See Level Tank Monitor install (long)
Having campers fresh water tank box open due to recent leak, as much water as I had spilling out floor
seams assumed tank cracked and would be replacing. But tank had moved and pulled the fill line loose-just
sloshing out. Having saved price of new water tank and black tank hasn't read in a while, grey just jumps
around decided to install a SeeLevel tank monitor system, since I had so much open- now would be the time.
Have wanted to upgrade for a while.
Grey likely could be cleaned, recent issue. Black tried couple of times and hasn't responded to cleaning-
stuck on 2/3 for a while. Even if I could restore tired of not really knowing status- armed with justification and
a bunch of excuses decided to pursue. Certainly not a how-to, just the install in our camper.
Parts on order
After opening up to get access, measuring for senders and verify flat surface to attach, and whats involved,
Ordered Garnet SeeLevel II with 709-P3 monitor thru one of their recommended vendors, rvupgradestore.com.
Reads battery in volts, fresh, black & grey tanks in 0-100%, has 3-way (unpowered) switch for water pump.
Many configurations, switch options, even a bluetooth unit.
Included are 3) 12" tank senders, trimable to a degree but you can substitute a 6"(free) or 16"(slight cost)
senders to closer match tanks. The 12" or 16" are stack-able if you have really tall tank.
Other than seeing actual tank contents thru its cycle is the senders attach to outside of tank.
No more misreadings due to sensor getting dirty.
Best information is manufactures site, shows available options, downloadable instructions. Garnet SeeLevel
Prior to ordering you need to get access to tanks, verify height of tanks for sender lengths and that you have
flat surfaces to mount senders. Also making sure that area around location to mount senders, any metal is at
least an 1” away from either side or the top and bottom of the sender, and at least 2” away from the face of
the sender as it will interfere with sender readings.
When choosing senders: Fresh water tank height allow top of pump outlet and bottom of vent for height.
The senders have different min lengths and cut-able segments. Can't mix senders, stacked senders must be
trimmed to equal lengths
I used a 6" for 7 1/2" black, 12" cut to 7 1/2" for 8 1/2" grey and 16" for 18" fresh Tank.
Note the monitor reads 0-100% but in blocks of 3,4 or 5% depending on sender length.
You can reuse existing wiring which simplifies install. I choose to leave old system intact and run new wire.
SeeLevel uses one lead & ground that goes to all tanks, verses separate feeds from each tank. If reusing
old wires its cutting ground and feed, attaching to new sender.
Typical on old system is the 3 level sender wires are bundled together at tank in a 'button' and then continue
to old monitor. After the 'button' is where you would cut wire and connect to new sender. At the monitor, it's
tying all existing feeds (mine was red/green & blue) to the new monitors blue wire.
All grounds are tied together.
Eyeballing what I'm getting into
But I'm running new wire. First order is pre wiring to all tank locations and to monitor location. Then install
monitor. Then temporarily install senders, check placement and readings. Once happy, solder leads to
sender, stick on sender & finalizes wiring connections. Note the tanks MUST be clean. I used water, then
lightly sanded with 220 to ensure flat, wiped with acetone then alcohol.
Checking access, measure for senders..Fresh tank is open, easy to access. Straight shot to monitor.
Black tank once P-trap dropped also fairly easy to access. Direct path to valve compartment for wires.
The Grey tank is bad, 2-3 inch access, the only flat surface is facing bumper. Picture is with cover, a plastic
box, already removed, laying on our back looking up. This one is going to be difficult. Mostly in correctly
positioning sender without the adhesive backing grabbing-only one chance. No other options.
End of tank is in valve compartment so wiring will be easy.
I'll run wire from rear valve compartment to forward water tank box then up to monitor.
Pre wire
Picked up 2 40' rolls of 18ga blue & white wire to begin pre wiring.
