Finding the Fresh Water Tank

[Stan Simpson]

With Bill's help, I'm trying to trouble shoot my Aladdin problem. Yesterday, he told me about the door that isn't a door, and today I opened it. The pictures below show what I found. I disconnected the "phone wire" type connections to the Aladdin Tank Sensor Module to see if that would help change the readings. No help.

Now I need to find the sensors on the water tank and the holding tanks. I feel really stupid asking this, but its the only way I will learn. Are the two black boxes shown in the picture below my holding tanks? If not, does anyone know what they are? I assumed the fresh water tank would be a white fiberglass or plastic tub hanging between the frame rails like on my Endeavor. Not so. I pretty much crawled all the way through the bays today, and damned if I can find the water tank. I'm guessing the red and blue hoses are water lines from the water pump? I tried tracing the 'phone type' cord from the Tank Module, but it ran in to a wall/frame rail, so I have no idea where it goes. I suspect it will lead me to the water tank. I went around the coach and checked inside every bay. No overt evidence of a water tank. Especially one that holds 100 gallons! I know there is a panel on the side wall of the bay next to the water bay, and behind there is the water pump. Are there other side walls that open that will reveal the water tank?

Thanks for any ideas. No laughing please.  

Stan

[Joel Ashley]

No one is laughing, Stan.  My coach's waste tank bay is configured nearly identical to your photos.  The two black boxes are your gray and black water holding tanks.  The blue and red lines are cold and hot water lines that pass through the bay.  The black plywood square center front protects the bay temperature sensor and perhaps the Alladin electronic compass.  Yellow tags on wires and white printing on the black Alladin modules identify each.  

Your toilet must be on the opposite coach side from mine, as it looks like a large pipe on the bay door side entering the top of your left tank in the photo;  if so, that is the black water tank and the right one is the gray water tank, which will have several black drain pipes entering it at the top from various plumbing fixtures.  You may also see at least one, maybe more, water lines entering the black tank - these would be going to the spray nozzles used when you flush clean the black tank.

My solar controller is also in that bay, high on the left side wall, a thin box with a whitish cover protecting circuit boards.  My master Alladin module is in another bay altogether, the 12 volt electrical bay ahead of the left front tire.

My water tank is translucent heavy plastic, in the same bay as the Hydro-Hot, just aft of the passenger side front tire.  Yours may be differently located as a consequence of model and year differences.  Nevertheless, the water tank is large enough that it should be easily seen.  Try this:  with some water in the water tank and main coach battery switch on, press "Open" (and hold for a couple seconds) at the Fresh Water Dump rocker switch in your "water bay" (where you hook up to water and where you hook up your sewer hose, etc.).  This switch opens the valve that empties the water tank, and you should hear water splashing on the ground under the coach.  Get down and look underneath, and you will know where your water tank is.  Then press, and hold for a couple seconds, the rocker switch to "Close" to stop the flood.  Similarly, the tank overflow valve will open and dump if you overfill it.

Joel

My water tank, passenger side front-most bay, next to the hydronic unit:

[Stan Simpson]

Joel,

Holy Moly!! I thought that tank was the Hydro Hot tank!! Mine is exactly where yours is. I sure need to have that meeting with Orman Claxton in Gillette!!    Some how I read that the Hydro Hot mixes the Propoylene Glycol with water to produce the radiant heat, so I always thought that was a separate tank just for that.

Boy, do I feel foolish. Plain as day, right under my nose.  :B

Thank you Joel.

BTW, my toilet is on the curb side, those holding tanks are just about right under it. I do have another sink, vanity and the shower on the road side.

[Joel Ashley]

The water tank is 13+ cu. ft. in order to hold 100 gallons, so it's a tad more than roughly 2'X2'X3' I think, Stan.  As you may have figured out, the 50/50 hydronics fluid mix is something you usually mix yourself before adding to the expansion tank as needed to keep it between the cold and hot marks;  you misunderstood what you read.  

Simply put, it isn't "radiant heat", except in the sense your interior registers use fins such as are on car radiators or your roof air conditioners.  But rather, the fluid/water mix takes on burner, electric element, or engine coolant heat via exchanger coils inside the HHot box as it is pumped through, and then on to each interior or bay outlet where fins and one or more small (but noisy) fans exchange the heat in the fluid to airflow into your living zones or bay areas.  In that sense it isn't radiant heat as much as it is forced air heat.

If you look behind some lower cabinets (or under their floorboards) and in bays, or heat registers, you will see various clear plastic tubing with pink fluid in them;  each register (heat exchanger) has a hot inbound tube bringing fluid from the HHot, and a cooler outbound one returning fluid to the HHot.  The HHot also, as you probably know, exhanges heat into metal coils of water that pump to your hot water faucets.

If you shine a flashlight into the back of the black tanks bay, you should see where your drain pipes from the streetside sinks come down into that right hand tank.  There will also be vent pipes to the roof from each tank.  And you can probably tell where the hoses that are used for the spray rinse/flush feature come into the left hand sewage ("black water") tank.

Joel