Hi a very neat idea but the setup seems to prevent filling the tank directly from a mains feed via the Whale connector. I try and fill the tank on arrival at site either at a motorhome point or a shared site tap. This saves fetching several barrels of water. The solution to this seems to be to control the solenoid by a separate switch rather than the external pump.
I haven't tried the whale direct connector but I imagine it would still work. You would have to turn on the external pump. This would activate the solenoid but of course there is no pump to run. But it's wired in parallel so the pump doesn't need to be there. Unless the whale direct connector makes use of the 12v supply (I can't see why it would) it should function the same.
@@DTSquared Ah! I think you're correct. Switching the external pump on would activate the soleniod whether or not the pump was there. Thank you for your help.
From memory I'm pretty sure the drain uses the same type of pipe so it is certainly possible. I'll see if I can get budgetary approval for the project from my head of finances (wife) 😀
@@DTSquared I leave all my drains open when I set off so I'm looking at fitting a different drain valve (the one I took out of the internal bypass set) and mount it near the locker door, not perfect but a big improvement. Just waiting for the warranty to run out.
Hi. Love the Caravan vids so far, keep them coming! Question.... would this setup not mean that each time the outboard pump is used it would fill the inboard tank first rather than run through the taps if that makes sense? All the best.
Hi James, Glad you are enjoying the videos. Yes you are correct that as soon as the external pump is switched on then the solenoid would open and so water would flow to the onboard tank and (if a tap was open) to the tap but at a lower, possibly insufficient, pressure. This would only be an issue if you wanted to run the system with external tank only. I “think” this is possible but only if the pressure switch detects the pressure drop when a tap is opened and turns on the external pump when in external mode. I haven’t tried this as we always just fill up the onboard tank anyway. If you had a need to do this then a simple switch added inline to one of the power cables to the solenoid should enable you to disable the solenoid whenever you want to use it in external only mode (if such a mode even works in the first place.) Hope that makes sense. Dave
I started to watch this with interest as I have a Bailey with Whale filling and in board water tank. However your info is relevant only to Caravans. My Bailey motorhome’s tank is bulk filled from a hose via the whale filling point and has a much simpler external fill process from a Waterhog. Respectfully suggest you amend the title to include Caravan.
Hi Gillian, It's a Whale solenoid valve which I paid about £63. The link is in the description but here it is again. leisurelines.net/inline-whale-solenoid-valve-12-bsp-wu1273b-6077-p.asp
Hi a very neat idea but the setup seems to prevent filling the tank directly from a mains feed via the Whale connector. I try and fill the tank on arrival at site either at a motorhome point or a shared site tap. This saves fetching several barrels of water. The solution to this seems to be to control the solenoid by a separate switch rather than the external pump.
I haven't tried the whale direct connector but I imagine it would still work. You would have to turn on the external pump. This would activate the solenoid but of course there is no pump to run. But it's wired in parallel so the pump doesn't need to be there.
Unless the whale direct connector makes use of the 12v supply (I can't see why it would) it should function the same.
@@DTSquared Ah! I think you're correct. Switching the external pump on would activate the soleniod whether or not the pump was there. Thank you for your help.
Hi would it be possible to fit some sort of 12v valve to the hot water drain down as that is a pain too, also would you do a video about it
From memory I'm pretty sure the drain uses the same type of pipe so it is certainly possible. I'll see if I can get budgetary approval for the project from my head of finances (wife) 😀
@@DTSquared I leave all my drains open when I set off so I'm looking at fitting a different drain valve (the one I took out of the internal bypass set) and mount it near the locker door, not perfect but a big improvement. Just waiting for the warranty to run out.
Hi. Love the Caravan vids so far, keep them coming!
Question.... would this setup not mean that each time the outboard pump is used it would fill the inboard tank first rather than run through the taps if that makes sense?
All the best.
Hi James, Glad you are enjoying the videos.
Yes you are correct that as soon as the external pump is switched on then the solenoid would open and so water would flow to the onboard tank and (if a tap was open) to the tap but at a lower, possibly insufficient, pressure.
This would only be an issue if you wanted to run the system with external tank only. I “think” this is possible but only if the pressure switch detects the pressure drop when a tap is opened and turns on the external pump when in external mode. I haven’t tried this as we always just fill up the onboard tank anyway. If you had a need to do this then a simple switch added inline to one of the power cables to the solenoid should enable you to disable the solenoid whenever you want to use it in external only mode (if such a mode even works in the first place.) Hope that makes sense.
Dave
I started to watch this with interest as I have a Bailey with Whale filling and in board water tank. However your info is relevant only to Caravans. My Bailey motorhome’s tank is bulk filled from a hose via the whale filling point and has a much simpler external fill process from a Waterhog.
Respectfully suggest you amend the title to include Caravan.
Changed, sorry for the inconvenience
Hi what solenoid valve do you use? Also where is the best place to buy one please .
Hi Gillian, It's a Whale solenoid valve which I paid about £63. The link is in the description but here it is again. leisurelines.net/inline-whale-solenoid-valve-12-bsp-wu1273b-6077-p.asp