Black Water Light Indicator & Water Heater problems

[SGM ADAMS]

Greetings,

I just retired as a Army Sergeant Major and my wife and I purchased our first travel trailer (2012 25' International Signature) and we are experiencing several issues.

First, our monitoring panel is showing a blinking red light for the black water tank but the tank is empty. When we empty the tank the black water flows and doesn't show any signs of being stopped up. We are connected to a park septic/sewer system. After each time we drain the tank we flush it out and add recommend chemical treatments. So what could be causing the red light to continue to blink?

Secondly, our hot water heater light indicator shows red all the time. We are using total electric and have not used the gas cylinders (gas is shut off). We did notice the first week of using the hot water, that the water was extremely hot. What could be causing the problem?

Thank you for helping a newbie old retired SGM and his wife out.

[Hibby]

SGM adams,

My understanding is that the water heater light should be off unless there is a fault, but I'll be curious to know what happens here. Mine has never come on (2012 Flying Cloud), and the water heater seems to work fine. However, in our 2010 Sport (which we recently sold) the light was ON whenever the switch was on, which made a ton of sense to me. I don't know if mine is working correctly now or not.

As for the poop meter, you probably have a sensor issue which is certainly under warranty. I also believe these are pressure sensors, which means throwing a bag of ice down the toilet and driving around the park once or twice won't do much good. I would try filling the blackwater tank to FULL capacity, then dumping it to see if that calibrates the pressure sensor.

As a disclaimer, you should know that all of my advice is heresay, and that there is no real wisdom behind it. Keep us posted!

[Protagonist]

Since you bought it new, take it back to the dealer. If there is a problem with the tank sensors, it's probably covered under warranty.

As for the water heater, I had a similar problem with my Interstate. If you've got a heater like mine, the red light indicates that the water heater is overheating. Mine was due to a faulty thermostat. Again, a warranty issue.

[SGM ADAMS]

Hi Hibby,

Thank you for your input. According to the dealer's (Southwest Coaches, Corona, CA) service department, the red light in the bathroom for the hot water heater only comes on when there is an issue. They think that it is a thermostat regulator that is malfunctioning. They are not happy about coming to my site to replace it and I don't think that I should have to drive 2 hours to their service department to have it fix, especially since these Airstreams are not cheap and we only had the trailer no more then 2 weeks.

I will try your suggestion regarding the black water tank and see if that works. Glenda (my lovely wife of 35 years) and I appreciate your response. God Bless!

Tim and Glenda

Originally Posted by Hibby

SGM adams,

My understanding is that the water heater light should be off unless there is a fault, but I'll be curious to know what happens here. Mine has never come on (2012 Flying Cloud), and the water heater seems to work fine. However, in our 2010 Sport (which we recently sold) the light was ON whenever the switch was on, which made a ton of sense to me. I don't know if mine is working correctly now or not.

As for the poop meter, you probably have a sensor issue which is certainly under warranty. I also believe these are pressure sensors, which means throwing a bag of ice down the toilet and driving around the park once or twice won't do much good. I would try filling the blackwater tank to FULL capacity, then dumping it to see if that calibrates the pressure sensor.

As a disclaimer, you should know that all of my advice is heresay, and that there is no real wisdom behind it. Keep us posted!

[SGM ADAMS]

Protagonist,

Thank you for your reply and comments, they are much appreciated.

Tim and Glenda Adams

[Protagonist]

Originally Posted by SGM ADAMS

Protagonist,

Thank you for your reply and comments, they are much appreciated.

Tim and Glenda Adams

You're quite welcome. If I may make a suggestion, in the future you may want to reserve your thanks for the people who are most helpful (in this case, Hibby) and not necessarily everyone who responds; otherwise you'll spend so much time thanking people that you've got no time left to post original questions or answers. Just be sure to offer your own opinions and advice along the way. We've all got something to offer to fellow Airstreamers!

[Westfalia]

Black tank valve should be in the closed position when in the park on hookups. It's possible that "debris" is covering the sensor. It will take a LOT of flushes to fill up a black tank in your model. Add water to the tank, dump, run the black water rinse system, retest. There is a re-calibration procedure for the sensors that is outlined in the manual for the sensors. I don't recall the exact procedure.

You water heater problem is probably a bad or failed thermal cutoff. See this thread for a little more info. You can bypass the cutoff by removing the inline circuit (brown wire, white sleeve) and plugging the wire in directly to the circuit board. Clean and check all connectors.

http://www.airforums.com/forums/f287...ing-88834.html

[richinny]

i believe any authorized service tech can fix your water heater under warranty. a mobile tech service can do it on your site.

colonial airstream has a video for the sensor recalibration. you can do just one sensor.
http://www.airforums.com/forums/f206...ate-85887.html

[TBRich]

RE the red flashing light on your tank sensor monitor panel means "you'd better dump me real soon!" If it is flashing when you know it's empty it could be: (1) the sensor is out of calibration; (2) the sensor is bad or (3) the panel is mis-wired.

RE the red light for the water heater. We do not have electric option on our water heater (just gas), so yours may be set up differently...but when we fire up the gas, the red light gones on for a few seconds, then shuts off, indicating that the burner is lit. Have you tried running it with gas yet?

[drew05]

SGM,

Tim I had a grey tank sensor go bad and it was replaced under warranty. As mentioned in previous posts, the sensor may only need to be re-calibrated. The sensors are pressure sensors, but the face of the sensor that sits in the tank is sort of a web face. It is possible that some debris is trapped in the openings, this is why some recommend the bag of ice in the toilet, and drive trick.

The procedure to recalibrate the sensors isn't too difficult, but you need to read the instructions carefully. You can calibrate only one tank.

I can't help with the water heater, our's is gas only.

Good Luck!