Laika.brian Posted November 1, 2017 Share Posted November 1, 2017 I have an issue with the freshwater tank. when first got the MH (short time ago) I found the seal on the fresh water tank cleaning plug leaking a mixture of air and water when filling the tank, so though perished seal and replaced it. I now find a crack in the tank itself which I know was not there before, so I will have to remove the tank and have a repair carried out. I think the water tank air venting is not working correctly, not releasing air well when filling and or not replacing the removed air when the water is been used. The filler is a about 30 mm diameter and the air vent beside it on the tank is about 5mm, these two pipes are connected up to the filler connection on the side of the MH with the breather been only 2 mm in the top of the filler neck, should the filler cap also vent? air is venting when the tank is been filled because the cap is removed but filling is very slow sorry if this is confused because I am. any one ever had similar issue? Brian :-( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted November 2, 2017 Share Posted November 2, 2017 The attached photo of a 2007 Laika Ecovip 2 Classic model seems to show two fresh-water fill-points (ie. that the motorhome has two fresh-water-tanks). Twin water tanks are rare and in your case it may not matter whether your Laika has one tank or a pair, but it might be of interest to know what tank arrangement your motorhome has. There are details of a generic water-filler here http://www.watertankswarehouse.co.uk/ourshop/prod_3776298-F23SHORT-40mm-White-Water-Filler-Locking-Cap-ZADI.html and this has a connection for a tank-vent. In this 2007 forum discussion http://forums.outandaboutlive.co.uk/forums/Motorhomes/Motorhome-Matters/Fresh-Water-Tank-Overflow/7336/ Brain Kirby says “...In a number of vans, the overflow (which is not what it really is, it is a pressure relief, or "breather", pipe) connects back to the filler cap, venting just outside the sealing ring...” and you should be able to decide if that’s the arrangement your Laika has. The filler-cap must seal, otherwise water could be lost from the tank while driving, so a tank-vent that connects to the water-filler must not be sealed by the cap or it would not vent. Some motorhome fresh-water tanks can be very tricky/slow to fill. Presumably you are filling via a hose, so you might try pushing the hose as far into the filler inlet as it will go (right inside the water tank itself if you can) to avoid ‘air locking’ within the filler-pipe. Or you could obtain one of these http://www.campervanstuff.com/shop_stuff/index.php?mod=product&id_prd=1410 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laika.brian Posted November 2, 2017 Author Share Posted November 2, 2017 Hi Derek, Thank you for the reply , our unit has only one water tank, the filler neck in your attachment is indeed the one which is fitter on our Laika and when filling air dose come out the small hole which is in the filler neck, looking at the tank through inspection point where you can also see the level sensors I can see the filling point and the breathing point in the tank are at the same level. I have filled using a hose and would stop often to allow the tank to evacuate the air, my concern is that because the tank is so slow to fill that it is pressurizing and failing at the weakest point. so first it was the O ring seal on the plug to clean out the tank. then the tank cracked at the next weakest point.. therefore when i repair and refit the tank I will not really have resolved the issue. ( it might happen again) so just checking if anyone has had a similar issue ? and if may be has anyone added an extra fitting with small pipe on top of the tank to relive the pressure or as per your post I change the filler neck to breath out side the sealed filler neck.as you have suggested from Brian Kirby. I will not ramble anymore, Brian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted November 2, 2017 Share Posted November 2, 2017 The inlet-connection on my current Rapido’s fresh-water tank is near the tank’s base, with an air-vent in a protrusion on the tank’s top. With water going from the filling-point in the motorhome’s body-side downwards to the tank’s bottom and air being expelled from the vent in the tank’s top as the tank fills, filling can be very fast. When the tank is completely full, water will gush out from the filling-point if the pressure in the supply feeding the hose is high, and water will begin to pass through the vent into an attached tube that emerges beneath the motorhome. Water continues to drain through the vent-tube until the level in the tank drops to a point where air can enter the vent-tube, producing a hideous gurgling noise that, when it first happened, was very unnerving. At home I can fill the Rapido’s (empty) 120-litre tank in about 7 minutes. On my previous Hobby motorhome the wide-bore hose that connected the body-side filling-point to near the top of the fresh-water tank was nearly horizontal. Filling was initially very slow as the water passing through wide-bore hose would ‘block’ that hose and stop water reaching the tank. To ovecome this I used a length of stiffish plastic ‘garden hose' that would reach all the way through the wide-bore hose and into the water tank, with a Hozelock connector on the outer end to which my 10-metre main filling-hose could be attached. After that the Hobby’s tank could be filled as fast as the pressure of the water supply would allow. If you can use this ploy with your Laika, you won’t be pressurising the tank when you fill it and filling should be quick. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laika.brian Posted November 2, 2017 Author Share Posted November 2, 2017 Hi Derek, Thank you for info, I removed the tank this evening, (the tank is long wide and flat) our MH rides a little higher at the rear so the filler and breather end of the water tank will fill first as it is towards the middle of the camper. it has been suggested that I add a pipe straight up from the top at the rear of the tank to allow it to depressurize I believe it is possible to do and I will check it out after I have had the tank repaired. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted November 3, 2017 Share Posted November 3, 2017 If the ‘breather’ of your Laika’s tank becomes covered by water early on in the filling process, there’s clearly going to be potential problems as air remaining in the tank won’t be able to get out. And, if the breather is covered with water, the water-inlet lower down will have been covered well beforehand. I would have thought that, unless your Laika’s tank is VERY shallow and slopes significantly downwards towards the end where the breather and water-inlet are, the tank should fill OK (and quickly) until the breather becomes covered. If the tank is slow to fill right from the start, it’s likely that water is unable to pass rapidly through the hose from the filler-point to the tank’s inlet (possibly because the hose does not slope downwards much). I’m doubtful that lack of venting has caused the damage. Spontaneous cracking of plastic fresh-water tanks is far from unknown (see following link) http://forums.outandaboutlive.co.uk/forums/Motorhomes/Motorhome-Matters/Plastic-tank-welding-anyone-/38051/ However, I can’t see fitting a 2nd breather in the top of your tank’s rear end doing any harm and it certainly should assist venting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laimeduck Posted November 3, 2017 Share Posted November 3, 2017 I'm not sure if this will be helpful or not in this instance. But it may? When putting water into our tank I now always first of all push a length of plastic tube into the filler point and into the tank. I actually use a length of semi rigid beer tubing about 300mm long. This allows the air in the tank to vent through this pipe. We do this as we tend to fill in small amounts ie 10-15 litres using water containers. I have adapted a 90 degree angle waste pipe to fit the water inlet so that we can simply pour the water in. Trouble was that the water did not flow in smoothly and kept blurping out - pushed out by the trapped air. Consequently not much water went in and we got wet feet!(Same happened on the rare occasions when we filled using a hose) The pipe solves this and water can be poured in extremely quickly. And ....... its very simple, which suits me! (Please Note before comments! - We never fill our tank because we don't use Aires but stay on sites so we don't use the shower or wash up in the van. (We can .... but we choose not to.) We rarely drive with more than eg 15-20 litres fresh water on board. (And no grey water)) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted November 5, 2017 Share Posted November 5, 2017 This is similar in principle to my use of a length of stiffish hose long enough to reach from my Hobby motorhome’s water filling-inlet right into its water tank. Water from the end of the hose went directly into the tank, while air from within the tank could vent back alongside the hose and out through the filling-inlet. However the ploy may not be practicable if the route of the hose that connects the filling-inlet to the water tank is long and/or has tight curves in it, or there’s sort sort of protrusion where the connection-hose joins the tank. I notice that Bailey fits a breather to the water tank’s inspection cap https://www.bailey-parts.co.uk/product/1070001 This tank-venting method seems ‘bodgy' to me, but it does avoid drilling the tank itself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laika.brian Posted November 12, 2017 Author Share Posted November 12, 2017 Update, I fitted the repaired fresh water tank today and I did fit an extra breather at the top of the tank near the back end. Tested the tank filling and emptying now without any fuss, no leaks so very pleased with the out come. The position, direction and length of hose of the filler neck and pipe ( two sharp turns) would have made the filling option mentioned above difficult, so when the tank required a repair the fitting of an extra breather was a good option, although I did first put in the tank to check where to put a fitting for the extra breather. Brian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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