Bailey Senator - Water Reservoirs - one or two fillers?

[JohnI.Stephen]

I have a Bailey Senator Oklahoma - 2002. I have an onboard front cold water reservoir (42 litres) and a rear hot water reservoir of 10 litres. Both these reservoirs have separate Whale pump filler 'leads' and suggest that they both need to be filled independently. Since buying the caravan a year ago, I have only really filled the main front reservoir and yet have had hot water. Although I could find no information I assumed that the smaller hot water tank was filled by the main tank. If that is the case (and I think it must be) then what is the purpose of the rear filler system ?

Please put me straight on this.

Also; after running the taps, the pump runs-on for up to 1-2 minutes before eventually turning off. How can I regulate it? The manual is particularly obscure on this point!

Thanks

John

 

[WatsonJohnG]

Hi John the hot water tank does indeed fill from the main tank when you open the hot tap.

I have never seen a seperate fill for the hot water tank so I can not help on that one.My Oklahoma (2006) does not have that set up.There is a drain for the hot water tank though.

The pressure switch sounds as though it needs setting.

Sometimes this is a unit in the cold water pipe near the inlet and sometimes its in the body of the pump and as on Shurflow its adjusted with an allan key by trial and error.

 

[Lol1]

I assume you have the same setup as we do on our Wyoming, John.

There are two ways of getting water to your heater reservoir. First is by the on-board fresh water tank as you described. You fill this and as soon as you operate the tap for hot water, it will fill the heater from the tank via the internal pump. Presumably you fill this with an external pump that has a black pipe and a two prong 12v connection that fits into a socket on the wall of the caravan.

Your second way is to use an Aqua roll (or similar) where you immerse the pump (different type that fits into the caravan wall in a much more permanent way and has blue tubing) and leave it there, like you do on the majority of vans that don't have an internal tank. This way, when the hot water tap is used, it draws water from the outside container and up into the heater reservoir once again. You can't have both systems working at the same time as there should be a switch that alternates between the two pumps. One of the advantages of this system is if you run out of water from one tank, it is easy to switch to the other pump/tank. So to recap, the smaller hot water reservoir is fed from either the internal tank or the external aqua roll depending on where you have positioned the pump switch.

Something to bear in mind when filling is that the heater tank will only draw a small amount when you initially connect up the water, it won't be full. Turning on your electric water heater at this time may damage the element or trip the caravan RCDs. Connect the water and then run the hot tap until all the air has been expelled. I mention this as it's easy to forget while setting up, as I found out from personal experience!

 

[JohnI.Stephen]

Thanks very much Lol and John G. I think that this clear up the question nicely. One more question though (water related).

__________________________________________________________

We shall soon spend 2 weeks on a site which has both fresh water tap and grey water drain for each individual pitch. Last year I was out once or twice per day filling the Aqua roll; and then filling the water tank. I was then emptying the grey water waste tank; wheeling the fresh and grey water the 3 metres between the respective tap and drain.

Question : is there a setup whereby the internal tank can be automatically topped up or, failing that, a means of keeping the aqua roll easily topped up directly from the mains tap?

Thanks !

 

[RayS]

Thanks very much Lol and John G. I think that this clear up the question nicely. One more question though (water related).

__________________________________________________________

We shall soon spend 2 weeks on a site which has both fresh water tap and grey water drain for each individual pitch. Last year I was out once or twice per day filling the Aqua roll; and then filling the water tank. I was then emptying the grey water waste tank; wheeling the fresh and grey water the 3 metres between the respective tap and drain.

Question : is there a setup whereby the internal tank can be automatically topped up or, failing that, a means of keeping the aqua roll easily topped up directly from the mains tap?

Thanks !

You can buy an adaptor for the Aquaroll to connect to mains, but it's fairly easy to make one (and a lot cheaper, providing you have the 40litre aquaroll)

Get a spare cap, and fit it with a Torbek cistern valve, side entry type (from e.g. Screwfix). Fit a hose female connector to the end and fit to the side connection of the aquaroll with the pump down through the top connection. Then with suitable hose, connect to the site tap.

only problem may be if site pressure is very high, as cheap hoses and fittings may blow off or split when aquaroll is full (half full actually) and flow stops.

You obviously have to ensure that the valve float is the right way yup in the aquaroll, but you can do this by inspection first time and then mark the cap with a dab of paint for further use.