Wires run from black and grey tanks into valve compartment. Wire dropped from bathroom cabinet into
valve compartment that will be routed to fresh water tank, these will all be tied together.
...pause-reconsidering if I really want to run new feed all the way to front...new wire is pushed into valve compartment
from under bath sink. To get from bath to front will take couple of hours. The existing wires are laying in bottom -
I could cut and splice into them and forgo the effort....hmmm
Sticking with plan, only took an hour to run behind wardrobe, stove & under sink into water tank box.
Not to bad, surprised me. Getting up to monitor location took considerably longer which surprised me more.
I pair from black/grey, the other to monitor, again these will be tied together, adding another pair that will
connect to fresh water sender.
Went back and loosely tidied wiring a bit with stubs yet to be attached at tanks for senders once they arrive.
Wires in valve compartment from black & grey and lead to water tank box where it will continue to monitor.
And water tank box. Once senders are connected wires will be taped to tanks, finalize securing wires.
But pre wiring done-next is installing the monitor, wire the new leads to monitor to read senders and verify
placement as they are temporarily connected and taped to tanks. Instructions outline this.
Basically on tanks your filling want them to measure 100% a bit before actually full, on the fresh water that
your draining, to read 0% just prior to pump outlet sucking air.
Tank heights and sender lengths vary so temporarily placing will allow checking.
Ideally cycling tanks- which I will on fresh and grey-the black tank I'm not, check but not cycle. Sender is
short enough, 6" on 7 1/4" tall tank to place 1/2" from bottom, 3/4" from top and be good, hopefully read 0%
with a gallon of water, and hopefully, looking down toilet, says 100% before dump pipe filling.
Monitor
Taking the opportunity to shuffle stuff around and move the new monitor out of corner where old one was.
The water pump switch wires will transfer to new monitors switch. Move the tank heater switch to cover old
monitor hole.
New monitor requires fuse at 7.5 amp. Circuit is fused at 10amp and feeds other items so cant just lower fuse
value. Could add inline fuse and stuff in wall but noted board had empty hole/allowance for another switch.
I used that to install a panel mount fuse holder. Removed pump switch and filled a flat on fuse holder to
orient it on panel and fit to hole width using pump switch hole to size.
Then cut hole thru face in other panel switch location to accept the fuse holder, locating vertically to miss
components on back of board. Hole tight enough to contain, backing nut with nylon washer just snug.
Opened up wall kitchen side of wall to 3"x1 7/8" accept monitor with new fuse sticking thru existing holes(s).
Locating as far as I could to counter edge and still cover original hole in wall.
On the water pump switch used flag terminals as depth of wall is only an inch deep. Its snug. The thru hole
goes into small cabinet that has a drawer which is 4" shy of reaching wall. Where factory ran wires/cabling
that branches every where. In that space between wall and end of drawer is quite a bundle of wires.
FYI
Garnet has available a larger spacer to cover existing oversized hole if needed, also a rubber gasket if
mounting on metal, but they don't sell any thing to surface mount or space out panel. The flag terminals
touch back wall. If I had used spades or soldered straight onto switch- um not sure. Wires on plug I had to
bend at right angle and its still pushing bottom of panel out. Need an additional 1/8-1/4" of space.
Guess that's one reason I've seen so many of these mounted to a block of wood? Need about 1 1/4" from
face of wall to back of hole, I have 1 1/8". Round to it...
Monitor unplugs so will make spacer later-but its wired.
And mounted...
Verifying pump switch function-. Fortunately display only on a few seconds-really dislike red displays.
The brightness level is adjustable though.
Also picked up a Mopeka LPG tanks monitor. Bluetooth senders attached to bottom of tanks measure contents
& send info to this or 'smart' device. Was going to install over old water pump switch hole but also relocating
where easier to reach, plus wider than space between SeeLevel panel and tank heater switch. Also mounting
vertically to fit space better.
Just need something to plug old switch hole. On to the senders.
