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  1. #1
    Site Sponsor andrewssteve's Avatar
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    Powerfill stopped filling fresh water tank - no overflow

    We pulled into a state park in Michigan yesterday and I decided to fill the freshwater tank before making camp. Forgot to relieve pressure in the water lines before inserting the city water input into the freshwater fill. (There's a warning on the Nautilus panel that says you must do this.)

    Anyway, I started filling and I could hear water flowing. Kept looking at the fresh water tank overflow to tell me when the tank was full. Looked, and looked, and looked. After 10 or 15 minutes, still no overflow. Finally disconnected the city water from the fill inlet to verify I had water coming in. There was plenty of flow and pressure. Reconnected, turned the water back on, and waited another 5 minutes for overflow. Still nothing. Went to my control panel inside the RV, and sure enough, the gauge said I have a full fresh water tank.

    Not sure what's going on. I'm assuming a check valve has frozen. Today, I'm going to try turning the fresh water inlet cone-strainer around and see if the pump will pull water. I'll update this thread with those results.

    Anybody have any idea why I couldn't power-fill my tank to overflow?

    Edit: This is the warning I violated:

    Click image for larger version. 

Name:	NautilusPressureWarning.jpg 
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    Last edited by andrewssteve; 09-12-2019 at 06:42 AM.
    Steve and Renee
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  2. #2
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    I know on my momentum it takes a long, long time to fill. It's usually 5 minutes after I get the full light before it overflows. You can buy a gauge to see how much water you are putting in the tank to verify your tanks capacity.

    Red
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  3. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by andrewssteve View Post
    We pulled into a state park in Michigan yesterday and I decided to fill the freshwater tank before making camp. Forgot to relieve pressure in the water lines before inserting the city water input into the freshwater fill. (There's a warning on the Nautilus panel that says you must do this.)

    Anyway, I started filling and I could hear water flowing. Kept looking at the fresh water tank overflow to tell me when the tank was full. Looked, and looked, and looked. After 10 or 15 minutes, still no overflow. Finally disconnected the city water from the fill inlet to verify I had water coming in. There was plenty of flow and pressure. Reconnected, turned the water back on, and waited another 5 minutes for overflow. Still nothing. Went to my control panel inside the RV, and sure enough, the gauge said I have a full fresh water tank.

    Not sure what's going on. I'm assuming a check valve has frozen. Today, I'm going to try turning the fresh water inlet cone-strainer around and see if the pump will pull water. I'll update this thread with those results.

    Anybody have any idea why I couldn't power-fill my tank to overflow?

    Edit: This is the warning I violated:

    Click image for larger version. 

Name:	NautilusPressureWarning.jpg 
Views:	28 
Size:	94.9 KB 
ID:	22559
    Did you start with an empty tank? It sounds like it was filling it (per you monitor panel). Did the sounds (flow) of water change towards the end indicating a full tanks? On my 2018 310GK, with 40 PSI inlet pressure it take about 20 minutes to fill my fresh water tank to overflowing. Possibly your tank is not full. I have a few (about 5 gallons) between the monitor saying "full" and overflowing and the monitors have a LOT of variability in them. Also, I feel you should always use a pressure regulator with any unknown water source as the pressure can be quite high and cause damage to the plumbing. I also use an inexpensive inline (screw on) water flow meter on my fresh water to give me an idea of how much I am putting into the tank. they are around $16 on amazon. Very handy device.

    The "Do not depress city water connection ..." is so you do not blow out (and potentially lose) the O rings in the check valve. If you want to relieve pressure I just use the low point drains, conveniently located right next to the Nautilus panel.

    Chris
    Chris & Karen
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  4. #4
    Site Team WhittleBurner's Avatar
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    It may have been working properly. Some of MI State Parks have notoriously sloooww fill stations. When at Holly Rec Area it seems to take 20 mins plus to fill our 303. When we go there we leave home with water if possible (it's less than a hrs drive)
    Your 310 holds more water so a half hour would be about it with low pressure. You may have checked just as getting to the full point
    Marcy & Gary
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  5. #5
    Seasoned Camper Da Breeze's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by CoChris View Post
    If you want to relieve pressure I just use the low point drains, conveniently located right next to the Nautilus panel.

    Chris
    I keep the GD blue RV hose hooked up to the panel. This is the easiest way, (for me), to open hot & cold faucets to relieve the pressure, plus it comes in handy for washing off hands after the sanitary gloves come off.
    If you want to check your check valve, remove the inlet strainer from fresh water fill and gently poke the white valve inside it.
    Should spring back indicating proper operation.

    Michael

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  6. #6
    Big Traveler boyscout's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by andrewssteve View Post
    Went to my control panel inside the RV, and sure enough, the gauge said I have a full fresh water tank.

    Not sure what's going on. I'm assuming a check valve has frozen. Today, I'm going to try turning the fresh water inlet cone-strainer around and see if the pump will pull water. I'll update this thread with those results.
    As others have said, your tank was likely not full no matter what the indicator lights say. Some people think you should stop filling when the lights say full (which might be the safest approach, it is what the manual says to do) but others of us just fill until we hear the overflow splashing under the trailer.

