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Old 01-01-2021, 07:58 AM   #1
Ahdmeyer
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tank monitors

does anyone know how the tank monitors work , as per are they inside the tank or outside,etc. i empty my tanks and wash them out and they still never show empty. also has anyone changed them to something better,
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Old 01-01-2021, 08:18 AM   #2
1retired06
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Unfortunately, most of us have found the OEM monitors unreliable. Inside the tank, they fail because of exposure to soap, sewage, etc. You can find better quality ones on Amazon; we have never bothered to change them out. If grey water starts to back up, or our toilets start to burp, we know it is time to dump. Snowbirding here in Florida we have found dumping all four of our tanks weekly works well for us. The Fresh water tank monitor is far more reliable for obvious reasons.
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Old 01-01-2021, 09:00 AM   #3
jcurtis934
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There are two high quality external sensor tank monitors that I know of. La mesa RV lists both in their catalog. I use the Iseries design, but the Canadian SeeLevel is highly rated as well.
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Old 01-01-2021, 09:21 AM   #4
DQDick
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We put outside tank monitors on our old rig and they worked great. The problem is that we had already developed a schedule for dumping and so I never used them after about the first month. Never have looked at them on our new rigs, so for us it was a total waste of time an money.
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Old 01-01-2021, 09:23 AM   #5
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Probes are inside the tank and "stuff" gets hung up on them causing false readings. This is very common. There are 3 sensors spaced somewhat equally apart at different levels.

Many folks have swapped the sensors out for different ones. I have not.

There are those who have good success with their black tank sensors, and those that do not. I've always had good success and mine have always worked and worked consistent. There are those who say, no matter what they've done to clean their tanks their sensors still do not work right. Maybe so. But here's what we've done in 4 different campers, and all 4 had sensors that worked the day we purchased the camper, and still worked the day we sold it.

1. Dump all the contents out of your Black tank.

2. Do a "backflush" (if your black and grey outlets feed to one outlet) by getting a 3rd detachable valve and backflush the grey tank into the black tank a couple times. This cleans out a LOT more stuff than you can imagine.

3. If you cannot do this, then add water through the toilet and flush the tank again, or if you have a built in tank flusher, use it. The goal here is to get as much toilet paper and crud that sticks to everything out of the bottom of the tank.

4. Once you have emptied your tank as much as humanly is possible, add about 5 or 6 gallons of water back into the tank via the toilet. Add a bit of Dawn Dishwashing liquid, or Tide liquid laundry soap, or any kind of liquid dishwashing liquid and hit the road. It's really that simple.

5. The sloshing of the water in the tank will clean the sensors the sloshing water will beat off anything sticking to them. Just dumping, things still stick to them and get caught as the level lowers slowly. Driving will cause the water to beat against the sensors. End result... sensors clean, nothing stuck to them any longer and work.

Add water after every final dump when traveling to your next destination, and they will almost always work. I say "almost" because if you are stationary for a length of time, the longer you sit and dump your tanks without moving, the greater chances are stuff will get stuck to the sensors. Once it does, water movement is about the only way to get them cleaned off again.
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Old 01-01-2021, 10:24 AM   #6
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The only one I find worthwhile is the one on the fresh water tank. Montana could save money and make the rigs simpler by not installing the others.
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Old 01-01-2021, 02:59 PM   #7
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I fall in the camp of the ones where they have never worked accurately or consistently. The first trailer I had with them I went to great lengths trying to keep them working.....then it dawned on me. I'd been camping for years and years without them, WHY were they all of a sudden important? They weren't/aren't. Your trailer talks to you as mentioned above. Some units come with different sized holding tanks so just figure out what schedule works for you and keep with it. I just make a note (sometimes it slips my mind) to be sure but generally about a week.
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Old 01-01-2021, 05:17 PM   #8
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mUSt bE spECial

Quote:
Originally Posted by DutchmenSport View Post
Probes are inside the tank and "stuff" gets hung up on them causing false readings. This is very common. There are 3 sensors spaced somewhat equally apart at different levels.

Many folks have swapped the sensors out for different ones. I have not.

There are those who have good success with their black tank sensors, and those that do not. I've always had good success and mine have always worked and worked consistent. There are those who say, no matter what they've done to clean their tanks their sensors still do not work right. Maybe so. But here's what we've done in 4 different campers, and all 4 had sensors that worked the day we purchased the camper, and still worked the day we sold it.

1. Dump all the contents out of your Black tank.

2. Do a "backflush" (if your black and grey outlets feed to one outlet) by getting a 3rd detachable valve and backflush the grey tank into the black tank a couple times. This cleans out a LOT more stuff than you can imagine.

3. If you cannot do this, then add water through the toilet and flush the tank again, or if you have a built in tank flusher, use it. The goal here is to get as much toilet paper and crud that sticks to everything out of the bottom of the tank.

4. Once you have emptied your tank as much as humanly is possible, add about 5 or 6 gallons of water back into the tank via the toilet. Add a bit of Dawn Dishwashing liquid, or Tide liquid laundry soap, or any kind of liquid dishwashing liquid and hit the road. It's really that simple.

5. The sloshing of the water in the tank will clean the sensors the sloshing water will beat off anything sticking to them. Just dumping, things still stick to them and get caught as the level lowers slowly. Driving will cause the water to beat against the sensors. End result... sensors clean, nothing stuck to them any longer and work.

Add water after every final dump when traveling to your next destination, and they will almost always work. I say "almost" because if you are stationary for a length of time, the longer you sit and dump your tanks without moving, the greater chances are stuff will get stuck to the sensors. Once it does, water movement is about the only way to get them cleaned off again.
OR.....buy these and never have to guess again besides the clean slosh methods rarely works to much work and is just a temporary fix for an on going problem that will return when you don`t need it the most.
Easy install and uses existing wiring. I`ve had them for a couple of years now and they work flawlessly and 100 % accurate and unaffected buy your dumping schedule/methods. Besides before I had to argue with and inanimate object, wife was beginning t wonder.

https://www.rvupgradestore.com/Garne...p/709-1003.htm

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