 

[JohnI.Stephen]

You can buy an adaptor for the Aquaroll to connect to mains, but it's fairly easy to make one (and a lot cheaper, providing you have the 40litre aquaroll)

Get a spare cap, and fit it with a Torbek cistern valve, side entry type (from e.g. Screwfix). Fit a hose female connector to the end and fit to the side connection of the aquaroll with the pump down through the top connection. Then with suitable hose, connect to the site tap.

only problem may be if site pressure is very high, as cheap hoses and fittings may blow off or split when aquaroll is full (half full actually) and flow stops.

You obviously have to ensure that the valve float is the right way yup in the aquaroll, but you can do this by inspection first time and then mark the cap with a dab of paint for further use.

Thanks Ray; this is very helpful indeed.

John

 

[JohnI.Stephen]

I am in the second week of our holiday in Cumbria. What I have noticed is that whilst the Aqua roll Mains adapter works fine; its function appears to be to fill the front (main) reservoir VIA the rear Whale pump filler. So the problem now is that when I need to refill the front tank, I can do so but the only way I know to switch back from 'EXT' to 'Int' is when the overflow pipe from the front tank overflows. If I leave the switch on EXT then the pump will just keep on pumping and overflow the front tank; so I am obliged to switch back to 'Int' when I see a small stream of water flowing down from my caravan; not ideal is it ??

Is this the way Bailey designed it??

John

PS have had to come to an Internet caf

 

[WatsonJohnG]

That seems to be standard practice John

 

[Lol1]

Hi John, the purpose of the aqua roll mains adapter isn't to fill your internal water tank and keep it topped up. You should be using a pump to connect directly into your water supply. As explained earlier, the two ways of getting water to your taps are;

1, via your internal tank, filled itself with an irritatingly slow pump.

2, via your main pump submerged directly into the aqua roll.

What you are aiming for is the "second way". You have the aqua roll/mains adapter set up as you have it now, this will leave you with a choice of getting water into the van. DO NOT use your (irritatingly slow, white with black tubing) pump to transfer water from the aqua roll to the internal tank.

Instead, you should have a larger, more substantial pump that fits into the side of the van. Use this pump, just dangle it into the aqua roll and switch to "Ext" on the pump switch inside the caravan.

This activates the pump when the tap is turned on, drawing water directly from the aqua roll. As water is drawn from the aqua roll it is replaced by the mains adapter. When you turn the tap off the pump will stop.

So briefly, do not use your internal tank.

Do not have your pump switched to internal.

Do connect the caravan directly to the aqua roll via the main pump (larger and with blue connecting pipework) and leave it in the aqua roll.

Do switch to external on the pump switch.

Hope this helps, in return a brief description of the site you are on, wouldn't go amiss. We are thinking of going to the Lakes next year but haven't decided on a site yet.

 

[JohnI.Stephen]

Hello LOL; well this is frustrating; I AM doing as per option 2 but the only means of using water is to have the switch set to Internal. If I have the switch set to External and turn on a tap, it will run for a seond or so (the presure will reduce) and then the Whale pump connected to the Aquaroll mains adapter will kicK in. No water is available through the taps at this time; the external pump (yes the one with the light blue coliur) is simply wirring away pumping water inside; but where to? I'll tell you, it's filling the front 42 litre internal tank. So when this overflows I have to switch back to Internal and then the taps work as normal.

Surely I am not doing anything wrong here????

John

 

[Lol1]

Hi John, it sounds like you are in fact connecting up correctly. However, it does seem strange that you are filling the internal tank. It may be that you don't have the same water system as I do, (both Senators with only a few years between) so let me ask you this. Did your Bailey come with another pump, the one with the black hose that plugs into a small 12v socket next to the on board water tank filler? If you don't have this pump or the socket (not the main one) then perhaps the two systems are different. If you do have these two things, you may have a fault. It could be that the pipes have at some point been re-routed or you have a problem with a sticky/faulty valve which is releasing the water back into the internal tank and not allowing pressure to build up in the system.

I would think that it's the fault and if it is, shouldn't be too expensive to rectify. However, please check that you have the other pump and socket before you go any further.

Hope this helps.

 

[JohnI.Stephen]

hello again LOL; before I foget, we are at Castlerigg just outside Keswick; it's a fabulous site and is our secondf year here; I shall book up for next year before we leave. It's a first class site with glorious views and the site is maintained superbly. No Internet access yet though but i shall have words witht he owner !!

Back to the mundane topic of water. Yes I have another pump a black one which allows me to fill the front internal tank directly.

What IS curious is that, having switched back to Internal from External(with the tell-tale stream of water trickling away from the front of the caravan to show that the internal tank's full)we always here 8-10 "thumping" noises as though a large bubble of air we suddenly being released from the base of the internal tank. After 8-10 such "thumps", all is quiet and the taps deliver water as normal....

It IS weird though and I suspect that I do have a problem....

John