Water Fill Valve??

[Dan.in.Seattle]

Hi Everyone,
Wondering if someone can help me with a water problem. I'm getting ready to take my New-to-me 2017 Springdale 179QBWE on it's maiden voyage so I'm disinfecting the water tank. My owners manual says I can hook up to the city water port and fill the fresh water tank. I hooked up and it runs water through the faucets, but when everything is shut off there is no water flowing. I checked again and the manual It tells me to turn the valve over to fresh water tank but I can't find the valve. Anyone know where I could look?
In the mean time I've filled the tank using the gravity inlet but that valve sounds like it might be handy if I want to fill the tank before leaving a campground.


Thanks,


Dan

[chuckster57]

If you have that option the valve should be right near the hose connection.

[Dan.in.Seattle]

Originally Posted by chuckster57

If you have that option the valve should be right near the hose connection.

Thanks, that's what I was thinking. My owners manual leaves a lot to be desired. Beginning to wonder if it was an option.


So I'm filling through the gravity port, then emptying the tank into the grey water tank before dumping. Seems hard on the pump. Wondering if I should I give it a rest between tanks?

[RollaMo]

Most "owners manuals" are really generic, and talk about options that may not be on your specific trailer model.

My guess, is since you say you have a gravity port to fill the fresh water tank, you may not have any valve that allows the fresh water tank to be filled that way.

Also, you will have a fresh water tank drain valve on the bottom of the tank to allow you to drain.
Look for that under your trailer very close to that gravity fill port you mention.

Of course pumping like you are doing works also, and will help flush nice clean sanitized water through your faucets.
Not sure if it is hard on the pump having it run continuously that long.

[sourdough]

I think I'm lost. The objective is to disinfect the tank (and water lines I suppose). Why are you filling the grey tanks and running the pump continuously?

If you've got your disinfectant solution in the tank just pump the water into all the lines by using those faucets, let them sit overnight or so then dump the tank, rinse it out again and be finished.

[JRTJH]

On a 2017 Springdale, I doubt you'll find a "city/tank fill valve mechanism"... Springdale typically is a entry level trailer without the "high tech features". You found the gravity fresh water tank fill port, that's likely all you have on your trailer.

With a "new to you 5 year old trailer" I'd sanitize the fresh water system with bleach before trusting the water to be clean. The procedure is in the "GENERIC" owner's manual from Keystone, but most people use regular Clorox bleach (not the concentrate type) 1/2 cup per 10 gallons of water tank capacity, mix the bleach with a couple gallons of water, pour that into the fresh water tank, then fill the tank to capacity, turn on each faucet and let it run until you smell bleach (do hot and cold faucets at each sink, so that means to first empty the water heater or bypass it or you can expect a lot of running the system before you get "bleach smell in the hot side"). Once you smell bleach at every faucet, let the system sit for 24 hours, drain the FW tank, flush the lines and refill the tank and you'll be "good to go"....

With some water quality, you may be OK with just rinsing the lines with city water, but with some, you may find "green goop growing in the FW tank, so being safe with water quality is always a good idea. Not much worse than having two people with diarrhea and only one toilet to share, and if it's caused by your own short cuts in prepping the trailer, nobody to blame but.....

It's never "fun" to have any illness, but one you can prevent, especially when miles from home is always worth being cautious.....

[bsmith0404]

Do as was mentioned, I’ll just add that your pump can run continuously for a long time, depending on the pump, probably rated for 30-45 minutes continuous run time. With the Springdale, I didn’t look up specs for your exact trailer, but I’m guessing you have a 43 gal fresh tank. You can run that out pretty quickly. Finally, you’re dumping sanitized water, not true gray water, when I sanitize my tanks, I just open the valve and let it dump on the ground. Unless you have some law in your area that doesn’t allow that, no reason to go somewhere to dump the sanitized water.

[Dan.in.Seattle]

Originally Posted by RollaMo

Most "owners manuals" are really generic, and talk about options that may not be on your specific trailer model.

My guess, is since you say you have a gravity port to fill the fresh water tank, you may not have any valve that allows the fresh water tank to be filled that way.

Also, you will have a fresh water tank drain valve on the bottom of the tank to allow you to drain.
Look for that under your trailer very close to that gravity fill port you mention.

Of course pumping like you are doing works also, and will help flush nice clean sanitized water through your faucets.
Not sure if it is hard on the pump having it run continuously that long.

Thanks, I think I found that drain, a piece of blue water line with a white fitting on the end. It's under the trailer though so I'd probably get sprayed with Clorox water if I used it for the first dump.

[Dan.in.Seattle]

Originally Posted by sourdough

I think I'm lost. The objective is to disinfect the tank (and water lines I suppose). Why are you filling the grey tanks and running the pump continuously?

If you've got your disinfectant solution in the tank just pump the water into all the lines by using those faucets, let them sit overnight or so then dump the tank, rinse it out again and be finished.

I couldn't figure out any other way to dump the freshwater tank so I pumped the sanitized fresh water into the grey tank then drained that.

[RollaMo]

Originally Posted by Dan.in.Seattle

Thanks, I think I found that drain, a piece of blue water line with a white fitting on the end. It's under the trailer though so I'd probably get sprayed with Clorox water if I used it for the first dump.

If it is a "blue" line, it is possible that is cold water low point drain.
There should be a Red line (hot water side) and Blue line (cold water side) low point drains.
Some trailers had caps on those two line, others had actual shut off valves.

The fresh water tank drains I've seen were all "White" and they all had shut off valves.
The fresh water tank will be directly below that gravity fill port you have, and the drain for that tank should be right there close sticking out the bottom of your trailer.

[Dan.in.Seattle]

Originally Posted by RollaMo

If it is a "blue" line, it is possible that is cold water low point drain.
There should be a Red line (hot water side) and Blue line (cold water side) low point drains.
Some trailers had caps on those two line, others had actual shut off valves.

The fresh water tank drains I've seen were all "White" and they all had shut off valves.
The fresh water tank will be directly below that gravity fill port you have, and the drain for that tank should be right there close sticking out the bottom of your trailer.

I think I found it. Just a cap on it. I might put a valve on it and run it to the side when I get a chance to make things easier

[sourdough]

Originally Posted by Dan.in.Seattle

Thanks, I think I found that drain, a piece of blue water line with a white fitting on the end. It's under the trailer though so I'd probably get sprayed with Clorox water if I used it for the first dump.

Now that you found the fresh water drain (white line w/cap under the fresh water tank) don't worry about getting Clorox water on you. If you have the Clorox diluted it won't hurt you. You might put on an old tshirt when you pull that cap but if it's the regular 1/2" drain line it's just a little more than a dribble anyway.