fresh water gauge

[willtravel]

Somehow managed to post without a message!!

 

I am aware that these gauges are very inaccurate but my gauge just whacks over to full as soon as you flick the switch, no matter how much or little water there is in the tank.

Service guy at the dealer says it is probably scale build up on the sensors, which seems unlikely as MH less than a year old but he insists that we clean tank out with cleaning agent before they do further investigation.

This happened for about three days then it went to normal but has gone back to flying across the meter and banging into the end stop again.

Any thoughts of likely problem and resolution anyone

[sshortcircuit]

Clean the probes and this may resolve problem. It would help if you stated what make your motorhome is as somebody may have specific knowledge.

[docted]

Sounds to me like a connection intermittently is failing. My first port of call would be to check probe connections and also connections at back of the gauge.

 

 

[Derek Uzzell]

Assuming that you can reach the sensors within the freshwater tank, it would be worth you cleaning them manually (but carefully!) with a pot scourer.

 

However, as the gauge reads full despite the tank being empty, it's more likely (as docted suggests) that the problem is electrical rather than the sensors being dirty. My experience of probe-type sensors (which your motorhome may or may not have) is that the gauge will tend to under-read if the probes become dirty, rather than over-read.

 

As sshortcircuit says, if you identify which make and exact model of motorhome you own (I've looked through your previous postings but you've never provided that information) this may prove to be a common problem with a known solution.

[willtravel]

Sorry for the delay in responding but was offered a few days away at an excellent price so took it and enjoyed the weather!

The MH btw is a Marquis 165 so basically an Elddis Autoquest, since my last post have been and seen two service departments for different companies who both said it is almost certainly hard water causing corrosion and holding the float at the top of its travel.

Both suggested Tank Clean as a remedy but said it will happen again and again.

 

At the moment it appears to be behaving itself but we are away next week so will see what happens then.

Thanks for the help so far.

[Colin Leake]

willtravel - 2014-08-01 8:34 PM

 

Sorry for the delay in responding but was offered a few days away at an excellent price so took it and enjoyed the weather!

The MH btw is a Marquis 165 so basically an Elddis Autoquest, since my last post have been and seen two service departments for different companies who both said it is almost certainly hard water causing corrosion and holding the float at the top of its travel.

Both suggested Tank Clean as a remedy but said it will happen again and again.

 

At the moment it appears to be behaving itself but we are away next week so will see what happens then.

Thanks for the help so far.

 

Both of the motorhomes we have had have suffered from the same problem one a Rapido and the other an AutoTrail. At the beginning of each season we flush the tank out with cleaner and the gauge behaves then reverts as the season goes on. I suspect it's a case of "They all do that sir" but one would thing the manufacturers could have come up with a solution by now!

[Derek Uzzell]

willtravel - 2014-08-01 8:34 PM

 

...since my last post have been and seen two service departments for different companies who both said it is almost certainly hard water causing corrosion and holding the float at the top of its travel...

 

A sticking float would certainly produce the type of problem you mentioned.

 

I wasn’t aware Elddis used that type of sensor, but I see it was referred to in this 2009 report on an Autoquest 155

 

http://www.outandaboutlive.co.uk/userfiles/file/MMM%20historic%20road%20tests/Elddis%20Autoquest%20155.pdf

 

“...The gauge for the water tank appears to operate by float, and seemed more accurate than most,...”

 

(I guess a float-system is OK for small-capacity tanks, but questionable for large ones.)

 

As your tank (apparently) is underslung, I assume that reaching the float to clean it manually won’t be practicable and that regular ‘chemical’ cleaning (eg. a tank cleaning product or a citric acid solution) will be your best bet.