting to fill the tank, letting it "burp" twice, filling until it begins to back flow through the fill port, I assumed it was full. I determined this by the amount of time this took and the back flow from the fill port while filling. My owner's manual states that I have 75 gallon capacity. After six days of trying to be ultra conservative with usage we got nothing but "air" from our tanks. This was using only the kitchen, bathroom lavatory, and toilet..no showers were used...Something is wrong, no way have we used 70 gallons of water with only two adults using water! My guess is that the pump is not accessing all the water in our tank. When we are about to leave, I open the fresh water drain valve and get an insurmountable amount of water drain???
Anybody got any ideas?

BTW, my gauge always shows "Full" even when empty. Typical!!!

Are you sure you actually filled the tank before it "burped?" If there's a droop or kink in the fill hose to the tank, it will spit back out the inlet well before the tank gets filled. If you can determine the gpm of your fill supply, you can then time how long it takes before the tank "burps" like it's full. If you're getting 5 gpm out of the hose, then it should take 15 minutes to fill the 75 gallon tank.

The other possibility is that the line from the tank to the pump has come loose and the pump is pulling air and not keeping prime. Looking back at your post, this may be the more likely problem. The pump draws water from the bottom of the tank, so unless the line is compromised somehow, it should draw most of the water in the tank before it's done.

 

[danemayer]

When we are about to leave, I open the fresh water drain valve and get an insurmountable amount of water drain???

Hi wingfoot,

I'm not sure whether you mean you got almost no water, or a lot of water.

The drain hose is typically teed into the feed line, so any water that comes out the drain should be available to the pump. If you had a lot of water in the tank and were getting air, you may have an air leak on the suction side of the pump. Often this is because the antifreeze valve has been partially opened, allowing the pump to suck in air.

If you mean you had no water come out the drain, and you couldn't completely fill the fresh tank using the gravity fill, as Jon suggested, you may have water in the vent line. If you put a short section of hose against the vent opening and blow, you should be able to clear any water. A sag in the fill hose can also cause this problem. If you open the basement wall behind the UDC, you can gently pull on the hose to try to remove any sag. Just don't pull too hard.

 

[Lynn1130]

Once you solve this problem I recommend this little item to answer the question about how much water is going to the tank.

http://www.amazon.com/P3-P0550-Wate...F8&qid=1401569894&sr=8-4&keywords=water+meter

 

[jnbhobe]

another easy way is to cut off a washing machine hose and use it to fill the tank

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[JohnDar]

I have one of these in my water system. There is no reset for it, but it's simple enough to note the gallons that flow over a given time. It's not cheap, but it's dependable and doesn't need batteries.

 

[cookie]

When we had a 2008, 3400RL I would have to take a short piece of hose held tight against the vent and blow back into the tank.
Seems there was a dip in the vent hose that filled with water and would not allow complete filling of the tank.
Blowing the water out did the trick.

Peace
Dave

 

[priorguy]

I think everyone missed the OPs point that the low point drain released plenty of water yet the pump was sucking air. The water was in the tank but the pump wasn't pumping it out. Any solutions for this situation.


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[danemayer]

I think everyone missed the OPs point that the low point drain released plenty of water yet the pump was sucking air. The water was in the tank but the pump wasn't pumping it out. Any solutions for this situation.


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See posts #3 and 4.

 

[priorguy]

The other possibility is that the line from the tank to the pump has come loose and the pump is pulling air and not keeping prime. Looking back at your post, this may be the more likely problem. The pump draws water from the bottom of the tank, so unless the line is compromised somehow, it should draw most of the water in the tank before it's done.

Thanks for pointing it out Dan. I like this part of post #3.



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[wingfoot]

Thanks guys..all good ideas.
To expound on my original post. I do use a short section of hose (3' approx) to fill my tank while first blowing into the fill port to remove any water via sag. John wrote that "I could be pulling air at the pump". My take on this is that if that was happening I should get air when turning on any of the faucets or at least erratic flow..Not happening. When we do supposedly run out of water, I will partially refill the tank using only four of five empty one gallon milk jugs..bingo pump starts pulling water..Someone else wrote "when I drain fresh tank prior to leaving, do I get a little or a lot of water draining"? The answer is YES..lots.
I will get a gauge to measure input and it does take about fifteen to twenty minutes to fill my tank.

Thanks again for all the responses.

Larry