Everlite 31DS plumbing issue black flush tank hookup...pictures...
sirquack said
06:27 PM Oct 17, 2010
Hey folks, I thought I would start a new thread instead of adding this to the end of the Everlite Maiden voyage thread. It would be cool if someone with my 31DS could look at their plumbing to help, but possibly the other models are similar.
Basically, what is going on is that we tried the black tank flush hookup for the first time a few camping trips ago when leaving the campground. I think most campers have these now, but basically as you are emptying your black tank, you pump water in from an external hookup at the same time, which helps wash out the tank better.
Anyway, when attempting this for the first time, water was spewing all over the hookup location on the outside. The short hose I assembled was out of old used hose/parts, so I initially thought it was just leaky fittings. Later we realized after entering the trailer, this was not the case. Water was all over the bathroom/floor, and also into the hallway and bunk bed area on the floor.
After inspection, it appears the plumping is jacked up under the bathroom vanity. I am not a plumber, but it appears something is either unhooked, or came loose. It is all PEX type fittings/hose, but it appears one of the compression washers may be defective.
Below are some pics I took with my cell phone, hope they help.
Pic 1 shows the inlet locations from the exterior of the camper, the one on top is the "fresh" water hookup, and the bottom is the "black tank flush" hookup. You would think the blank tank line would just go directly into the black tank below the floor, but for whatever reason, it is routed up through the vanity. Evergreen said this is be design.
Pic 2 shows the lines in the bathroom vanity. The white line on the left side of the picture is the black tank line which travels up into that little black box (which is not hooked to anything) then 90deg's over to another white hose which drops back down. The red and other white line are just the hot/cold water supply lines to the sink.
Pic 3 shows the hole where these lines enter/leave the vanity. As you can see the one exiting the hole just has a compression fitting on it and is not hooked to anything.
Pic 4 shows a line that is in the cabinet with a right elbow and nothing hooked to it. If you look closely, you can see the hose in the background with the compression ring that is coming out of the cabinet.
This final picture shows where some of these lines are originating in the trailer. The top white one is the one with the 90 deg elbow which is unhooked and believe is supposed to be hooked to the one exiting the vanity. All of these lines are originating from the right side which lead into the kitchen cabinets near the water heater and fuse panel. I have removed all the temp panels to gain access, but can't 100% tell where this one line is leading, I'm guessing it is being routed down into the black tank below the floor.
rjenkins said
06:44 PM Oct 17, 2010
I am not plumber but it seems that the leak is from the two hose connections that are disconnected under the vanity. Did you try hooking up the water hose to the black tank flush outlet again and running it very slow to see water coming out of the exposed pipe?
Maybe someone with more plumbing experience can answer but it makes no sense to run it all the way up then back down again to get to the black water tank.
Did Everlite say thats just the way it is without giving a reason for this design? If not, I would be tempted to just bypass that route and connect it directly to the pipe that has the exposed 90 degree elbow.
sirquack said
06:51 PM Oct 17, 2010
They did briefly mention the purpose of this box, which I did not understand. I'm not sure if it is some type of special valve. After describing to them about things being unhooked, they did say I could take it to an RV dealer close and they would work with them to get it resolved. We purchased our Everlite out of state, as we got a great deal, and at the time there were no dealers in Iowa. I did see that someone picked up the line recently, they are about 2-3 hours away.
Your idea of running the water slow to see if that was the source is a good idea. I'm thinking that if that black box is some type of special flow valve, maybe that would explain the water spewing all over at the inlet.
I'm hoping Mr Piper sees this thread as he has a 31DS. :)
MrPiper said
07:35 PM Oct 17, 2010
I'm so sorry you are having this trouble. I just got your message and it's sunday night her in the peach state about 9:30 pm. Our camper is stored away from home and I will not be able to go by and get in and look around until next saturday. Please forgive me for having a life that is all too busy. Still, a couple of thoughts...
First, I can't wait to get inside my unit and figure out this plumbing routing. I am very surprised to see how your black flush goes through that vanity system. I have been all through mine when I bought it and don't remember that being the case.
Second, I am delighted to hear the company is willing to pay a local company to make this repair. I think that is absolutely the right thing to do.
Third, if it were hapening in my unit, the post above is likely the easiest way to find and fix it yourself. Just get in and have someone outside turn the water on at a tiny flow rate until you see where it's coming from and it should be pretty obvious. The actual repair should probably be easy. All the pex supplies you need are available at your local lowe's store or equivalent.
Sadly SQ I fear I have been no help to you at all here, but I hope I can at least offer some encouragement...
As you may have read at the beginning of the other thread, this type of leak is what destroyed my other camper and turned the OSB flooring under the linoleum into soggy mulch and resulted in about a $4,000 repair. At least in the everlite, once you mop up all of the water, you shuldn't have any residual damage.
Thank you for keeping us involved here on the forum and lets all stay in touch. As we learn, we can teach one another about what we learn so that we can all enjoy our campers more.
MrPiper said
07:39 PM Oct 17, 2010
By the way, I'm no rocket scientist. In fact my IQ is likely not much more than my shoe size, but after looking at those pictures again, it looks pretty clear that your problem is that the hose that isn't hooked to anything should be hooked to that empty 90 degree elbow. That's where I would start if I were you. That my be the whole shootin' match and that's wehre I would place my bet. Let us know what you learn.
