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donabston · 11-19-2014, 08:55 PM

George,

I started the thread in the throes of happiness as my sensor system was working perfectly after the new batteries were installed. It was quite a relief after months of dealing with problems very similar to yours. Well,
4 months later and there are hints of trouble. Currently all of the sensors seem to be proper with the exception of the fresh water. After one shower the full tank shows a drop to 1/2; a little more hand-washing, etc and it drops into the red. So here we go.

If this continues ( and you know it well ) I'll investigate to see if my extended warranty will come into play. You are right, for this much money you would expect something this basic to work. I took the tour at Jackson Center and was very impressed with the detail and quality; maybe it's just that the Micro Pulse salesman is awesome.

When I was in high school my friend measured the gas in his tank with a rock tied to a string; maybe we need to look into it.

Don

Silvertwinkie · 11-19-2014, 09:43 PM

Micropulse changes with ambient outdoor temps. Micropulse never worked as advertised. I had 2 replacement warranty units, same issue...new batteries, old batteries, the story was the same.

Fixxxer · 11-19-2014, 10:28 PM

George , sorry to hear about this! I am researching what to put in my own Airstream when I get to that point in the rebuild. Needless to say it won't be a micro pulse. I will let Brenna know and hope we can take care of this for you.

gandttimes · 11-19-2014, 11:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fixxxer

George , sorry to hear about this! I am researching what to put in my own Airstream when I get to that point in the rebuild. Needless to say it won't be a micro pulse. I will let Brenna know and hope we can take care of this for you.

Aha, that's who Fixxxer is. I thought as much. I will fix the friend request.
As I was saying to my wife, Tracy if you can't trust what the level is in the fresh water tank , then how can you trust the other readings.
I have been pumping from an "empty" fresh water tank for 2 days now. How full are my black and grey that read empty?
Not your fault.
Airstream needs to fix this.

George

Bruce B · 11-19-2014, 11:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gmeikle

Bruce, I know about and read about your install.
My point with all this was to document exactly what was going wrong. When I called A/S on it they basically told me that they hadn't had many complaints and that they needed me to take it in and have s dealer fix it because they believe it is a good workable system.
This with the 6 hours spent fixing and replacing everything in the system may help to show them.
They put the See level in the Eddie Bauer in 2014 ( and earlier?)because they advertised it as a unit that one could dry camp in, so obviously they knew that the Micropulse was useless in that situation.
I want them to pay for the installation of a working monitor system worthy of an $80,000 trailer.
They need to be called on this by everyone who has a problem and then maybe we can get them recalled and fixed just like all the other manufacturers out there would have to do.

George

I love hearing about Airstream employees denying that their MicroPulse systems have any issues...
Ask any dealer service manager how often these things come in for warranty service sometime. Go ahead, ask. I have taken polls at several WBCCI events and at Alumapaluza and never found anyone with a 100% working system out of warranty. Most of the time people just look at me like I was stupid when I asked.
We know in reading here on the forums that some people have succeeded in getting Airstream to replace the system for the SeeLeveL system so there is no question they are aware. My guess is that some owners apply the correct pressure....
In my case the installation was simple enough to perform so I simply bit the bullet and did it myself. I probably spent as much to purchase the replacement system as I would have on fuel just delivering the Airstream back to the dealers do back home. I certainly spent less time installing it than I would have spent driving there and back.
I believe they count on owner apathy and deny that there are problems to avoid the warranty cost of replacing a system.
Bruce

Option7 · 02-07-2015, 04:30 PM

I wish they would recall all of these Micropulse monitors. The operator manual does not reflect the display functions of the Microplulse 2 monitor in my Interstate which has no "cal complete", "ready for fill", "ready for empty", "select tank" or "Diagnostics" LED indicators as referenced in the calibration procedure.
The calibration procedure does not work as instructed to.
It says nothing in the manual about any calibration of the LP tank sensor or a step by step procedure to calibrate a single tank.
The company that makes the monitor CATCON Products Inc doesn't answer the phone "ever" so it is a worthless system with no support. I would never buy anything from CATCON Products.

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KJRitchie · 02-07-2015, 04:37 PM

I've resigned to myself that I will probably get Airstream to install a Sealevel system in the future. Cheaper than buying a new Airstram. Il also get them to replace the freshwater drain with a metal valve.

Kelvin

Rich W · 02-07-2015, 06:53 PM

I'll just add my 2 cents worth, in case AS reads these posts. We bought ours used and the fresh water sensor always read full, until this year when it doesn't register at all.

Gray water registers what it feels like, sometime reading full when it's just been emptied, sometimes it shows orange and 5/8 when we go to bed, then green and 1/2 when we get up. I'm pretty sure we don't have a leak. Then it goes back to 5/8 and orange again.

The black water tank appears to be working OK. At least something on the panel works right.

