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Mixing of city water and fresh water surprise!


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At a campground a couple of hundred miles from home today.  Hooked up to electric service and city water per usual.  Checked my tank reading on the digital read out and they all read zero.

After the first day camping of a 5 day camping trip, last evening I noticed that the overflow drain near the door of my Elite II was dripping steadily!  What!  Can't be.  I'm using city water.

Got up this morning and the drain was still running, making a mess of the area near the door.  First thing I checked was to see if I accidentily attached my hose to the wrong intake.  No.  Everything was as it should be.

Decided to call Oliver service to get their advice.  I was told by the person that there is a valve that allows you to fill your fresh water tank from the city water input!  News to me!  Of couse to check this I would have to tear the bed apart to attempt to find the valve.  Wasn't about to do that unless there was no other way around this at this time.  

I asked service why that valve would open, since we have been camping all of 2021/2022, many times, without this happening.  She couldn't really explain that.

The obvious reason is that the valve either failed or jiggled open due the many miles we have covered.

So I had to find a work around.  

My wife came up with this idea first.  Close the city water off.  Use the fresh water!  Smart wife.

Only thing is the grey water tank is already 13% full, if you can trust the digital readout.  I decided that I would drain fresh water out of the shower from time to time, so that the grey water tank wouldn't be full before the fresh water tank was empty.  In other words, I wanted the fresh water tank empty when I pull out of this campground.

What do you think?  Smart/dumb idea?  If dumb, what would you have done in this situation??

 

Charlie

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Charlie

Hull 734 - 2021 Oliver Elite II

pulled by F-150

Out of Florida

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First, we usually travel with a full fresh tank.  If you have to stop along the way or if for some reason you end up camping with no fresh water hookup it’s nice to have water on board.  Traveling with a partial tank is less weight but increases the sloshing around.

Second, a couple of times a year what you described happens to us.  Overflow from the fresh tank while connected to city water.  I was not aware of a valve that could be set to fill the tank from city water.  I always thought it was a check valve not “checking” from time to time.  My solution has been to leave the city water connected but turn on the water pump and run a little water.  Turn the pump off and the problem is solved.  

This has been happening a couple of times a year for the last 4 or 5 years.  I don’t think much of it since the solution is easy.  It’s also been discussed on this forum before.  Mike

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Texas Hill Country | 2016 Elite II #135 | 2020 Ram 2500 6.7L

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There's another possible cause. There's a check valve in the pump that prevents city water from backfilling into the fresh water holding tank. Pretty common failure point in all RVs.

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Stephanie and Dudley from CT.  2022 LE2, Hull #1150: Eggcelsior.

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21 minutes ago, Citrus breeze said:

I was told by the person that there is a valve that allows you to fill your fresh water tank from the city water input!

Yes this is it, at around 4:40 time in this video

 

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2023 Elite II, Hull# 1386, Lithium Platinum Package (640AH, 400W Solar, 3000W Xantrex Inverter)
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Since the issue just started on your recent trip, unless you’ve recently changed valve positions to winterize or boondock, it’s doubtful that it’s a valve under the bed that suddenly changed position on its own.  It’s more likely that the internal check valve in the water pump is faulty.   Sometimes using the pump a bit will clear possible debris from the check valve and may fix the issue.   But otherwise the pump may need replaced.    And there is a fresh water tank drain valve that’s accessible from under the bed if you want to drain the fresh tank before hitting the road again. 

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3 hours ago, Citrus breeze said:

I decided that I would drain fresh water out of the shower from time to time, so that the grey water tank wouldn't be full before the fresh water tank was empty.

Please forgive me if this is a dumb question, but how do you "drain fresh water out of the shower from time to time" without that water draining into the gray tank?

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Hull #1291

Central Idaho

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2 minutes ago, Rivernerd said:

Please forgive me if this is a dumb question, but how do you "drain fresh water out of the shower from time to time" without that water draining into the gray tank?

I think he means using the pump and the outside shower as a way to get rid of fresh water without it draining into the gray tank.  

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4 hours ago, Steph and Dud B said:

There's another possible cause. There's a check valve in the pump that prevents city water from backfilling into the fresh water holding tank. Pretty common failure point in all RVs.

Yep.  That’s what I was referring to in my post above.  For me, turning the pump on, running a little water, then turning it off resets it.

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Texas Hill Country | 2016 Elite II #135 | 2020 Ram 2500 6.7L

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Thanks for giving my surprise problem some of your time.  In answering your question of how I drain some of the water from the freshwater tank, this is what I do.  I'm refering to the "outside shower", not the inside shower.  No question is a dumb question!!

The check valve inside the pump is sounds like the most likely problem.  If running the pump for a minute or two, then might reset that valve.  Then that is something I will have to try.  Thanks.  Of course, I wil check to see if for some mysterious reason, the control valve that allows filling the freshwater tank from the city water imput has opened.  All though, that doesn't seem likely.

 

Thanks everyone!

 

Charlie

Hull 734

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Charlie

Hull 734 - 2021 Oliver Elite II

pulled by F-150

Out of Florida

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7 hours ago, Rivernerd said:

but how do you "drain fresh water out of the shower from time to time" without that water draining into the gray tank?

Another way is to turn on your pump and open the shower valve, and spray the shower stream out the bathroom window, or into the toilet.  

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