SeeLevel senders mounted
Fairly straight forward. Having marked location just peel and stick.
Solder leads, shrink warped, use some left over eternabond tape Gorilla tape to secure wire leads at tanks.
Started with fresh water as it was the easiest. WOW. Good thing. Getting near anything once sticky exposed
it grabs tenaciously and is not coming loose. Wasn't prepared for that. Luckily it was in correct position.
I guess they were serious when stating 'you get one chance'. I'll pay more attention at the holding tanks.
Bottom of picture is tank draining, another 1/4" and tank shows empty, which is still tiny bit above pump outlet. Cool.
Next is the black tank. Surprisingly this was the easiest of the 3.
I guess because sender shorter, I could get both hands in there (once P-trap dropped). Doesn't show in
picture but mirror shows perfect placement. Shrink and solder leads. Monitor shows 0% which bottom is just
wet, maybe half gal. Spaced with a bit more gap at top so should be good.
Last is the grey. I knew it was going to be a bear and it was...
Got it, though really close to top, that grabbing out of my hands thing. Which not really a bad thing as bottom
of tank has quite a curve. Just higher than wanted. Soldered the leads and used gorilla tape to secure wires.
Cycled water, at 100% tank will take another 2 gallons before coming up in shower so were golden. Then
lapped from bottom up with tape to give some protecting from elements as this is semi exposed even with the
cover.
Played with the monitor a while-just sweet...
While everything was open I had added a tank rinser to both black and grey tanks. Checked them again for
leaks and its all good. By golly were done. Started putting it all back together. Reinstall the grey tank cover
and button it all up. Tidy up all the wiring, reinstall water tank box.
Wondering how much water I pushed into tanks testing rinsers I push the button on the black tank and it
shows 5%, This is so cool..
And it all turned to pooh- well grey...
Push the grey and it ...shows "OPn". What... push the fresh and it shows "Err"....****.
Reading the trouble codes section of manual, simple break in a wire could cause. Hopefully I simply snagged
wire replacing the grey tank cover.
Next morning, dang I was that close to be done....remove the grey tank cover. Its an hour rolling around on
creeper. Nope no breaks in wire. Could be internal and not visible started testing.
Tested wires leading to grey in valve compartment by shorting then read monitor-reads "Sht" (as it should).
So wiring good to that point. Opened up the solder connection at sender, shorted across.
Monitor shows "Sht" so my wiring is good up to sender.
Contacted Garnet. Suggestion was that the trimmed tab that programs the sender cut isn't clean or has
shorted and reestablishing electrical path, which uncut would read as a fresh water, can't have 2
senders same function and-as fresh water shows "Err" sounds likely. Problem is can't get to top of sender.
So removal required, check/recut the tab. Garnet stated that would work however removal would probably
cause sender to no longer work or long term be unreliable, so will send a new one.
As system was working until I reinstalled the tank cover I'm pretty sure something I did. If nothing else so I
don't repeat used a heat gun and slowly removed the sender without bending. Needs to come off anyway.
Tabs looked good but I recut. No visible damage to sender board.
Fresh no longer shows error but grey still shows open-sender failed. So awaiting replacement.
About the best out of this episode was discovering and using the ability of the system to self test and aid in
identifying an issue, but more impressed with Garnets willingness to help diagnose problem, and once
identified supplying replacement sender.
WhooWhoo!
New sender arrived. Reinstalled, testing at monitor every step of the way. Its working. Due to limited access
sender ended up a tad low. Had some issues with the plastic tank cover unrelated to system.
But system is working, even with the grey tank fiasco worth the effort.
System is amazing- SeeLevel and refaced LPG monitor.
No more second guessing once levels cross 2/3 if 1/3 left or time to find a dump station. Pretty stoked.
No more looking down the toilet. Or when fresh drops to 1/3, pulling the water tank box lid to see if 10 gallons
left or it is almost empty.
seams assumed tank cracked and would be replacing. But tank had moved and pulled the fill line loose-just
sloshing out. Having saved price of new water tank and black tank hasn't read in a while, grey just jumps
around decided to install a SeeLevel tank monitor system, since I had so much open- now would be the time.
Have wanted to upgrade for a while.
Grey likely could be cleaned, recent issue. Black tried couple of times and hasn't responded to cleaning-
stuck on 2/3 for a while. Even if I could restore tired of not really knowing status- armed with justification and
a bunch of excuses decided to pursue. Certainly not a how-to, just the install in our camper.
Parts on order
After opening up to get access, measuring for senders and verify flat surface to attach, and whats involved,
Ordered Garnet SeeLevel II with 709-P3 monitor thru one of their recommended vendors, rvupgradestore.com.
Reads battery in volts, fresh, black & grey tanks in 0-100%, has 3-way (unpowered) switch for water pump.
Many configurations, switch options, even a bluetooth unit.
Included are 3) 12" tank senders, trimable to a degree but you can substitute a 6"(free) or 16"(slight cost)
senders to closer match tanks. The 12" or 16" are stack-able if you have really tall tank.
Other than seeing actual tank contents thru its cycle is the senders attach to outside of tank.
No more misreadings due to sensor getting dirty.
Best information is manufactures site, shows available options, downloadable instructions. Garnet SeeLevel
Prior to ordering you need to get access to tanks, verify height of tanks for sender lengths and that you have
flat surfaces to mount senders. Also making sure that area around location to mount senders, any metal is at
least an 1” away from either side or the top and bottom of the sender, and at least 2” away from the face of
the sender as it will interfere with sender readings.
When choosing senders: Fresh water tank height allow top of pump outlet and bottom of vent for height.
The senders have different min lengths and cut-able segments. Can't mix senders, stacked senders must be
trimmed to equal lengths
- 6" JS =1" cuts to 4" minimum
- 12" ES =1 1/2" cuts to 4 1/2" min.
- 16" SS =2" cuts to 6" min.
I used a 6" for 7 1/2" black, 12" cut to 7 1/2" for 8 1/2" grey and 16" for 18" fresh Tank.
Note the monitor reads 0-100% but in blocks of 3,4 or 5% depending on sender length.
You can reuse existing wiring which simplifies install. I choose to leave old system intact and run new wire.
SeeLevel uses one lead & ground that goes to all tanks, verses separate feeds from each tank. If reusing
old wires its cutting ground and feed, attaching to new sender.
Typical on old system is the 3 level sender wires are bundled together at tank in a 'button' and then continue
to old monitor. After the 'button' is where you would cut wire and connect to new sender. At the monitor, it's
tying all existing feeds (mine was red/green & blue) to the new monitors blue wire.
All grounds are tied together.
Eyeballing what I'm getting into
But I'm running new wire. First order is pre wiring to all tank locations and to monitor location. Then install
monitor. Then temporarily install senders, check placement and readings. Once happy, solder leads to
sender, stick on sender & finalizes wiring connections. Note the tanks MUST be clean. I used water, then
lightly sanded with 220 to ensure flat, wiped with acetone then alcohol.
Checking access, measure for senders..Fresh tank is open, easy to access. Straight shot to monitor.
Black tank once P-trap dropped also fairly easy to access. Direct path to valve compartment for wires.
The Grey tank is bad, 2-3 inch access, the only flat surface is facing bumper. Picture is with cover, a plastic
box, already removed, laying on our back looking up. This one is going to be difficult. Mostly in correctly
positioning sender without the adhesive backing grabbing-only one chance. No other options.
End of tank is in valve compartment so wiring will be easy.
I'll run wire from rear valve compartment to forward water tank box then up to monitor.
Pre wire
Picked up 2 40' rolls of 18ga blue & white wire to begin pre wiring.
