Fresh water tank fill design

[jwmaustin]

So when I am filling the FW tank its usually in the morning when beginning a day. Due to the design setup on my 2016 WGO Ellipse, when I have the city water valve set to “fill”, fresh water from the sink faucets doent flow well and the DW can’t effectively cook breakfast till I’m done. Ive been told the design allows for easy filling and easy sanitizing.

Having the ability to easily sanitize occasionaly is not a good tradeoff for having to wait on cooking or cleaning while I fill the tank every few days. Do others have this problem? Why wouldn’t having the fill valve directly fill the tank from city water and just putting your bleach to sanitize your tank in your water filter not be better?

[danhannah]

Can you turn on the fill valve very slightly, and reserve most of the city water for the sinks?

Can you run the electric water pump while filling, to give more pressure to the sinks?

These tricks work on my rig.

[jwmaustin]

Originally Posted by danhannah

Can you turn on the fill valve very slightly, and reserve most of the city water for the sinks?

Can you run the electric water pump while filling, to give more pressure to the sinks?

These tricks work on my rig.

I never thought of turning on slightly that might help but not totally solid. Thanks

As far as running the pump, yes but it seems to run continuously when you have the pump switch on and the fill valve is turned to fill. And it helps a little with pressure so I only do it briefly because running continuous seems like a bad practice.

[OLYLEN]

So fill the night before. Overnight is not going to make any difference to the tank.

LEN

[danhannah]

I agree about running a water pump continuously. I was saying your wife could turn it on as needed, assuming there is a switch near the kitchen.

But what works best is a slow fill, I would guess.

[jwmaustin]

Thanks for some good ideas and thoughts. I can try some of those in the near term.

What I’m still left with is “why design it this way?” My plan is going to be to just reroute the water line on the fill valve to have it simply put water directly into the tank. That seems to solve all of the problems for little cost. I was just wondering what advantage the current approach has - what will I lose by doing that. From the best feedback so far it seems like it iis all positive to do that...I solve my problems, it costs me a few feet of pex and some fittings and there’s nothing lost from the original design.

[530ktm]

Originally Posted by jwmaustin

So when I am filling the FW tank its usually in the morning when beginning a day. Due to the design setup on my 2016 WGO Ellipse, when I have the city water valve set to “fill”, fresh water from the sink faucets doent flow well and the DW can’t effectively cook breakfast till I’m done. Ive been told the design allows for easy filling and easy sanitizing.

Having the ability to easily sanitize occasionaly is not a good tradeoff for having to wait on cooking or cleaning while I fill the tank every few days. Do others have this problem? Why wouldn’t having the fill valve directly fill the tank from city water and just putting your bleach to sanitize your tank in your water filter not be better?

Do you not have the ability to fill your water tank from a gravity fed fill tube? If not, then the other suggestions seem like an easier approach to solving this situation. Fill the night before or turn on the water pump so she can do whatever she needs. Sure seems easier than re plumbing the lines.

[affreeman]

The way my Winnebago is plumbed is:

- The Normal/Tank Fill valve controls the destination of the water; either the house faucets or the tank

- The other, sort of hidden valve controls the source of the water; either the city water fill or the pump via the winterizing tube.

Having it set up this way means that while boondocking I can add water the the fresh tank using the winterizing tube to pump from a 6-gallon container I carry for this purpose.

But, as you noted, with the valve set to Tank Fill, if you turn on the water pump it ends up pumping water from the fresh tank back into the fresh tank.

[Ljwt330]

Originally Posted by jwmaustin

Thanks for some good ideas and thoughts. I can try some of those in the near term.

What I’m still left with is “why design it this way?” My plan is going to be to just reroute the water line on the fill valve to have it simply put water directly into the tank. That seems to solve all of the problems for little cost. I was just wondering what advantage the current approach has - what will I lose by doing that. From the best feedback so far it seems like it iis all positive to do that...I solve my problems, it costs me a few feet of pex and some fittings and there’s nothing lost from the original design.

This is my understanding of your posts. Your issue is really with the fact there is only one inlet for water to the MH and the inlet is controlled by a single valve. The valve is an "either/or" selection--water either goes directly to the entire system for immediate use (city water), or it goes directly into the fresh water tank (tank fill.)

Your system is already plumbed directly to the fresh water tank--when the valve is turned to "fill tank." There is no need to reroute any plumbing lines. What you really want is to have both city water pressure and tank fill operating at the same time. There are two ways to do this. First, you get a different valve.This will be a three position valve--city water, tank fill, and both. When on "both" the pressurized water from the spigot will be flowing through the entire system, to the faucets, and filling the tank. Downside is you have to monitor the tank fill very carefully to avoid overfill.

