Self Filling Water tank

[Roger Watts]

My water tank, on my 06 TDK fills itself any time I'm hooked to city water. It usually takes 3 days for this to happen. I know others have been having the same problem. Anybody have any idea which valve it is getting through. Me thinks, it is the valve that fills the tank you twist open to fill from city water hook up. These look like ball valves, there usually pretty trouble free. Any Ideas ??

[Roger Watts]

My water tank, on my 06 TDK fills itself any time I'm hooked to city water. It usually takes 3 days for this to happen. I know others have been having the same problem. Anybody have any idea which valve it is getting through. Me thinks, it is the valve that fills the tank you twist open to fill from city water hook up. These look like ball valves, there usually pretty trouble free. Any Ideas ??

[Curtis Brown]

Roger,

In the utility area of the basement by the water pump you should find several interconnected lengths of flexible clear plastic hose. One of the hoses should be unterminated for use in winterizing your trailer. On these hoses there should be three valves. Normally two of the valves should be closed. One of those being the valve going to the unterminated hose that you would use to winterize the trailer. The other being the valve that connects the line to the water tank to the city water line to fill the water tank from the city water. The valve that should normally be open controls flow from the water tank. I suspect that the water tank fill valve is not completely closed.

Below (I hope) is a schematic drawing of the cold water lines in the utility area

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[Curtis Brown]

Dang, that drawing came across large.

[KramalotInn]

Roger,

I had the same problem on my '08 TKE. It turned out the water pump was allowing water to flow backwards through it when I was hooked up to city water. I determined it was the pump by closing the valve that allows water to flow out of the fresh water tank, waited about an hour then reopened the valve. The valve "popped"� as it relieved "built up"� pressure. This should not happen under normal circumstances. If this occurs, you can temporarily prevent the fresh water tank from filling by closing this valve, until the pump can be replaced. Of course, with the valve closed you cannot use your pump because it cannot draw water from the tank.

Rick

[Workshop]

KramalotInn had the same thought I did. My owners manual indicates the pump is used as the check valve between the city and tank use. Here is a LINK to an article about this problem.

[ChiefJohn]

Thanks Curtis -- wouldn't it be helpful if we had similar diagrams in our users manuals for all the water valves. Definitely easier to read/understand than the pictures. Chris, thanks for the informative link -- now I know where you get all your smarts!

[Workshop]

Roger,

Have you checked your city input pressure? Wonder if the pressure could be high enough to force a weak check valve open enough to cause the leakage past the valve. Believe Rick's suggestion of closing the valve between the tank and pump would give you a temperory fix.

Edited to correct that Rich, KramalotInn, that made the suggestion.

Chief, you met my DW?

[Workshop]

My thought was off. A high city input pressure should be pushing the check valve against its seat. Shurflo does not show the internal check valve in its parts listing, so don't know what it looks like. In a basic model pump, Shurflow, the check valve is more like a circular disk that pushes against a spring. Our model don't know.

[Jctbob]

After 16 months of normal use, our fresh water tank on our 2007 RSO30 suddenly started filling itself as well. Irony is It started a few days after visiting with Vaughn Peterson at the Valley RV show where he told me there is a way to fill your holding tank while connected to city water. I never touched a valve. I got it to stop by shutting another valve which I thought was going to the holding tank. Today a found a wet basement. Turns out water backed up into the winterizing hose which apparently is not a pressure hose and it blew up like a balloon & developed a small pin hole which saturated the basement. Fun. Fun. Dont make this mistake. I deduced the same thing as Rick - back flow through the water pump. High Water pressure is not an issue as I have our set at 35#. Dont think I want to try shutting off any more valves? Guess I will just keep wasting water by emptying tank every few days until I get back to the dealer for warranty work.

Bob Taylor

[ruppr]

Roger/Bob
Can't speak for sure on your problems but I think your headed in the right direction. The "city water/tank fill" valve started leaking (bypassing) while in the city water position, causing my fresh water tank to fill and run over. (Would take about three days to do it, first time I came home the fresh water tank was running all over the ground)

Ordered a new valve from Lonnie Fox @ www.Lichtsinn.com (about 8-9 dollars with shipping as I remember, no more problems. Took about 5 minutes to get the old one out, and about 40 minutes to put the new one in.

Best,

[Workshop]

Jctbob, sorry to hear about your water leak. When I'm, trying to dry an area quickly, will run fans in the area thats wet/damp. Air movement does wonders. If you are able to, try running a fan into the compartment/basement and let it run longer than when you think it feels dry.

ShurFlo has an In Line CHECK VALVE that goes forward of the pump. Have not had this problem, but after learning that the pump also acts as a check valve against City pressure will add one to the pumps output line in the future.

Can't say if a valve would cause a back flow problem. Would be one of those things you would have to touch to troubleshoot. I deal with ball valve, of better quality, if plumbing and irrigation and haven't had to replace one for leaking, gate valves are another story. Looked at mine today and its a plastic unit and so far no problems. If you think there is a problem, remove pressure and open and close the valve several times. Notice where it stops and back it off just a bit, leave it there and see if the problem still exist. Reasoning...the way some things are made today, find that when they have been sitting for a long time, that they may develop a memory and conform to each other. By changing the position of the valve, it might seat it in a different place. Food for thought.