Wires run from black and grey tanks into valve compartment. Wire dropped from bathroom cabinet into
valve compartment that will be routed to fresh water tank, these will all be tied together.
...pause-reconsidering if I really want to run new feed all the way to front...new wire is pushed into valve compartment
from under bath sink. To get from bath to front will take couple of hours. The existing wires are laying in bottom -
I could cut and splice into them and forgo the effort....hmmm
Sticking with plan, only took an hour to run behind wardrobe, stove & under sink into water tank box.
Not to bad, surprised me. Getting up to monitor location took considerably longer which surprised me more.
I pair from black/grey, the other to monitor, again these will be tied together, adding another pair that will
connect to fresh water sender.
Went back and loosely tidied wiring a bit with stubs yet to be attached at tanks for senders once they arrive.
Wires in valve compartment from black & grey and lead to water tank box where it will continue to monitor.
And water tank box. Once senders are connected wires will be taped to tanks, finalize securing wires.
But pre wiring done-next is installing the monitor, wire the new leads to monitor to read senders and verify
placement as they are temporarily connected and taped to tanks. Instructions outline this.
Basically on tanks your filling want them to measure 100% a bit before actually full, on the fresh water that
your draining, to read 0% just prior to pump outlet sucking air.
Tank heights and sender lengths vary so temporarily placing will allow checking.
Ideally cycling tanks- which I will on fresh and grey-the black tank I'm not, check but not cycle. Sender is
short enough, 6" on 7 1/4" tall tank to place 1/2" from bottom, 3/4" from top and be good, hopefully read 0%
with a gallon of water, and hopefully, looking down toilet, says 100% before dump pipe filling.
Monitor
Taking the opportunity to shuffle stuff around and move the new monitor out of corner where old one was.
The water pump switch wires will transfer to new monitors switch. Move the tank heater switch to cover old
monitor hole.
New monitor requires fuse at 7.5 amp. Circuit is fused at 10amp and feeds other items so cant just lower fuse
value. Could add inline fuse and stuff in wall but noted board had empty hole/allowance for another switch.
I used that to install a panel mount fuse holder. Removed pump switch and filled a flat on fuse holder to
orient it on panel and fit to hole width using pump switch hole to size.
Then cut hole thru face in other panel switch location to accept the fuse holder, locating vertically to miss
components on back of board. Hole tight enough to contain, backing nut with nylon washer just snug.
Opened up wall kitchen side of wall to 3"x1 7/8" accept monitor with new fuse sticking thru existing holes(s).
Locating as far as I could to counter edge and still cover original hole in wall.
On the water pump switch used flag terminals as depth of wall is only an inch deep. Its snug. The thru hole
goes into small cabinet that has a drawer which is 4" shy of reaching wall. Where factory ran wires/cabling
that branches every where. In that space between wall and end of drawer is quite a bundle of wires.
FYI
Garnet has available a larger spacer to cover existing oversized hole if needed, also a rubber gasket if
mounting on metal, but they don't sell any thing to surface mount or space out panel. The flag terminals
touch back wall. If I had used spades or soldered straight onto switch- um not sure. Wires on plug I had to
bend at right angle and its still pushing bottom of panel out. Need an additional 1/8-1/4" of space.
Guess that's one reason I've seen so many of these mounted to a block of wood? Need about 1 1/4" from
face of wall to back of hole, I have 1 1/8". Round to it...
Monitor unplugs so will make spacer later-but its wired.
And mounted...
Verifying pump switch function-. Fortunately display only on a few seconds-really dislike red displays.
The brightness level is adjustable though.
Also picked up a Mopeka LPG tanks monitor. Bluetooth senders attached to bottom of tanks measure contents
& send info to this or 'smart' device. Was going to install over old water pump switch hole but also relocating
where easier to reach, plus wider than space between SeeLevel panel and tank heater switch. Also mounting
vertically to fit space better.
Just need something to plug old switch hole. On to the senders.
