Fresh water "Auto Fill" function?

[tjZ06]

Hey all, I wanted to confirm the proper use of the "Auto Fill" function on the fresh water tank on my '17 DSDP.

If I understand correctly, when I have water hooked up to the coach I leave the handle out in the wet-bay to the normal position (not "up" to fill tank), then I flip the Auto Fill button on the control panel up front inside the RV.

At this point the RV will control flow into the fresh water tank, allowing it to fill but not allowing it to over-fill or cause any issues.

Is that correct?

That also brings up a related, perhaps stupid question. When manually filling (putting the lever into the up position) where does the fresh water tank vent? In other words, where will it start spilling out when 100% full. On my previous trailers and RV there was a gravity fill cap that you opened to vent the system when filling off the city water connection. When the tank was full it'd spill water from the gravity fill cap.

I don't want to damage my RV by over-filling if there is not a sufficiently big vent to allow water to flow out once the tank is full. I suppose that is why it has the auto fill system in the first place?

-TJ

[Bill Hunt]

Your fresh water tank should have an overflow outlet. It's easier for me to watch that and as soon as it starts to flow out shut off the fill handle. That's the way my 05 Kountry Star was.
I don't know about my 17 Ventanna LE 4037, it's in building 7 right now😊😊. Supposed to be out Monday👍

[unw1red]

I believe I just saw your new coach during the factory tour today. Did you have friends taking pictures for you?

[JMonroe]

As our city water supply has a low pressure issue we are currently 100% dependant on the holding tank and on-board pump. I have the lever set on auto fill and the system automatically keeps the holding tank full.

I "manually" filled the tank once and I think it shut it's self off once the level hit 100%. It's been a while so I won't swear to it.

[PDR John]

Every fresh tank has a vent, it's on the passenger side behind the pegboard. It is 1 1/2" vent hose.

When you're on autofill it doesn't overfill, nor do you have to watch and shut it off, that is the automatic part.

[Bill Hunt]

Unw1red,
Yes, that was our coach. Those are some fellow Hoots that are there for some service on their coach and surprised us with photos.
We're getting antsy, as soon as we pick it up at Midway we're heading west to meet friends and eventually get to Pueblo for International Rally, Albq. Baloon fiesta, Hoots rally, Kountry Klub region 5 rally in FL and finally back home in Nov.

Mow the yard and go again.😊

[tjZ06]

TTT - the auto-fill seems to work okay, but a few observations.

• It only seems to fill the fresh tank to 2/3rds, I've never seen it go to full
• If the tank is low, or you have auto-fill on while taking a long shower or something that uses a lot of water you'll get a "time-out" error and have to reset the auto-fill

It's still a nice feature, but I wish it actually filled the tank 100%. I'm going to go ahead and manually fill it this weekend before I take off and see if I can actually get a "F" on the monitor.

-TJ

[Mr_D]

Originally Posted by tjZ06

TTT - the auto-fill seems to work okay, but a few observations.

• It only seems to fill the fresh tank to 2/3rds, I've never seen it go to full
• If the tank is low, or you have auto-fill on while taking a long shower or something that uses a lot of water you'll get a "time-out" error and have to reset the auto-fill

It's still a nice feature, but I wish it actually filled the tank 100%. I'm going to go ahead and manually fill it this weekend before I take off and see if I can actually get a "F" on the monitor.

-TJ

Completely different rig and setup but ours will only go to 95% full, that's the maximum setting on the SilverLeaf setup.

[CentILRVer]

Originally Posted by tjZ06

TTT - the auto-fill seems to work okay, but a few observations.

• It only seems to fill the fresh tank to 2/3rds, I've never seen it go to full
• If the tank is low, or you have auto-fill on while taking a long shower or something that uses a lot of water you'll get a "time-out" error and have to reset the auto-fill

It's still a nice feature, but I wish it actually filled the tank 100%. I'm going to go ahead and manually fill it this weekend before I take off and see if I can actually get a "F" on the monitor.

-TJ

If your fresh tank is nearly empty the auto feature will not be able to fill it completely before the timeout feature kicks in. My guess is that they have built-in this feature so that in case of a malfunction it does not stay on indefinitely and flood everything in sight.