TDCDintheRV said
08:20 PM Oct 17, 2010
The black box under the vanity that the pipes are connected to may be an air gap or anti-syphon fitting to to prevent water from black water tank flowing back into fresh water hose if the water is shut off while hose is still conected. Tom
sirquack said
08:29 PM Oct 17, 2010
Thanks Mr. P, please do not go out of your way to look at yours. To be honest, there is not a lot of room to get your head in there, as the vanity door swings open and the toilet gets in the way. :)
Hey Tom, that is what I am thinking. The Evergreen guy used some fancy term over the phone, and your description does make sense...
flyone said
11:50 AM Oct 19, 2010
The Little black box is a check valve of some sort or backflow preventer. I'm really surprised it is mounted up so high and they have to route piping thru the vanity to get to it, and they use the same type piping as the fresh water system, I would have thought they would use something very distinguishable, (black tubing or something). It looks like and sounds like the tubing just came apart at the 90 elbow. I would secure them back together and slowly try the back flush again. IMO the black tank flush system should not be inter mixed with the fresh water plumbing. But we don't live in a perfect world do we. If you get this straightened out I would mark those lines with a permanent marker as to just exactly what they were. Was the black tank being flushed at all? If these are indeed part of the flush system there would not have been any water getting to the black tank. From the disconnected elbow the line should head over to the middle of the tank and go down thru the floor into the top of the tank. If they go anywhere else they probably are not part of the flush system. Was any fresh water being used inside or outside of the trailer?
Basically, what is going on is that we tried the black tank flush hookup for the first time a few camping trips ago when leaving the campground. I think most campers have these now, but basically as you are emptying your black tank, you pump water in from an external hookup at the same time, which helps wash out the tank better.
Anyway, when attempting this for the first time, water was spewing all over the hookup location on the outside. The short hose I assembled was out of old used hose/parts, so I initially thought it was just leaky fittings. Later we realized after entering the trailer, this was not the case. Water was all over the bathroom/floor, and also into the hallway and bunk bed area on the floor.
After inspection, it appears the plumping is jacked up under the bathroom vanity. I am not a plumber, but it appears something is either unhooked, or came loose. It is all PEX type fittings/hose, but it appears one of the compression washers may be defective.
Below are some pics I took with my cell phone, hope they help.
Pic 1 shows the inlet locations from the exterior of the camper, the one on top is the "fresh" water hookup, and the bottom is the "black tank flush" hookup. You would think the blank tank line would just go directly into the black tank below the floor, but for whatever reason, it is routed up through the vanity. Evergreen said this is be design.
Pic 2 shows the lines in the bathroom vanity. The white line on the left side of the picture is the black tank line which travels up into that little black box (which is not hooked to anything) then 90deg's over to another white hose which drops back down. The red and other white line are just the hot/cold water supply lines to the sink.
Pic 3 shows the hole where these lines enter/leave the vanity. As you can see the one exiting the hole just has a compression fitting on it and is not hooked to anything.
Pic 4 shows a line that is in the cabinet with a right elbow and nothing hooked to it. If you look closely, you can see the hose in the background with the compression ring that is coming out of the cabinet.
This final picture shows where some of these lines are originating in the trailer. The top white one is the one with the 90 deg elbow which is unhooked and believe is supposed to be hooked to the one exiting the vanity. All of these lines are originating from the right side which lead into the kitchen cabinets near the water heater and fuse panel. I have removed all the temp panels to gain access, but can't 100% tell where this one line is leading, I'm guessing it is being routed down into the black tank below the floor.
First, I can't wait to get inside my unit and figure out this plumbing routing. I am very surprised to see how your black flush goes through that vanity system. I have been all through mine when I bought it and don't remember that being the case.
Second, I am delighted to hear the company is willing to pay a local company to make this repair. I think that is absolutely the right thing to do.
Third, if it were hapening in my unit, the post above is likely the easiest way to find and fix it yourself. Just get in and have someone outside turn the water on at a tiny flow rate until you see where it's coming from and it should be pretty obvious. The actual repair should probably be easy. All the pex supplies you need are available at your local lowe's store or equivalent.
Sadly SQ I fear I have been no help to you at all here, but I hope I can at least offer some encouragement...
As you may have read at the beginning of the other thread, this type of leak is what destroyed my other camper and turned the OSB flooring under the linoleum into soggy mulch and resulted in about a $4,000 repair. At least in the everlite, once you mop up all of the water, you shuldn't have any residual damage.
Thank you for keeping us involved here on the forum and lets all stay in touch. As we learn, we can teach one another about what we learn so that we can all enjoy our campers more.
Tom
The Little black box is a check valve of some sort or backflow preventer. I'm really surprised it is mounted up so high and they have to route piping thru the vanity to get to it, and they use the same type piping as the fresh water system, I would have thought they would use something very distinguishable, (black tubing or something). It looks like and sounds like the tubing just came apart at the 90 elbow. I would secure them back together and slowly try the back flush again. IMO the black tank flush system should not be inter mixed with the fresh water plumbing. But we don't live in a perfect world do we. If you get this straightened out I would mark those lines with a permanent marker as to just exactly what they were. Was the black tank being flushed at all? If these are indeed part of the flush system there would not have been any water getting to the black tank. From the disconnected elbow the line should head over to the middle of the tank and go down thru the floor into the top of the tank. If they go anywhere else they probably are not part of the flush system. Was any fresh water being used inside or outside of the trailer?
Flyone