I think that if AS wanted to keep Catcon as a vendor for the tank sensors it should have put more pressure on them to produce a quality product. To allow this low quality product to be installed on their trailers for so long makes me wonder what else they allow.

Omega Man · 03-19-2015, 08:45 AM

My Micropulse never worked properly. E-mailed Jackson center their response was to recalibrate or go to the dealer. I recalibrated several times with no luck. Not willing to make a 8 hour round trip to the dealer

The question is how many people purchased a new Sea Level System? Does it work? What did you pay and can you use the same flat cables?

Thanks
Jason

ghatfield · 03-19-2015, 09:01 AM

I had the same experience.... re-calibration did not work. Tried it several times. So I pulled out the Micropulse system and replaced it with a See Level system. The latter seems to work perfectly. I posted on this conversion...

http://www.airforums.com/forums/f444...-a-129739.html

George

PharmGeek · 03-19-2015, 07:04 PM

I want a system that reliable tells me the levels

Mine when tested with tanks all clean and using just water was fine - but in practice it will give weird results

It's such a bummer - and a bummer the replacement system could cost me as I recall like 2k - blah

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gandttimes · 03-25-2015, 04:40 PM

Well, the experiment is done. Back from our first attempt at extended vacation and all was great except that the Micropulse constantly kept us on our toes. Literally in one instance when the grey water said half full, but it overflowed into the shower.
The fresh water showed empty all the time so it didn't matter as long as there was some available. The only problem was I was always carrying too much water between camp sights that had water available.
No matter.
Airstream has kindly,with the insistence of a great service department at Midtown RV in Penticton BC, agreed to replace our ailing Micropulse with the new and improved See Level at no cost to us.
Thank you Randy and Brenna.

George

PharmGeek · 03-29-2015, 03:24 PM

My warranty expires in November - I've tried calibration to no avail - unpredictability recurs

I'm hoping they will replace the POS

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SteveSueMac · 03-29-2015, 03:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PharmGeek

My warranty expires in November - I've tried calibration to no avail - unpredictability recurs

I'm hoping they will replace the POS

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I asked when I had service at the Mothership last year. They would not replace it under warranty they DID calibrate it to perfection and it worked flawlessly all year - but I'm worried now because I had to have my FW tank replaced (also warranty - something broken at the top of the tank - dealer replaced under warranty) so now I have no idea if they calibrated it correctly. We'll see...

gandttimes · 03-29-2015, 03:53 PM

I had mine calibrated 3 times. The last was before my 4 month trip and it quit the first day. My grey overflowed into the shower once when it was showing 3/4 full. I Had had enough. My dealership warranty department really pressed hard and they got results. New system is in and the battery monitor even matches the Trimetric. Who hoo!
They must have replaced a few Micropulse units because they have it down to a system using the existing wiring.
Keep on them.

George

PharmGeek · 03-29-2015, 07:20 PM

Problem is I really don't have the time to drag it over 5 hours to the dealer - but I am bringing it to dealer in April for work and perhaps calibration will work and if not then what? Re calibration again? We shall see

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**Rocinante** · 09-15-2015, 05:16 PM

Waking up this thread to ask a question, as we're pressing our dealer work with Airstream under warranty until they either get our Micropulse working reliably or swap it out for a See Level.

The question is this: Has anyone with a cranky Micropulse had it start working reliably after running the Micropulse ground wire to the battery instead of to the frame? We already have new sensors all around, with patches on Rocinante's belly pan to prove it. That worked for 36 hours after we took it home. The new theory is that the Micropulse should work reliably if they ensure a robust ground connection with the battery vs. leaving it grounded to the frame.

Our dealer got this idea from chatting with the folks at Garnet (See Level) who said their system requires a very good ground, preferably connected directly to the battery negative. Just wondering whether this is a path worth following while they wait to hear from Airstream, which apparently hasn't been very responsive on our tank sensor issues. Our dealer has been pretty helpful overall and they are one of the largest dealers, so I'm hoping they'll get a good answer soon. Meanwhile, we'll be calling Airstream directly tomorrow to see whether we can help them get some traction.

ghatfield · 09-15-2015, 10:18 PM

As mentioned above, I gave up on the Micropulse. I tried several times to recalibrate the system using the directions that came with the AS. No luck. And I could never get anyone to answer the phone at the company that supplies the system. So out it came. I ran a ground wire from each See Level sensor back to the See Level monitor. I'm not sure how they were connected to ground at that point, but I didn't make a special effort to ground them directly to the battery. I probably just used the ground wire that had been used by the Micropulse. It has worked flawlessly since I installed it about 9 months ago.

George

**Rocinante** · 09-16-2015, 03:10 PM

Thanks, George.

Just to be clear and fair, our dealer has been supportive throughout regarding our tank sensor issues. It has been a pain in the neck for us and for them. They are doing their best to ensure this problem is resolved to our satisfaction before the warranty expires at the end of November. Based on our conversation with them today, we're confident they will succeed.