Weird Fresh tank issues

MagnoliaTom

Well-known member
Got home from camping today. Checked my tank levels because I didn't want to hold up the line at the dump station when we left the park. Fresh water tank read 1/3 full. Hmmmm. It's only had water put in it at the PDI and I drained it all out (so I thought since sensor was always on "E". )

So I go to open drain valve and maybe 5 drops of water come out. I turn on the water pump and then open a faucet and out pours water. If nothing is coming out of the drain valve, how is the tank suddenly showing 1/3?

Confused?!!!

Any thoughts?
 

danemayer

Well-known member
Tom,

If I'm understanding, you had the fresh tank drain valve open with a few drops draining. The with the 4-way Anderson valve set on NORMAL, you turned on the pump and open a faucet, and water came out the faucet. I assume you were not hooked up to city water at the time. So the only source of water coming to the faucet would have been from the pump, getting water out of the fresh tank. The gauge reads 1/3 although you had previously drained the fresh tank.

That leaves several questions:

1) Is the gauge accurate. Sadly it probably is not. It may have 1/3 tank. Or perhaps not.
2) If you previously drained the fresh tank, and now there's enough water to supply the pump, where did the water come from? As suggested, it might be flowing backward through the check valves. There's a drawing explaining this on page 11 of the Water Systems Guide. Here's a link. Another possibility is that you didn't successfully drain all the water.
3) If there's water in the tank, why didn't it drain, either before, or now? Possibly it didn't all drain out because either the drain valve/fitting clogged or the vent is blocked. Or maybe the rig wasn't level when you drained it (or the trailer is level but the tank isn't level).

Some experimentation will probably be needed to pin down what's happening.
 
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