Fresh Water Tank

[ajwbarnard]

I think I saw a post on here, but maybe on Airstream Addicts. Our fresh water tank went from being 50% full from our initial delivery from the dealer to 100% full without being connected to the fresh water intake, but is connected to city water. We were running on city water exclusively for a month and maintained this 50% tank level and then it started filling up on its own. Why would that be?

[uncle_bob]

Hi

The tank will fill if the reverse flow valve on the pump is defective or simply has a bit of crud in it.

Bob

[kendrick.l.j]

Check valve properly just stuck. It happens a lot is not considered an issue or defective. Here's the fix. Turn off City Water, I would go so far has to say to disconnect the hose altogether, then turn on your water pump and use the water that is in the tank until gone, then reconnect back to city water.

[Zybane]

Also, check the door/port on the fresh water gravity full port. If pressured water is getting into the fresh water tank from city water, it would overflow out of the fresh water tank vent next to the filler port was a certain pressure was reached.

[ajwbarnard]

I think that it may have been leaking near the fresh water intake, but it was raining when this was happening so it was hard to tell. We have been running off the fresh water tank. It has gone down as we have used it and has not gone back up. So using the water pump may have done the trick.

[james.mileur]

Since it rained, pop open your outside shower door and see if it's trapping water. I just dumped mine out again last night and cut bigger slots in the foam gasket at the bottom.

[dznf0g]

When I got my AS (Used, but hardly), I was unclear about it's history as far as water tank went, so I pulled the bung in the bottom of the tank and flushed it thoroughly. Literally hundreds of shards of plastic came out. Remnants of the hole milling process, I suppose. The debris screen in the filter downstream of the pump would catch most of them, but I would guess that some are small enough to pass through to the pump. I suspect that many check valve fouling instances are the result of this trash.

[ajwbarnard]

Thought this had been solved. Used up the fresh water tank this week. Put the city water back and on used it for 2 days. Came back and fresh water tank was filled back up.

[HiJoeSilver]

Consider replacing the pump diaphragm, or opening it up and cleaning it out, there may be dirt in there it cant flush out. You'll need to turn off water for this. You should be able to use a 1/2" nylon plug to plug the line from the pump while working on it.. The only way for water to get in there this way is backwards through the pump. Down the road consider getting a suction strainer for the pump, adding a check valve or shutoff valve on the pump discharge.

[uncle_bob]

Hi

Since crud is one part of this sort of problem - do a really good flush of the tank and pipes before you swap out parts on the pump. Better to do it before rather than after.

Bob

[Owljim]

I have noticed my fresh water tank is also overflowing. I noticed that the tank will run down when I shut off the fresh water supply and turn on the pump. I will try running the tank down significantly and see if that helps.
Thanks for the tip and I hope it helps.

[paiceman]

I have a pump bypass I put on ours, seems to have solved the problem. I put it on to put anti-freeze in the system, but then Alde said not to, after they specifically told me to do so in 2016 on the 2017 we have.

[kendrick.l.j]

With my Classic, the holding tank is now filling immediately every time I hook up to city water so for the moment I am just not going to use the city water connection. I live in Florida and there is lot of lime deposits in the water dis spite using an external filter so I think the check valve is toast. I’m looking into installing a water softener system that would work for the house and the Airstream and have seen a portable system that is compact enough to travel with me. Eventually I’m going to have to replace the Airstream check valve, like soon, and try to find something that will eliminate any hard water left in the tank.
I spent the weekend trying to find and then repair a leak in the Alde system that may have been caused by microscopic hard water build up. Not positive but probably the cause and I don’t want to keep replacing check valves.

[uncle_bob]

Originally Posted by kendrick.l.j

With my Classic, the holding tank is now filling immediately every time I hook up to city water so for the moment I am just not going to use the city water connection. I live in Florida and there is lot of lime deposits in the water dis spite using an external filter so I think the check valve is toast. I’m looking into installing a water softener system that would work for the house and the Airstream and have seen a portable system that is compact enough to travel with me. Eventually I’m going to have to replace the Airstream check valve, like soon, and try to find something that will eliminate any hard water left in the tank.
I spent the weekend trying to find and then repair a leak in the Alde system that may have been caused by microscopic hard water build up. Not positive but probably the cause and I don’t want to keep replacing check valves.

Hi

I believe you will find that the check valve is part of the water pump assembly. (yes that's a guess ...).

There are things you can buy at the store to nuke hard water deposits. I'm not real sure that they all are compatible with the metal internals of a plumbing system. Best to read the labels carefully ......

Bob

[kendrick.l.j]

Yes, UB, I will be replacing that check valve as well but the ALDE also has an Automatic Air Vent (page 8 in the Manual) that is not closing (probably because of hard water deposits). I was told by Spencer that this valve needs to be opened from time to time to ensure that the air pocket is fully recharged. I only discovered the Automatic Air vent last Sunday because of a new water drip outside. To get to this valve I had to remove the seat over the Alde. I have never opened this valve before but I be doing it in the future. I will be adding this information to the Alde thread just in case someone else has the same dripping.

[james.mileur]

Originally Posted by kendrick.l.j

Yes, UB, I will be replacing that check valve as well but the ALDE also has an Automatic Air Vent (page 8 in the Manual) that is not closing (probably because of hard water deposits). I was told by Spencer that this valve needs to be opened from time to time to ensure that the air pocket is fully recharged. I only discovered the Automatic Air vent last Sunday because of a new water drip outside. To get to this valve I had to remove the seat over the Alde. I have never opened this valve before but I be doing it in the future. I will be adding this information to the Alde thread just in case someone else has the same dripping.

Hi Ms. Laura, please repost this in Much Ado and tell us all how you cycled the valve open. Thx. James

[kendrick.l.j]

James, i have a couple of questions for Spencer before I write about the drip but as so as those have those answered I will post over on the Alde thread.

[uncle_bob]

Hi

I've never ... ever ... not once .. done anything about the "air pocket" on my Alde. So far I have not noticed any problems due to my excessive (and very well known) lazyness .....

I *have* had the Alde pressure valve pop open when hooked up to campsites with billion pound water pressure. (Go into the washroom, turn on a faucet and the water hits the bowl, it then sprays the room up to 6' high with water .... yes billion pound water pressure ...)

Bob

[Boxite]

A simple fix which has worked for several friends who suffered check-valve failures which resulted in city-water back-flowing and filling their fresh-water tank:
1. Turn off the city water and run the pump for a minute or two by switching it repeatedly on/off/on/off. This sometimes helps reseat the check valve.
2. Fill the city-water supply-hose with vinegar, then reattach the vinegar-filled hose to the AS, turn the city water on...but do NOT turn the AS water faucets on for several hours. This will allow the vinegar to dissolve the lime deposits which have contaminated the check valve. After a couple hours, run one of the AS faucets for a minute. This brings the vinegar further into the system. Then turn off the city water and run the pump for a minute or two. Then allow it to sit for another hour, and then empty the city water supply-hose thru the outdoor shower.
3. Buy a gallon jug of pickling vinegar (which is 9-10% acidity) and pour it into an almost empty fresh water tank. Run the pump for a couple of short bursts until you smell the vinegar inside the AS. Let it sit for an hour, then flush the system. This works almost 100% of the time.

Any of these might work by itself, but my favorite fix is No. 3.

Hope this helps.