2015 Bailey Valencia owners - help please!

[HappyDaze123]

I'm a total lone female newbie to caravans, my ex having done everything to do with the van. Got the van on Saturday. Son helped me with advice on towing,  unhitched me at campsite and then left me to it.

The salesman told me the first thing to do was push the yellow lever down under the berth near the sink. I then filled the aquaroll and heard the pump working when I switched it on on the control panel by the door.

I left time for water to fill the tank and noted it was nearly empty, so water was going somewhere. I opened the sink tap and there was a splutter. I opened the washroom and shower taps, ditto. Then nothing.

I kept the taps open and swivelled them round hot to cold but nothing - no water coming out. I closed the taps and opened them again, no luck. I you tubed, googled and consulted the Bailey manual without luck. 

The heating was fine and as it was only an overnight stay, I filled a 5 litre water container for my needs. I kept trying the taps throughout the evening without success.

One thing I didn't do was to put the gas on as I as on electric hook up and didn't plan on doing any cooking. Does the Alde system need to run on gas?

I phoned the dealership when I got home but they seemed puzzled asking me things like is there another water tank somewhere. They suggested I ring them when on site again.

I find this all frustrating and maybe in my mid sixties I shouldn't be taking this on on my own, but I enjoyed my 10 years of caravanning so much I wanted to recreate it.

Is there something I didn't do i.e. put the gas on etc? What am I doing wrong? Any help appreciated.

 

[Parksy]

I don't have a Bailey caravan, but let's go through the stages to see what happened.
You filled the Aquaroll, put the caravan pump into the top of the Aquaroll and switched on the pump, then opened the taps, so far so good.
The yellow lever was, I suspect, the drain down tap which is opened when you leave your pitch to go home rather than leaving water in the system.
You put the yellow lever down, thus closing the drain tap, if it hadn't been closed the contents of your Aquaroll would have pumped straight out onto the pitch underneath the caravan.
Does your Bailey have an onboard water tank?
If so, the water from the Aquaroll may have transferred to your onboard tank.
If this is what happened you might not have switched your water supply to onboard tank, so the pump may have been trying to pump from an empty Aquaroll instead of from your onboard tank.
Sorry I can't help much with the Aldi heating system but no doubt somebody will soon join this thread who knows how they work and how to get the best from them.
It is frustrating for you, but we can help you so stick with it and you'll soon be a seasoned caravan veteran giving advice on here to others :lol:

 

[JezzerB]

Did you hear/see water under the van; if we pressed our yellow lever too far down-it should just be horizontal it would open it again as if vertical! Just a thought!

 

[Burn]

If you are lucky enough to have the van at your house can you recreate the setting up for the water again or if it`s at storage you will need a half filled aquaroll to get it up and running,easiest thing to do is call the dealer when you are all set up then he can go through the procedure with you,if you originally had water and the pump was running and the tapps spluttered but the aquaroll emptied then my money is on the hot water tank dump valve not closing or is defective,simple thing is to run the water system up then go outside and have a look underneath the van,don`t worry too much as help is always here on the forum and it will get sorted.

 

[JezzerB]

Has it got an onboard tank-you may have filled that istead and not told the pump to take it from there-there is another switch under the seat I think?

 

[Hutch]

Hello again, A friend had a brand new Bailey, and could not get the water to supply the taps as you describe. After running the pump an lots of "Giggling" the water pipe in the aqua roll barrel the water came through. It took a good 10 minutes of "Giggling" the pipe up,and down though. Maybe an air lock after someone drained the system down.
Good luck.
Hutch.

 

[Raywood]

The heating should run on gas, electricity or both together. You need to operate the control panel but I am not sure of exactly what one you have.
You can download the manual for the caravan from https://www.baileyofbristol.co.uk/files/466/Owners-Manuals/2430 which should give you help with this and other problems.

 

[Mandarin]

We have a bailey Valencia 2014 and have experienced the same issue on occasion. Firstly, yes the yellow lever must be lying down, make sure it's closed properly.
Now go outside the van with the pump all set up and listen for air leaks / gurgling.
First the connection outside the van must be airtight, there's a small O ring on the caravan male section, check that, if there's any air getting in, you'll probably hear it, if you suspect this a quick fix might be a smear of vaseline, a better fix is a new O ring.
Our problem was that the filter on the end of the flexible pipe floats, so it just came back to the surface and sucked air making a loud sucking noise, so I fixed a weight to it.
Once that's all done start with just the hot sink tap open. When that runs smoothly open the cold, close that and move to the bathroom.

I hope that helps, it's a common problem it seems.

 

[JezzerB]

Good advice but don't use vaseline as it can damage rubber. Use silicon lube ie thetford toilet seal lube.

 

[Clifford_374377114]

If you put the pump into the water and THEN connect to the caravan, it will prevent an airlock.
Cliff

 

[otherclive]

For O rings I always lub with a plumbers silicon grease that is compatible with O ring polymers. Use it on van, house and on garden watering systems. It has longer retention than ordinary silicon spray. Don’t use it though on Thetford where sprays are best. Costs about £5 for small tin and readily available on line or Plumber outlets.

Make sure it’s silicon grease and O seal compatible as Black Swan do Plumbers Grease but the package states it’s not compatible with O seals whereas the Black Swan Silicon Grease is compatible.

 

[Danddandy]

The instructions that came with my replacement waterpump are. . .
1. Place pump in water.
2. Plug pump connection into the caravan.
So after refilling your water container, the pump needs disconnecting from the caravan before putting in the water.

 

[Mandarin]

I'm not sure what HappyDazes 2015 Valencia has, but for our 2014 version the pump is in the van, and sucks water from the aqua-roll via a whale filter on the end of the hose, it's that filter that likes to float to the surface. I assume the fact that's sucking means that the O ring seal is even more important as any leak brings air into the system.

Good point about the lubricant - I forgot Vaseline has that effect on rubber.

For some reason whenever ours fails to suck properly there's a bowlful of washing up, in the dark when its raining

HappyDaze don't get disheartened, its not you, but a rather badly designed system

 

[Hutch]

The lubricant for O rings all depends on What the O rings are made from, some perish with Synthetic oils other mineral oils, and others with Kerosine.
A dry "O" ring is worse than one lubed with Vaseline or vegetable oil. I bought a box of Various size O rings from Lidl, and change the O rings on the water caravan connectors when they look cracked. And the water hose connectors for Serviced pitches.

 

[otherclive]

The lubricant for O rings all depends on What the O rings are made from, some perish with Synthetic oils other mineral oils, and others with Kerosine.
A dry "O" ring is worse than one lubed with Vaseline or vegetable oil. I bought a box of Various size O rings from Lidl, and change the O rings on the water caravan connectors when they look cracked. And the water hose connectors for Serviced pitches.

Never thought of Lidl’s for O rings. I. bought mine from Screwfix. So much cheaper buying a mixed pack than just a couple of specific ones for a water connector or garden fitting. I even saved several times the cost of the pack just in replacing a couple of o rings on the home shower thermostat cartridge.
Tend though to generally use silicon lub as it seems the most compatible with the o ring materials. But you’re dead right about dry ones cracking.