Eliminating the Nautilus system

BrandonM

New Member
Joined
Dec 31, 2024
Messages
9
Location
Texas
I was wondering if anyone here has thought of eliminating the Nautilus system. My 2016 Solitude which I have full timed for 3 years seems to get occasional water accumulation on the back side of the Nautilus system. Also I will say the previous owner before me had full timed while prepping to have a house built. Every year I end up replacing pex and fittings to try and cure this seemingly never ending problem. I've used mostly pex b, pex b fittings, copper crimp, and recently the cinch rings. I'm sure many of you know of the high amount of connections, which can all be potential areas of leaks at any point.. I've replaced all the flexible type pex because it had issues when I bought it, which I was already aware of from previous rvs. I know its not a solution but I've even thought of putting a drip pan, similar to one used for a washing machine. Smaller of course though...
 
Imagine's don't have an actual Nautilus system, but something similar and simpler. Still prone to leaks though and sometimes the valve for switching between city and fresh water fail. I plan to remove the panel and reroute the lines to a Pex multi-valve manifold. I will leave it exposed so I can monitor for leaks. You would need to determine the number of valves you need, maybe leaving one or two extra for things you may want to add down the road.
 
I was wondering if anyone here has thought of eliminating the Nautilus system. My 2016 Solitude which I have full timed for 3 years seems to get occasional water accumulation on the back side of the Nautilus system. Also I will say the previous owner before me had full timed while prepping to have a house built. Every year I end up replacing pex and fittings to try and cure this seemingly never ending problem. I've used mostly pex b, pex b fittings, copper crimp, and recently the cinch rings. I'm sure many of you know of the high amount of connections, which can all be potential areas of leaks at any point.. I've replaced all the flexible type pex because it had issues when I bought it, which I was already aware of from previous rvs. I know its not a solution but I've even thought of putting a drip pan, similar to one used for a washing machine. Smaller of course though...
Welcome to the forum. Folks here will have some good information for you.

If you use the search function and search on "nautilus" you will find a bunch of posts about that panel. Some folks have replaced that panel. Here is one such example....
 
I appreciate the response, I'm not new to forum searches. I searched Nautilus a couple times but was only seeing titles that didn't make me believe they were what i had in mind. I guess i should have tried "good bye Nautilus" thanks again
 
I appreciate the response, I'm not new to forum searches. I searched Nautilus a couple times but was only seeing titles that didn't make me believe they were what i had in mind. I guess i should have tried "good bye Nautilus" thanks again
:)lol..... I cheated...... I did a google search with these terms.... >> mygrandrv.com "nautilus" "replaced" < it got me more results than searching here on the forum..... ;)

Glad you got an idea. Also check out ABCO panels. Here is one example from Amazon. I think if I replaced mine I would probably just get one of these (not cheap tho).
 
I replaced all the plumbing including the Nautilus panel in our 2017 Solitude 300GK for all the same reasons.

I used expansion pex (pex A or Uponor) which is now available at the big box stores. The manifolds reduced the fitting count and the mess of spaghetti significantly.

For the panel, I found some stainless 3-way valves that would fit together in a usable panel and had nice mounting pads. Be careful of Amazon valves because the thread type is often misrepresented (BSP vs NPT).

This is was a big project and it took quite a bit of planning to get it done without interrupting life too much since we are also full timers. No water for days was not an option.

To sum it all up, it was a lot of work, but absolutely worth it.
 
I replaced all the plumbing including the Nautilus panel in our 2017 Solitude 300GK for all the same reasons.

I used expansion pex (pex A or Uponor) which is now available at the big box stores. The manifolds reduced the fitting count and the mess of spaghetti significantly.

For the panel, I found some stainless 3-way valves that would fit together in a usable panel and had nice mounting pads. Be careful of Amazon valves because the thread type is often misrepresented (BSP vs NPT).

This is was a big project and it took quite a bit of planning to get it done without interrupting life too much since we are also full timers. No water for days was not an option.

To sum it all up, it was a lot of work, but absolutely worth it.
Thank you for chiming in! Im planning on using a manifold as well. I'm not familiar with that floor plan of that rv, but I'm curious if you ended up having to keep any of the flexible pex that's prone to leaking. I have a sink in a slide that still has those and I'm trying to decide if I should run the( pex A)to where it comes through floor(Circled in BLACK) and put some stainless supply flex lines to sink. I will probably opt out of shut offs on this one, due to location and the fact that I plan to keep the manifold accessible.
 

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I kept the flexible hoses the run to the tanks just because I didn't want to get into the tanks. I don't believe that those hoses are all that bad. The cause of the leaks at the hoses is the fittings. The rv industry uses the same pex B fittings throughout, including using them as hose barbs for the hoses. The barb is smaller than the ID of the hose, so the clamp has to squeeze the hose and it rarely clamps evenly. When I was chasing those leaks, I started replacing those fittings with Pex A fittings. They have slightly larger barbs, since the pipe is meant to stretch over the barb. It is a much better fit in the hose and after I made that replacement, I never had any problems with the flex hose. Another things that helps is using an automotive fuel line style clamp. A worm style hose clamp has a flat spot and on small sizes, they don't clamp evenly.
 

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