SeeLevel senders mounted
Fairly straight forward. Having marked location just peel and stick.
Solder leads, shrink warped, use some left over eternabond tape Gorilla tape to secure wire leads at tanks.
Started with fresh water as it was the easiest. WOW. Good thing. Getting near anything once sticky exposed
it grabs tenaciously and is not coming loose. Wasn't prepared for that. Luckily it was in correct position.
I guess they were serious when stating 'you get one chance'. I'll pay more attention at the holding tanks.
Bottom of picture is tank draining, another 1/4" and tank shows empty, which is still tiny bit above pump outlet. Cool.
Next is the black tank. Surprisingly this was the easiest of the 3.
I guess because sender shorter, I could get both hands in there (once P-trap dropped). Doesn't show in
picture but mirror shows perfect placement. Shrink and solder leads. Monitor shows 0% which bottom is just
wet, maybe half gal. Spaced with a bit more gap at top so should be good.
Last is the grey. I knew it was going to be a bear and it was...
Got it, though really close to top, that grabbing out of my hands thing. Which not really a bad thing as bottom
of tank has quite a curve. Just higher than wanted. Soldered the leads and used gorilla tape to secure wires.
Cycled water, at 100% tank will take another 2 gallons before coming up in shower so were golden. Then
lapped from bottom up with tape to give some protecting from elements as this is semi exposed even with the
cover.
Played with the monitor a while-just sweet...
While everything was open I had added a tank rinser to both black and grey tanks. Checked them again for
leaks and its all good. By golly were done. Started putting it all back together. Reinstall the grey tank cover
and button it all up. Tidy up all the wiring, reinstall water tank box.
Wondering how much water I pushed into tanks testing rinsers I push the button on the black tank and it
shows 5%, This is so cool..
And it all turned to pooh- well grey...
Push the grey and it ...shows "OPn". What... push the fresh and it shows "Err"....****.
Reading the trouble codes section of manual, simple break in a wire could cause. Hopefully I simply snagged
wire replacing the grey tank cover.
Next morning, dang I was that close to be done....remove the grey tank cover. Its an hour rolling around on
creeper. Nope no breaks in wire. Could be internal and not visible started testing.
Tested wires leading to grey in valve compartment by shorting then read monitor-reads "Sht" (as it should).
So wiring good to that point. Opened up the solder connection at sender, shorted across.
Monitor shows "Sht" so my wiring is good up to sender.
Contacted Garnet. Suggestion was that the trimmed tab that programs the sender cut isn't clean or has
shorted and reestablishing electrical path, which uncut would read as a fresh water, can't have 2
senders same function and-as fresh water shows "Err" sounds likely. Problem is can't get to top of sender.
So removal required, check/recut the tab. Garnet stated that would work however removal would probably
cause sender to no longer work or long term be unreliable, so will send a new one.
As system was working until I reinstalled the tank cover I'm pretty sure something I did. If nothing else so I
don't repeat used a heat gun and slowly removed the sender without bending. Needs to come off anyway.
Tabs looked good but I recut. No visible damage to sender board.
Fresh no longer shows error but grey still shows open-sender failed. So awaiting replacement.
About the best out of this episode was discovering and using the ability of the system to self test and aid in
identifying an issue, but more impressed with Garnets willingness to help diagnose problem, and once
identified supplying replacement sender.
WhooWhoo!
New sender arrived. Reinstalled, testing at monitor every step of the way. Its working. Due to limited access
sender ended up a tad low. Had some issues with the plastic tank cover unrelated to system.
But system is working, even with the grey tank fiasco worth the effort.
System is amazing- SeeLevel and refaced LPG monitor.
No more second guessing once levels cross 2/3 if 1/3 left or time to find a dump station. Pretty stoked.
No more looking down the toilet. Or when fresh drops to 1/3, pulling the water tank box lid to see if 10 gallons
left or it is almost empty.
