City Water not filling

**Stacymc4** · 11-22-2021, 01:47 PM

Originally Posted by Hoopy Frood

Curious how you filled "via gravity"?

We put the hose in the fresh water opening on the opposite side.

**Stacymc4** · 11-22-2021, 01:50 PM

Okay, so hook hose to city water but keep the blue lever on fresh water? We will try that. When would we put the lever on city water?

Thanks for all the help!

**Hoopy Frood** · 11-22-2021, 02:13 PM

You use city water setting when you want to use water directly from the park hydrant/supply.

**BigSam** · 11-27-2021, 07:21 PM

Originally Posted by Stacymc4

Hi there,

We are new to the group and new to RVing- just bought a 17mke and are driving it home from Tennessee to Santa Cruz, CA.

At our first campsite with hookups, We tried to fill up our water tank with the city water and could not get it to fill. We started with the brass pressure regulator in line but then took it out, still didn’t fill. We had the setting switched to city water.

Ended up filling via gravity.

Any ideas what went wrong? And how we can remedy this?

Thanks for your help!

Stacy and Matt

You had the switch in the wrong position. City water bypasses your fresh water tank and directly supplies water to your faucets. I think that is straight up. Turn the valve to fill or horizontal to fill the fresh water tank.

**dpisano** · 11-28-2021, 08:10 AM

Originally Posted by BigSam

You had the switch in the wrong position. City water bypasses your fresh water tank and directly supplies water to your faucets. I think that is straight up. Turn the valve to fill or horizontal to fill the fresh water tank.

That's probably it, but those "valves" are notorious for "sticking". We had the same problem in 18 2950RL and after some searching on-line, it is a common problem. to unstick the valve, many people, including us, ran the pump for a few minutes until it primed and water started flowing. Then, return the lever to "city water" (can't remember what it says now :-)) and the valve started to function properly.

To prevent this now, I never turn the supply lever to "fresh water" fill and simply "gravity fill it with the hose", as you did when needed.

The common issue we had was the fresh water tank filling when we had the lever turned to city water. Just an FYI.

**IBEW Sparky** · 11-28-2021, 10:01 AM

Originally Posted by Stacymc4

We put the hose in the fresh water opening on the opposite side.

And since you are a newbie let me say welcome to RVing and to the GD forum... plenty of good info on here.

Here's a water tip that has helped me on several occasions.
When you're staying at locations with full hook ups or water & electric this is something I always do. Once you get set up at your campground fill you fresh water tank until it overflows and then switch back to the city water supply. If the campground loses power during a storm they usually lose the water pump system also. You'll have a full tank of water, for showering, dishes, toilet use. I drilled this into my daughter and just recently while she was camping with other friends in the mountains of central Pa they lost power for almost 36 hrs... she was the hero of her group and even showed her in-laws a thing or two. You can simply drain the fresh water tank most of the way on the morning of your checkout... leave just enough for bathroom use while traveling

**lorend** · 11-28-2021, 06:21 PM

Great tip Bill. I have never heard of anyone doing that but it makes a lot of sense. Now I have to redo may set up and take down list to include this tip.

**puffdaddy** · 11-29-2021, 11:18 AM

Originally Posted by Hoopy Frood

Thanks, I didn't know that. Makes a person wonder why Grand Design felt it was necessary to add the complexity of the Nautilus system, and it's myriad points of failure.

I wish my Reflection had the ability to gravity fill. Filling the fresh water tank via the Sanitizer pump is pathetically slow, even when I remove the check valve. Was considering looking at a mod to give me that capability. Many campgrounds in Ontario are removing the ability to use a threaded hose connection to fill your tank and have to use a nozzle that is also designed to not allow any backpressure so no option but to gravity fill or fill a bucket. Not only frustrating for me but for the campers parked in a line waiting to fill their tanks.

**IBEW Sparky** · 11-29-2021, 11:51 AM

@puffdaddy

What do you mean by "filling the fresh water tank via the sanitizer pump"?
There isn't any pumps involved when filling the fresh water tank from an external water supply. It only involves attaching the hose to the city water inlet and turning the valves to the "PowerFill Tank" setting . The sanitizer setting is a whole different ballgame.

**puffdaddy** · 11-29-2021, 12:05 PM

Originally Posted by IBEW Sparky

@puffdaddy

What do you mean by "filling the fresh water tank via the sanitizer pump"?
There isn't any pumps involved when filling the fresh water tank from an external water supply. It only involves attaching the hose to the city water inlet and turning the valves to the "PowerFill Tank" setting . The sanitizer setting is a whole different ballgame.

You are correct but only when you can attach a hose to the City water inlet. Many parks have eliminated the ability to do this and have installed nozzles (like a gas nozzle) to install in the fill spout for the tank but when you dont have a fill spout and can't connect the water supply to the City water inlet, using the sanitizer pump to transfer water to the fresh water tank is the only alternative but please tell me there is another way.
I have "Magivered" hose and clamps to convert to a 3/4" threaded connection but these nozzles will not allow any pressure build in the system, so even my contraptions do not allow to fill via the city water inlet.