Fresh water Tank venting continuosly

The biggest danger is overfilling without opening the valve. Could cause tank to explode.
Yeah that part is easy as I keep them open when filling or drawing from the tank. Arriving at my camping location with a full tank is super nice and one less thing to work about.
 
Yeah that part is easy as I keep them open when filling or drawing from the tank. Arriving at my camping location with a full tank is super nice and one less thing to work about.
Not enough. If you are hooked to city water and the check valve fails, the tank will fill. It will pressurize if valves are closed.
 
Not enough. If you are hooked to city water and the check valve fails, the tank will fill. It will pressurize if valves are closed.
Well I've been following this same procedure with multiple campers for 25 years now and I haven't seen any failures yet. At some point you can't worry about all the things that could happen......that would be a miserable way to live. I'm good.
 
If you connect to city water that is not gravity fill as RV2600 was discussing above.
The point is, filling isn’t when the problem happens. It’s when the check valve in the pump fails while the trailer is connected to city water and allows the tank to fill without the owner being aware it is filling.
 
It’s a concern if you connect to city water regardless of whether you use the tank or not.
You keep harping on the "hooked to city water and check valves failing". If you're going somewhere with a city water hookup then there's no reason to travel with a full tank of water or have the valve closed. Period. The valve on the overflow method seems to works fine for everyone that has installed it but you. Open it when filling the tank, close it while traveling, and open it when boondocking and using the pump .. quite simple actually.
 
I have sharkbite valves on both of my vent tubes as well. No issues. I leave home with my tank completely filled each time we camp. Just open them when you get to camp or when you start using the water. I've used many gallons out of my tank with the valves shut before without damage.
Exactly! I've already gotten set up with my tank full, opened the valve and water immediately starts flowing out. I close the valve until we use the water for doing dishes or even grabbing a quick shower... then I open it and no more wasted water. Never had any damage to my tank. I did extend both the overflow pipe and the fresh water tank drain to make them more accessible... they were in a terrible location behind the rear wheel! Now they are easy to reach.
Screenshot_20211011-223624_Photos.jpg
 
You keep harping on the "hooked to city water and check valves failing". If you're going somewhere with a city water hookup then there's no reason to travel with a full tank of water or have the valve closed. Period. The valve on the overflow method seems to works fine for everyone that has installed it but you. Open it when filling the tank, close it while traveling, and open it when boondocking and using the pump .. quite simple actually.
It has nothing to do with using the tank. If you hook to city water and forget to open the valve, the tank can fill without your knowledge. When that happens, the tank will deform, then fall out of the frame and rip the coroplast and wiring loose under the trailer.

It’s a very high risk solution to the problem when a raised overflow line can fix it it with zero risk.

Note the Sharkbite valve on the end of the overflow in the picture.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_0494.png
    IMG_0494.png
    940.5 KB · Views: 17
It has nothing to do with using the tank. If you hook to city water and forget to open the valve, the tank can fill without your knowledge. When that happens, the tank will deform, then fall out of the frame and rip the coroplast and wiring loose under the trailer.

It’s a very high risk solution to the problem when a raised overflow line can fix it it with zero risk.

Note the Sharkbite valve on the end of the overflow in the picture.
Reread what I posted previously... it's really not that hard to understand.
If I'm going somewhere with water hookups I only have about 1/2 to 3/4 of a tank of water so the valve which is already open to fill the tank remains open. The valve only gets shut when I travel with a full tank of fresh water and DON'T have city water hookups.
 
The point is, filling isn’t when the problem happens. It’s when the check valve in the pump fails while the trailer is connected to city water and allows the tank to fill without the owner being aware it is filling.
That’s why the valve is always open when parked or traveling with an empty tank. Only closed during travel with a full tank.
Rich
 
I have found that I am sometimes forgetful. But I still need all the FW I can get. So I have the valves. I also added a raised ventline that is teed in before the valves. This ensures that my FW tanks are ALWAYS open to the atmosphere. This prevents a brain fart becoming a big oops
 
Still following this interesting thread....

Why not just poke something up the drain pipe that would prevent the tank from siphoning while traveling but would pop out if the tank gets too full (overfilled, over pressurized)? Something about the same size as the ID of the overflow pipe that won't fall out but can be pushed out if the tank gets too full (or too pressurized).

And - for those that fill their tanks before traveling and have a valve.... Once the water overflows indicating the tank if full do you wait for the water to stop coming out of the overfill pipe before shutting the valve?

When I fill mine it overflows but that stops after a short time; I figure it is because I the tank is overfilled forcing it to expand a bit and it figure it stops overflowing then the tank is back to not being overfilled.
 
Still following this interesting thread....

Why not just poke something up the drain pipe that would prevent the tank from siphoning while traveling but would pop out if the tank gets too full (overfilled, over pressurized)? Something about the same size as the ID of the overflow pipe that won't fall out but can be pushed out if the tank gets too full (or too pressurized).

And - for those that fill their tanks before traveling and have a valve.... Once the water overflows indicating the tank if full do you wait for the water to stop coming out of the overfill pipe before shutting the valve?

When I fill mine it overflows but that stops after a short time; I figure it is because I the tank is overfilled forcing it to expand a bit and it figure it stops overflowing then the tank is back to not being overfilled.
I think something like a duckbill check valve might work. Very low opening pressure. I’ve seen as low as 0.5psi
 
Still following this interesting thread....

Why not just poke something up the drain pipe that would prevent the tank from siphoning while traveling but would pop out if the tank gets too full (overfilled, over pressurized)? Something about the same size as the ID of the overflow pipe that won't fall out but can be pushed out if the tank gets too full (or too pressurized).

And - for those that fill their tanks before traveling and have a valve.... Once the water overflows indicating the tank if full do you wait for the water to stop coming out of the overfill pipe before shutting the valve?

When I fill mine it overflows but that stops after a short time; I figure it is because I the tank is overfilled forcing it to expand a bit and it figure it stops overflowing then the tank is back to not being overfilled.
Your idea will not work, because if you forget to remove it before using water, the tank will implode due to suction.
Bottom line, the tank needs to have a vent to the atmosphere.
 
Your idea will not work, because if you forget to remove it before using water, the tank will implode due to suction.
Bottom line, the tank needs to have a vent to the atmosphere.
Understood. Good bit of info.

It almost seems like there is no good resolution here. I guess the solution is that the overfill tube (vent tube?) that goes into the tank should be as high as possible in order that water not get siphoned out.

All these horror stories about tanks getting a lot of water siphoned while traveling leads me to believe that either the tank was way overfilled to begin with or the overflow tube is too low in the tank. Or.... the tank has plenty of water and the gauge/sensors just are inaccurate.
 

New posts

Try RV LIFE Pro Free for 7 Days

  • New Ad-Free experience on this RV LIFE Community.
  • Plan the best RV Safe travel with RV LIFE Trip Wizard.
  • Navigate with our RV Safe GPS mobile app.
  • and much more...
Try RV LIFE Pro Today
Back
Top Bottom