    If you're going to play with turning the fresh water inlet screen, you should first relieve the pressure in the lines using the low-point drains. That's what the warning you *thought* you ignored is telling you, don't touch the valve behind the screen unless the pressure is relieved.

    More importantly, though, reversing the cone screen (as we commonly do when trying to pump antifreeze from a bottle when winterizing) will make it hard for your pump to build pressure and may lead you to conclude that you have some other problem. Probably not.

    The valve behind that cone screen is there to allow the system to build pressure when you're using your pump to supply trailer water pressure. Without it, turning on the pump would push water out the inlet connector. Reversing the cone screen opens that valve, which we do to reduce the work the pump has to do to suck antifreeze into the system, but the screen gets turned around immediately afterwards to again allow the pump pressure system to work.

    So, you probably don't have a problem and probably don't have to do anything. Hope that isn't disappointing to you!
    Mark - 2018 Solitude 310GK - 2017 F-350 diesel SRW short box - Pullrite Superglide hitch

  7. #7
    Site Sponsor andrewssteve's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by boyscout View Post
    So, you probably don't have a problem and probably don't have to do anything. Hope that isn't disappointing to you!
    You're probably the one of the most self-deprecating folks on this forum -- but you actually know a ton of stuff. Thanks for your response.

    What I'm pretty sure of (and I didn't include this in the original post) was that at some point while I was filling, the sound and feel of water flowing from the city water hose into the freshwater inlet stopped. No sound, no vibration in the hose. And never any discharge from the overflow pipe. That's why I feel I've got an intake problem.

    It is worth noting that my full tank reading dropped to 3/4 full overnight with no showers being taken. So it's pretty clear that I never got the tank full before I gave up.
    Steve and Renee
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  8. #8
    Big Traveler boyscout's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by andrewssteve View Post
    What I'm pretty sure of (and I didn't include this in the original post) was that at some point while I was filling, the sound and feel of water flowing from the city water hose into the freshwater inlet stopped. No sound, no vibration in the hose. And never any discharge from the overflow pipe. That's why I feel I've got an intake problem.
    That is odd; I now understand why you suspected the valve in the inlet. No water going through the hose could be the valve but I'd guess that would be unlikely... it doesn't take much pressure to open that valve. Your idea of reversing the cone screen would be a fast way to check that.

    Two more guesses are (a) the water supply's pressure dropped WAY down while you were filling or (b) the Nautilus panel wasn't set properly, either because it wasn't carefully set per the diagram for Powerfill to the limit of each knob or because one or more of the valves in the panel isn't working as it should.

    That latter prospect, too, seems unlikely since it would require that water supply pressure partially filled your tank and then was suddenly prevented from getting to the tank and was arrested by filling the rest of the water system to a pressure equal to that of the water supply. What would make that change in mid-process?

    To begin investigating the possibility you could try slowly rotating each of the Nautilus' knobs, feeling for any change in their normal smooth-but-resistant end-to-end operation and suspecting a valve that didn't feel like that.

    After that point I'm out of my depth about how to investigate further, short of the obvious (painful) process of beginning to dismantle the panel at the back to see what's doing what. Hopefully someone else will have a less-painful idea, but if you are forced to check the operation of the Nautilus yourself the diagram below by user @howson may be useful. Good luck.

    Click image for larger version. 

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    Mark - 2018 Solitude 310GK - 2017 F-350 diesel SRW short box - Pullrite Superglide hitch

  9. #9
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    Steve,

    Two things I would add/reiterate from @boyscout excellent advice is
    1) Make sure you relieve the system water pressure (using the low-point drains, opening faucet, etc.) with the pump and external water supply off before you touch the check valve behind the inlet screen. If you do not, the water pressure can dislodge (or blow out) the O rings in the check valve and you will have to rebuild or replace it.

    2) The Nautilus panel/valves are pretty reliable but they can fail. With no pressure int he system, each valve should rotate 90 degrees and stop. There should be even resistance throughout the range of motion. If the resistance is not even, that valve probably has a internal O ring out of place and can give weird results.

    Good luck.

    Chris
    Chris & Karen
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    2017 F-350 SRW 6.7 Lariat Value CC LB 4x4
    2018 Solitude 310GK - Sold 7/2023

  10. #10
    Long Hauler howson's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by andrewssteve View Post
    You're probably the one of the most self-deprecating folks on this forum -- but you actually know a ton of stuff. Thanks for your response.

    What I'm pretty sure of (and I didn't include this in the original post) was that at some point while I was filling, the sound and feel of water flowing from the city water hose into the freshwater inlet stopped. No sound, no vibration in the hose. And never any discharge from the overflow pipe. That's why I feel I've got an intake problem.

    It is worth noting that my full tank reading dropped to 3/4 full overnight with no showers being taken. So it's pretty clear that I never got the tank full before I gave up.
    Steve--I suggest starting by using a water meter like the one recommended by CoChris. That will show you definitively if you've got water flowing (or not). (I have two--one on the water inlet and one on the black tank flush inlet.)

    Howard
    2017 Ford F-350 DRW 6.7L Platinum
    2019 315RLTS (purchased 16 Jul 18 from Campers Inn RV in Byron, GA)

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