Here is all that you need to do. When you first get to the campground and are setting up, turn the lever to manual fill. Let the freshwater tank completely fill. Or at least to the point where it is almost full. At this point turn the lever back to the normal position of the auto fill. Go inside and push the button to activate the auto fill feature. The auto fill feature will take over from this point forward and your tank will be maintained at approximately 100%. And really, if you think about it, what difference does it make if it maintains the tank at 85% or 100%? The bottom line is that there will be plenty of water and the freshwater tank and you do not have to worry about replenishing it.

If you are one who leaves your gray tank open while you are hooked up, you will find that there will be no more need to visit the wet bay except to empty the black tank. We love the auto fill feature. 👍

Hope this helps.


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[99phantoms]

When you're manually filling the water tank, does it stop on its own, or do you have to monitor the tank & turn off the water yourself?

[CentILRVer]

On manual mode you have to either turn off the water or turn the lever in the horizontal position or the "auto-fill" setting.


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[tjZ06]

Originally Posted by CentILRVer

If your fresh tank is nearly empty the auto feature will not be able to fill it completely before the timeout feature kicks in. My guess is that they have built-in this feature so that in case of a malfunction it does not stay on indefinitely and flood everything in sight.

Here is all that you need to do. When you first get to the campground and are setting up, turn the lever to manual fill. Let the freshwater tank completely fill. Or at least to the point where it is almost full. At this point turn the lever back to the normal position of the auto fill. Go inside and push the button to activate the auto fill feature. The auto fill feature will take over from this point forward and your tank will be maintained at approximately 100%. And really, if you think about it, what difference does it make if it maintains the tank at 85% or 100%? The bottom line is that there will be plenty of water and the freshwater tank and you do not have to worry about replenishing it.

If you are one who leaves your gray tank open while you are hooked up, you will find that there will be no more need to visit the wet bay except to empty the black tank. We love the auto fill feature. 👍

Hope this helps.


Sent from my iPhone using iRV2 - RV Forum

Thanks, that's basically what I've done (though I achieve the same thing by just resetting the auto-fill once or twice as needed if we started with a very low tank, or use a lot of water for something). I agree it is nice.

However, the difference and why it matters whether it only fills to 2/3rds (the most I've seen indicated when on auto-fill) or full is that I like to pull away with a full tank.

I do a lot of dry camping (like this weekend, I'm headed to Sonoma Raceway to dry camp and watch a friend race his GT3 Cup). What I'd like would be to have a full tank right now because we were on hookups with auto-fill on. Instead, I need to switch over to manual and wait for water to start coming out of the vent to be sure I'm full for the weekend.

Originally Posted by PDR John

Every fresh tank has a vent, it's on the passenger side behind the pegboard. It is 1 1/2" vent hose.

When you're on autofill it doesn't overfill, nor do you have to watch and shut it off, that is the automatic part.

Does the vent drain to the ground? I imagine it has to... but "behind the pegboard" doesn't sound like it necessarily does. I know it's the water tank behind the pegboard, but I haven't crawled under to see where the vent itself is, I assume it'd go to the ground, not flood that cubby.

-TJ

[Smosher]

My drain is directly underneath the pegboard that extends about three to four inches under the coach it is about 1 1/2" in diameter and is flattened together so bugs will not get in. Water will come out if you overflow the tank and goes directly on the ground.there does seem to be a problem as it will siphon some of the water out if the coach get on Ann angle as going around a corner if you are topped off. Some have moved the hose up above the tank to keep this from happening just a few inches.
Have fun. Mine I can program from the monitor as to how full I want it and the minimum .
Steve Mosher

[tjZ06]

Originally Posted by Smosher

My drain is directly underneath the pegboard that extends about three to four inches under the coach it is about 1 1/2" in diameter and is flattened together so bugs will not get in. Water will come out if you overflow the tank and goes directly on the ground.there does seem to be a problem as it will siphon some of the water out if the coach get on Ann angle as going around a corner if you are topped off. Some have moved the hose up above the tank to keep this from happening just a few inches.
Have fun. Mine I can program from the monitor as to how full I want it and the minimum .
Steve Mosher

Yup, mine is the same.

I let it fill until it was draining. Let it settle then filled until draining again. Still only showed 2/3rds on the monitor. Level ground.

-TJ