Help with Coachmen "Water Works" panel

[Travelin2]

We Recently bought a 2004 Coachmen Concord 235SO. I'm trying to figure out how to make that "Water Works" panel suck the bleach solution into the fresh water holding tank and have had no luck yet. The owners manual doesn't show this panel. It shows a picture of a bigger one with 4 valves and a vague description of the operation. If someone has experience with this, I would appreciate a little tutorial. Thanks.

[alliemac9]

Travelin2 wrote:

DrewE wrote:
It appears that the right hand valve is between the pressure side and the tank inlet, i.e. the fill valve. The left hand valve apparently selects where the hose inlet and pump inlet hook up. I would try the left valve in the winterize position and the right valve in the fill position -- i.e. both valves pointed at each other. It may not work.

Another method for getting the bleach solution into the tank that many people use is to set the valves to fill, pour the appropriate amount of bleach (undiluted) into the far end of the hose, and then hook it up to the spigot and fill as usual. The bleach will dilute properly when the tank is filled. The short burst of undiluted bleach won't harm the plumbing or hose in any way, though it might not be a great idea to let it sit there for hours or days on end.

Well Drew, I'm not sure how you deduced that the levers need to be pointed at each other to suck water into the winterize port and put it in the holding tank but that is the correct setting.

I played around with the valves this morning and found it works fine. The designers of the user instruction panel just didn't make it clear enough for some of us dunderheads. The position indicated for using water from the tank or city water is correct. The position indicated for winterizing, sucks in through the winterizing port and puts it directly into the plumbing system so you can turn on each faucet till you get the pink stuff but does not fill the tank. For that to happen the levers need to be pointed at each other and then fluid is sucked in through the winterizing port and straight to the freshwater tank. The only snafu was that they didn't indicate that on the instruction panel. Drew was able to figure it out and I had to use trial and error. I guess if I need to figure something out about dynamite, maybe I better call Drew.

Wow - I am so excited to try this on my rig! I have the exact same water panel (same graphics and knobs; I've seen a few variations from Coachmen) and I could NOT get mine to suck anything up, either. I've always used the "pour bleach into the hose" trick. But, I thought it would be cool to have a backup plan to suck water from a jug to refill the tank while boondocking, if I wanted (i.e. these coaches have no option for gravity fill, so without a pressure hookup I cannot add water to my freshwater tank which hasn't been a problem for me yet, but seemed like an oversight relative to other coaches). My local Coachmen people thought I was insane when I brought the manual in and said "it's supposed to suck water in" (either for winterize or non-pressure fill) and told me the valves/plumbing were not set up to accommodate that and it was a generic feature in the manual that didn't apply to my rig. Maybe they were wrong! I need to print this out and do some testing!!!

And if it works, I'll take a sharpie and draw an additional configuration on the inside of the panel door or on the panel itself (I wrote inside the door the volume of bleach I need to use to sanitize my system so I don't have to look it up and calculate every time).

Thanks, Drew! And thanks Travelin2 for asking the question and clarifying the function of filling the lines versus the tank! I never tried opening the faucets to find out it was filling the lines when in Winterize mode.

Super excited!! 🙂

[Travelin2]

akrv wrote:
I have one of those on my motorhome. To get bleach in the fresh water tank I hook the hose up to like normal set to fill tank and fill the water hose bleach than hook the hose to the water source.

In one of the earlier post of this thread "Drew" mentioned the same thing and I do believe that makes the most sense. I will probably do that in the future. Since this rig is new to me, I was just trying to understand how it all works so down the road it may come in handy trying to solve some problem. Thanks for the help and I hope you have found your Coachmen to be a good rig. I am finding it to be built quite well. The floor has about 2 inches of blue foam insulation and the generator is much less obnoxious than our last rig.

[akrv]

I have one of those on my motorhome. To get bleach in the fresh water tank I hook the hose up to like normal set to fill tank and fill the water hose bleach than hook the hose to the water source.

[Travelin2]

DrewE wrote:

Travelin2 wrote:
I'm not sure about the venting of the tank and am a little nervous about pumping into the tank anyway until I know how it's vented. I'm sure it is, I just don't know where it is so I can watch for it to start spitting when the tank is full.

I would be shocked if the vent/overflow outlet isn't someplace underneath the motorhome. It certainly is on my Coachmen motorhome. Once it starts piddling on the driveway, I turn off the water hose. It would make no sense at all to vent it somewhere that water spitting out would be reasonably expected to cause trouble, such as inside somewhere, since filling or even sloshing after the tank is full could cause some water to burp out.

I removed the top of the dinette bench to check out the vents and where they exit the coach. There are actually two and they exit between the chassis frame rails.

[Travelin2]

DrewE wrote:
It appears that the right hand valve is between the pressure side and the tank inlet, i.e. the fill valve. The left hand valve apparently selects where the hose inlet and pump inlet hook up. I would try the left valve in the winterize position and the right valve in the fill position -- i.e. both valves pointed at each other. It may not work.

Another method for getting the bleach solution into the tank that many people use is to set the valves to fill, pour the appropriate amount of bleach (undiluted) into the far end of the hose, and then hook it up to the spigot and fill as usual. The bleach will dilute properly when the tank is filled. The short burst of undiluted bleach won't harm the plumbing or hose in any way, though it might not be a great idea to let it sit there for hours or days on end.