The second way is to install another water inlet connection which is plumbed directly to the fresh water tank. This would require moving the fill line from the original valve to the new inlet, installing a check valve, and plugging the outlet from the original valve in case it is accidentally turned to "tank fill." Downside would be you'd need two hoses from the spigot--one to the city water inlet and the other to the new tank fill inlet.


So, "why is it designed this way?" My best guess is because of ease of use and the fact that most users do not need to use the faucets for the relatively short time needed to fill the tank. In most cases, if one has access to city water, there is no need to use the fresh water tank. If no access to city water, most users suspend use while refilling the tank as they are likely not at a campsite. From your posts, it sounds like you are at a site that has access to city water, but not at all times (not a continuous hook up.) That doesn't seem to be too common of a situation, IMO, but it means you need to be using your water system as if you are boon docking, which means, unless you have a gravity fill tank access, you need to suspend use of faucets while refilling the fresh tank. Gravity fill access would allow use of the water pump while filling and would not recycle the water back into the fresh tank like your one valve system would.

[sandpsycho]

Am I missing something, If you have water right there and hooked up to your rig why not use the city water? I can only think of one reason to do what your doing but i wait for an answer.

[jwmaustin]

Originally Posted by 530ktm

Do you not have the ability to fill your water tank from a gravity fed fill tube? If not, then the other suggestions seem like an easier approach to solving this situation. Fill the night before or turn on the water pump so she can do whatever she needs. Sure seems easier than re plumbing the lines.

No, unfortunately the FW tank has a plug (not a fill port like they used to have) that can be used but is in a difficult location.

The replumbing will be easy. About 9 feet of pex, an adapter and a couple elbows. It will take me longer just going to the hardware than the work. I’ve held off because I was waiting to see if anyone can explain why it is the way it is.

[jwmaustin]

Originally Posted by sandpsycho

Am I missing something, If you have water right there and hooked up to your rig why not use the city water? I can only think of one reason to do what your doing but i wait for an answer.

Yes, we find the city water to often be too low pressure. Especially at the end of some rows of campsites or using low flow faucets. We therefore run from the FW tank when more pressure is needed. In that case a navy shower really can be quick.

We also find on a few occasions where water quality is better at some sites and we fill the tank for use at poor quality sites. That’s not often but does occur.

We frequently are at a full hookup site, then a limited site, then full hookup again. We always “travel full” due to that and the Walmart/Cracker Barrel overnights.

Doing the above requires frequent tank fills.

[jwmaustin]

Originally Posted by Ljwt330

This is my understanding of your posts. Your issue is really with the fact there is only one inlet for water to the MH and the inlet is controlled by a single valve. The valve is an "either/or" selection--water either goes directly to the entire system for immediate use (city water), or it goes directly into the fresh water tank (tank fill.)

Your system is already plumbed directly to the fresh water tank--when the valve is turned to "fill tank." There is no need to reroute any plumbing lines. What you really want is to have both city water pressure and tank fill operating at the same time. There are two ways to do this. First, you get a different valve.This will be a three position valve--city water, tank fill, and both. When on "both" the pressurized water from the spigot will be flowing through the entire system, to the faucets, and filling the tank. Downside is you have to monitor the tank fill very carefully to avoid overfill.

The second way is to install another water inlet connection which is plumbed directly to the fresh water tank. This would require moving the fill line from the original valve to the new inlet, installing a check valve, and plugging the outlet from the original valve in case it is accidentally turned to "tank fill." Downside would be you'd need two hoses from the spigot--one to the city water inlet and the other to the new tank fill inlet.


So, "why is it designed this way?" My best guess is because of ease of use and the fact that most users do not need to use the faucets for the relatively short time needed to fill the tank. In most cases, if one has access to city water, there is no need to use the fresh water tank. If no access to city water, most users suspend use while refilling the tank as they are likely not at a campsite. From your posts, it sounds like you are at a site that has access to city water, but not at all times (not a continuous hook up.) That doesn't seem to be too common of a situation, IMO, but it means you need to be using your water system as if you are boon docking, which means, unless you have a gravity fill tank access, you need to suspend use of faucets while refilling the fresh tank. Gravity fill access would allow use of the water pump while filling and would not recycle the water back into the fresh tank like your one valve system would.

It takes me about 30 to 45 mins to fill the FW tank when empty.

Yes we are in agreement on the options to change this. If I summarize it looks like maybe we move around more than some do and we therefore don’t use the extra tank to replenish the FW. If that is the main advantage of the current design that’s an easy choice for me.

If more people use an auxiliary tank vs filling while using inside then WGO has the right design.

[Unicorn Driver]

What size is yout tank?

My 82 gallon tank plus 10 gallon water heater takes about 15-20 minutes to fill.