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Dudley do-right · 03-24-2022, 10:42 AM

We have an '06 Apex, and the fresh tank fill works from the control pad on the dash. It says "AUTOFILL" If autofill is off, water from external fill hose is automatically directed to your house piping system, and you have city pressure. However, if you use autofill, your tank level monitor is supposed to shut off the system automatically when full. At that point, it is assumed that you will disconnect the fill hose and turn on your internal pump. The problem is that if the wrong electric valve fails while filling the tank, you could easily overfill the tank and burst it. this almost happened to me. I caught it in the nick of time, with the tank swelled up like a balloon. Apparently either my overflow was closed or clogged, or the fill rate was just too much for the overflow pipe. But I have never located that pipe. Also I never saw any water coming out anywhere when that happened. After that happened, I was always careful not to fill my tank all the ay up, and never to trust the autofill again. Even though I replaced both the electric valves, and the tank sensors after that. There is no manual way to refill the fresh water tank on the Alpine model except via the AUTOFILL. When it works it's fine, but there are things that can go wrong that could lead to a catastrophy.
Dudley Do-Right '06Apex40MDTS

Alpine36 · 03-24-2022, 10:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cuda67bnl

Decided to replace the seals in the dump valve, and discovered a weep in the tank where the fitting is friction welded to it. Attempted a repair twice, with a soldering iron, to no avail. So, out it came…….. hopefully I can do a better job now that I won’t be working upside down……

Oh wow, that looks like fun.
I've never pulled the dump valve cable due to the horror stories I've read here. I drain our tank at the Shurflo pump inlet line.
Good luck repairing/plastic welding the tank.

Kid Gloves · 03-24-2022, 10:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dudley do-right

We have an '06 Apex, and the fresh tank fill works from the control pad on the dash. It says "AUTOFILL" If autofill is off, water from external fill hose is automatically directed to your house piping system, and you have city pressure. However, if you use autofill, your tank level monitor is supposed to shut off the system automatically when full. At that point, it is assumed that you will disconnect the fill hose and turn on your internal pump. The problem is that if the wrong electric valve fails while filling the tank, you could easily overfill the tank and burst it. this almost happened to me. I caught it in the nick of time, with the tank swelled up like a balloon. Apparently either my overflow was closed or clogged, or the fill rate was just too much for the overflow pipe. But I have never located that pipe. Also I never saw any water coming out anywhere when that happened. After that happened, I was always careful not to fill my tank all the ay up, and never to trust the autofill again. Even though I replaced both the electric valves, and the tank sensors after that. There is no manual way to refill the fresh water tank on the Alpine model except via the AUTOFILL. When it works it's fine, but there are things that can go wrong that could lead to a catastrophy.
Dudley Do-Right '06Apex40MDTS

I believe you meant to say Apex, rather than Alpine. There must be a way that the Autofill feature can be bypassed or eliminated, and the plumbing retrofitted to a manual Tank fill/City water valve. That conversion may not be worth the effort, but it has to be possible.

Kid Gloves · 03-24-2022, 11:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alpine36

Oh wow, that looks like fun.
I've never pulled the dump valve cable due to the horror stories I've read here. I drain our tank at the Shurflo pump inlet line.
Good luck repairing/plastic welding the tank.

FWIW: To my knowledge the dump valve on ours had worked flawlessly for 17 years, at which point it developed a slow leak. In all likelihood, replacing the seals would have solved the problem. I opted to replace the entire valve and utilized the existing cable. One day, I’ll get a new set of seals for the original valve.