Well Drew, I'm not sure how you deduced that the levers need to be pointed at each other to suck water into the winterize port and put it in the holding tank but that is the correct setting.

I played around with the valves this morning and found it works fine. The designers of the user instruction panel just didn't make it clear enough for some of us dunderheads. The position indicated for using water from the tank or city water is correct. The position indicated for winterizing, sucks in through the winterizing port and puts it directly into the plumbing system so you can turn on each faucet till you get the pink stuff but does not fill the tank. For that to happen the levers need to be pointed at each other and then fluid is sucked in through the winterizing port and straight to the freshwater tank. The only snafu was that they didn't indicate that on the instruction panel. Drew was able to figure it out and I had to use trial and error. I guess if I need to figure something out about dynamite, maybe I better call Drew.

[Johno02]

Here is the one I use, from lowes, Home Depot, Walmart, all under $50, up to as high as you want to go.

Cartridge water Filter

[DrewE]

Travelin2 wrote:
I'm not sure about the venting of the tank and am a little nervous about pumping into the tank anyway until I know how it's vented. I'm sure it is, I just don't know where it is so I can watch for it to start spitting when the tank is full.

I would be shocked if the vent/overflow outlet isn't someplace underneath the motorhome. It certainly is on my Coachmen motorhome. Once it starts piddling on the driveway, I turn off the water hose. It would make no sense at all to vent it somewhere that water spitting out would be reasonably expected to cause trouble, such as inside somewhere, since filling or even sloshing after the tank is full could cause some water to burp out.

[Travelin2]

Johno02 wrote:
For those that only have a hose connection to fill the fresh tank, about the best solution is to buy and inexpensive cartridge water filter. Just connect it line with your water hose, and without a cartridge, fill the cannister with your straight bleach. then screw it back together, and fill tank as normal. Depending on your tank size, you may need to fill cannister several times to get required amount of bleach. Then keep the cannister and filter to use whenever you are connected to shore water at a campsite. Some places you need it, others may not, but doesn't hurt anything to leave in it place all the time. Just change the filter cartridge every once in a while.

I do like to have a filter at the hose inlet. I have been using those filters that are sealed and a throwaway. I think I will look for one like you speak of with a replaceable element. I haven't seen a small one but maybe an Amazon search will work. Thanks for the heads up.

[Travelin2]

DrewE wrote:
It appears that the right hand valve is between the pressure side and the tank inlet, i.e. the fill valve. The left hand valve apparently selects where the hose inlet and pump inlet hook up. I would try the left valve in the winterize position and the right valve in the fill position -- i.e. both valves pointed at each other. It may not work.

Another method for getting the bleach solution into the tank that many people use is to set the valves to fill, pour the appropriate amount of bleach (undiluted) into the far end of the hose, and then hook it up to the spigot and fill as usual. The bleach will dilute properly when the tank is filled. The short burst of undiluted bleach won't harm the plumbing or hose in any way, though it might not be a great idea to let it sit there for hours or days on end.

That definitely is the easiest way. I was hoping to get it in my brain just how those valves worked in the plumbing. I was going to put the bleach in this evening and let it set overnite but it got late and didn't have time to experiment with the valves. I'm not sure about the venting of the tank and am a little nervous about pumping into the tank anyway until I know how it's vented. I'm sure it is, I just don't know where it is so I can watch for it to start spitting when the tank is full.

[DrewE]

It appears that the right hand valve is between the pressure side and the tank inlet, i.e. the fill valve. The left hand valve apparently selects where the hose inlet and pump inlet hook up. I would try the left valve in the winterize position and the right valve in the fill position -- i.e. both valves pointed at each other. It may not work.

Another method for getting the bleach solution into the tank that many people use is to set the valves to fill, pour the appropriate amount of bleach (undiluted) into the far end of the hose, and then hook it up to the spigot and fill as usual. The bleach will dilute properly when the tank is filled. The short burst of undiluted bleach won't harm the plumbing or hose in any way, though it might not be a great idea to let it sit there for hours or days on end.

[Johno02]

For those that only have a hose connection to fill the fresh tank, about the best solution is to buy and inexpensive cartridge water filter. Just connect it line with your water hose, and without a cartridge, fill the cannister with your straight bleach. then screw it back together, and fill tank as normal. Depending on your tank size, you may need to fill cannister several times to get required amount of bleach. Then keep the cannister and filter to use whenever you are connected to shore water at a campsite. Some places you need it, others may not, but doesn't hurt anything to leave in it place all the time. Just change the filter cartridge every once in a while.

[Old-Biscuit]

Current position of levers is "Tank Fill"
Left lever DOWN
Right lever LEFT

Winterize
Left lever RIGHT
Right lever UP
A hose stuck in anti-freeze jug is then connected to Winterize Connection (as shown) and the turn pump on to suck from jug

Note:
Some Water Works Panels were mis-labeled for Winterize
If above positions do not work (allow for sucking anti-freeze from jug) then turn Right lever from UP to RIGHT
Left lever and right lever pointing at each other

[Johno02]

Have never seen one before, but the winterize inlet and valve probably just suction into the pump and lines, but NOT into the fresh water tank.