Monitors & Thermostats

NewRW Owner · 06-23-2017, 08:19 PM

Have these systems been a problem for any RW owners? We had a problem with a couple of the tank monitors but they were supposed to be fixed when we had our RW with our dealer for warranty work for over 3 weeks. We were on our 2nd outing starting the 12th of this month with our new RW and found that the tanks started to register. They went to approx one third full and stopped showing additional use. Five days latter we finally hooked up to sewer because we didn't want to fill to over copacity and burst, again leaking into the underbelly. The reason we let everything go into the holding tanks was that we wanted to make sure they were working properly. The fresh water monitor showed that we were approx one third full. When the RV Park's water pump failed, we quickly found that we were shortly out of water, even though our monitor showed we had plenty. The end result was that we had to come home 5 days early because we had no water.

Also the thermostat at the stairs in our 38GK doesn't register the right temperature as the day progresses. It seems to register the correct room temp at the beginning of the day when the air conditioners come on. But latter in the day it will show the room temp to be 82 when it is actually 73. We have a couple of room temp thermometers. Besides we were freezing while the room temp showed that it was over 80. The bedroom thermostat works perfectly.

Sorry to write a book here .. the good news is that with temps at 105 to 108 our RW kept us nice and cool.

NW Snowbirds · 06-23-2017, 09:21 PM

We have a similar problem with the thermostat posting a warmer temperature. I discovered that the thermostat is mounted directly above several light switches on the wall, and that the switches warm up the wall when the lights are turned on. The warm wall affects the thermostat temp read out and thus the control settings. The solution is to find a way to insulate the switch box or adjust your thermostat settings to compensate from the heat generated by the switches. Bad installation at the factory.

With regard to the tank monitors, none of them work for long, especially the black and gray tanks.

NewRW Owner · 06-23-2017, 10:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NW Snowbirds

We have a similar problem with the thermostat posting a warmer temperature. I discovered that the thermostat is mounted directly above several light switches on the wall, and that the switches warm up the wall when the lights are turned on. The warm wall affects the thermostat temp read out and thus the control settings. The solution is to find a way to insulate the switch box or adjust your thermostat settings to compensate from the heat generated by the switches. Bad installation at the factory.

With regard to the tank monitors, none of them work for long, especially the black and gray tanks.

Thanks for your info on the thermostat. You're probably right. We have lots of switches around that one. And the black tank monitors are always inaccurate. But the others, in 45 years and 12 other RVs we've never had any remotely as inaccurate as those in our RW. Though never precise, every other one that we've owned has been close enough that we've known when we needed to dump our holding tanks and when refill our fresh water tank. Ours literally registers up to approx one third and then doesn't move in days of use. With the black water tank, normal in our experience but the others never.

xtasee · 06-23-2017, 11:27 PM

As you search the forum, you will find many posts about the monitors. Many have changed the sensors out to a different style. The originals (especially black tank) can get covered with material and quit working. As I understand it, there is a sensor available that is more flush with the inside of the tanks making material harder to stick to it. They supposedly work better but how long???

Also try using single ply TP.

travelin' texans · 06-23-2017, 11:50 PM

We've owned 8-9 rvs & not had sensors that worked much past the 1st couple fills. We're fulltime & can easily last a week on the black & galley gray, but about 2 days on the bath gray. The bath gray indicator is when it starts to fill the shower, the black has different sound when flushing, & the galley starts to get a sewer smell. I leave the bath valve open (when connected to sewer) & close it a day or 2 before dumping black & as I said I typically dump once a week.
To me it's not worth the time or money to go to the trouble of changing out the sensors. Others will come on to say sensor cleaners, dumping ice cubes in the tanks, magic elixirs of detergents, I've tried all them & yes they work for about 1-2 fills then your back to 1/3 full.
As for the thermostat, the upper portion will always be hotter in winter & cooler in summer. Depending on where you're reading the ambient temps it can vary 5 degrees in the rear, near the closet, on slide walls, with/without awnings extended, top of the steps. I had an indoor thermometer mounted on the wall next to the recliners & in the shade it was close to the thermostat reading, in the sun it would be 5-10 degrees warmer.

Shane Wood · 06-24-2017, 03:58 AM

The only sensors that do not have bad reviews are sea level but they are around 400.00 they attach to the outside of the tank so do not get plugged up. As Danny says In over 40 years rving have never had one that works properly. Water fills up the sink or shower it's time to dump. Toilet burps or backsplashes water its time to dump

NewRW Owner · 06-24-2017, 05:19 AM

Wow! I guess we've been lucky. Maybe I should try to find out the brand of monitors in our other rigs. The 10 year old Arctic Fox monitors that we traded for our RW worked all of the time that we owned it. The 2004 slide in camper that we still own still works. Granted the black tank on all of them mostly never shows as empty. Guess TP and other stuff causes the error but even it does move with use. All of our RVs have had lots of use. With the camper we go to lots of places where there aren't any hook ups. I really appreciate the input!

atom ant · 06-24-2017, 03:31 PM

I've gotten so used to ignoring them that now that we have some that work, I never think to use them.

NewRW Owner · 06-24-2017, 07:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by atom ant

I've gotten so used to ignoring them that now that we have some that work, I never think to use them.

When we're at a park with full hookups we don't check either. But when we have no hookups or especially no sewer hookup we most definitely keep an eye on usage. Last year we found that some parks that always had before provided full hookups, didn't provide full hookups with our RPI membership reservation, even though they had full hookup sites available. We were a whole week in our Arctic Fox with no sewer. In the camper we're more accustomed to being frugal but most of the tme in the trailer we go to parks that offer full hook ups. Anyway we cancelled our reservations going forward with that group of parks that no longer offer full hookups to RPI members. And we were very glad that our monitors worked for that week that we didn't have them.

You may also like: