Whale water filling system on Nuevo

We have recently purchased a new AutoSleeper Nuevo.  After 6 weeks touring in Europe we are looking to replace the crazy Whale water filling system for a conventional filling hole.  Has anyone had this conversion carried out or tacked it themselves.  Our suppliers say a conventional filler can be installed alongside the Whale but with a loss of tank capacity.  They seem reluctant to carry out the work and have yet to give us a cost.  Any advice would be welcome.
Chris

Had a manual water fill fitted on our 2012 Nuevo by AutoSleepers at a cost of just over £200.   We had problems with both the whale electrical system connections and the water pipe connectors coming apart and flooding the van floor.  

The manual water fill is quick and easy to understand and for the life of me I can't see any benefit in the whale system.   There are others here though who like it.

Billy Ruffian wrote:Had a manual water fill fitted on our 2012 Nuevo by AutoSleepers at a cost of just over £200.   We had problems with both the whale electrical system connections and the water pipe connectors coming apart and flooding the van floor.  

The manual water fill is quick and easy to understand and for the life of me I can't see any benefit in the whale system.   There are others here though who like it.

Another good tip for someone about to buy an AS, for which many thanks. How much room in the underseat did the second connection take Billy or was it a one for one replacement?

It took no useful space at all.    The only place you can see it, other than the filler hole on the outside of the van is by the battery under the offside seat.     This is on a Nuevo ES.

The high cost of the manual system is due to the need to drop the tank; the parts aren't expensive it's the fitting time.

Bertie: give it a try before you make a decision about the Whale system.We were unsure at first after all we'd read but like it. The chief advantage is that it is set going and forget it while you get on with other things. It switches off automatically when the tank is full.  No more running in and out, with muddy feet, to monitor the filler gauge and no more embarrassment of water flowing out of the overflow if you get distracted.

It is no slower than our previous Bessacarr which, if you tried to fill too fast, used to shoot the water back at you. 

We now carry a bucket rather than a watering can for when we don't want to move the van and the Whale pump sucks it out of that in no time at all. 

We've not used it yet but hope, when we go to Spain for the winter, we will be able to take advantage of the mains taps on the pitches there and have the hose connected all the time.

Q

Billy Ruffian wrote:It took no useful space at all.    The only place you can see it, other than the filler hole on the outside of the van is by the battery under the offside seat.     This is on a Nuevo ES.

The high cost of the manual system is due to the need to drop the tank; the parts aren't expensive it's the fitting time.

Cheers for that Billy, I'm interested in what Quilter has to say in the next post but have met a number of people on various sites who've expressed the same general feeling about the Whale.

Quilter wrote:Bertie: give it a try before you make a decision about the Whale system.We were unsure at first after all we'd read but like it. The chief advantage is that it is set going and forget it while you get on with other things. It switches off automatically when the tank is full.  No more running in and out, with muddy feet, to monitor the filler gauge and no more embarrassment of water flowing out of the overflow if you get distracted.

It is no slower than our previous Bessacarr which, if you tried to fill too fast, used to shoot the water back at you. 

We now carry a bucket rather than a watering can for when we don't want to move the van and the Whale pump sucks it out of that in no time at all. 

We've not used it yet but hope, when we go to Spain for the winter, we will be able to take advantage of the mains taps on the pitches there and have the hose connected all the time.

Q

Q, another thanks and I'm now convinced I really don't know enough about the set-up to bin it without giving it a try. As I said in my last post I've met many detractors of the system and few who applaud it (except caravanners). Every day is a learning day for me and I'm glad I joined this forum!

I was also really unhappy about the whale system when I picked up our Broadway, but now I've really taken to the whale system. I bought a 25 litre water barrel off ebay £6.50 and a folding trolley from Aldi £19. and now fill up no trouble at all.

John.

artheytrate wrote:I was also really unhappy about the whale system when I picked up our Broadway, but now I've really taken to the whale system. I bought a 25 litre water barrel off ebay £6.50 and a folding trolley from Aldi £19. and now fill up no trouble at all.

John.

Nice one, looks like I'll have to adapt. Whatever I'll certainly give it a try and thanks.

We were unsure about it at first, but now prefer it. We carry a cheap waste bin which lives in the shower cubicle and doubles as a laundry basket and container for water fr filling when we can't fix straiht onto a tap. Biggest advantage is that we don't loose any water going up/down hills, so get an extra two days out of a tankful when we're using aires/wilding

Just back from Iceland (four weeks) and absolutley love the whale system which I was not convinced about before.
Much easier to top up while on site from a rolly or other container rather than having to start up and then queue at the filling point. (Plus you have the option to do so if you wish).
Work with it for a while and see how you go.

The really important thing to remember- which we did not suss out until we read the instructions after several unsuccessful attempts to fill- is that you MUST have the control panel switched on before you start !

Q

When I ordered my Bourton I specified I wanted a manual filler which cost at the build stage £37 , the whale filler was fitted as well, the manual filler pipe goes through into the offside under seat locker into an inboard tank which drains into a underfloor tank and when that is full it fills the inboard tank, for anyone ordering from new if you want a manual filler specify it at the build stage as the cost isso little, my dealer did not charge for it.
Don

padraigpost wrote:When I ordered my Bourton I specified I wanted a manual filler which cost at the build stage £37 , the whale filler was fitted as well, the manual filler pipe goes through into the offside under seat locker into an inboard tank which drains into a underfloor tank and when that is full it fills the inboard tank, for anyone ordering from new if you want a manual filler specify it at the build stage as the cost isso little, my dealer did not charge for it.
Don

Many thanks for that info Don.

read all the posts and share the view that the system is an uneccesary complication...previously filled with a hose pipe and for the  occasional top up  a watering can which doubled as underbunk storage container....hook up cables  wedges etc
As a caravanner (before we saw the light) we had the whale system which was great....for caravans...
In my garage i found an old whale connecter...like the one AS supplies but minus the pump itself (can be bought from any caravan dealer ) and fitted an ordinary hose connecter to it....now i can fill from any tap without pump or power...the water pressure overides the auto stop
.
On site when i was getting low on water i just used a bucket as per a previous blogger...worked well or borrow an aquaroll from a caravanner for a few minutes.and use the AS  supplied item.
ps   to avaoid overfilling, just note how long it takes to fill the tank...in my case its 6 minutes....this avoids overfilling and constantly checking the guage (which at best is only approxiamate )
ps.
modern campervans are complicated enough...charging systems...digital heating controls etc....why complicate things even further considering that the majority of owners have grey hair (how else could we accumulate the money to buy them ) and dont have degrees in computer science and electro mechanical systems which seem to be intuitive to my young grandson !!

rant over !!

I carry an aquaroll and use it to top up if on site for a day or so. It still auto cuts out when full so cannot overfill.

Good idea re the old whale adapter as it a bit of a bind having to unroll the supplied hose when there is one on the site. Not managed to get mine to override the auto stop though   Haven't tried with power off though, perhaps that relaxes the solenoid or  ?

But then why would I when with power on I can just let it get on with it while I do something else. (Still think it's a good system   ).

There are a few times when I wished we didn't have the whale system. It's slow to fill, so if you have 10 minutes of water at low pressure for €5 in a lot of French aires, it will cost you a massive €10 to fill up.
Then there are the petrol pump style of fillers in Flot Bleu internal type service points. You can't use them
Apart from that, it's a good system
Allan

Allan...surely you can put your bucket between the Flot Bleu pump and the water inlet of the van, hold the water filler so that it keeps the bucket filling all the time and put the Whale pump - plugged into the van water inlet- into the bucket and so suck the water out of the bucket and into the van ?

A little more complicated than simply putting the filler directly into the water inlet in the van but not a lot.

Q

Why on earth are we talking about buckets and water containers in 2014 to use a £50k plus product !
Idea of motorhoming / campervan is to move on from caravans.
What happens if your pump fails, possibly abroad  ? stick to a fail safe hosepipe....like all the premiium continental vans do.
K I S S
Keep it simple stupid  !!

Seems reasonable Geoff!

I have been using this system since 2011 on our Nuevo11 and have got used to it. It works well as long as you are aware of the little wire mesh filter that needs to be kept clean. The first time ours got clogged up was whilst getting ready to have a few days on the Sahara Desert where it is quite important to have water!! At that time I new nothing about it's existence and in fact after a very expensive phone call to the supply company I came to realise that they did not know of it's existence either. It is situated in amongst the first junction just inside and if it blocks up, no water will pump in, even the direct hose connection will not work. Apart from that I have had no problem so far!! And by the way I am surprised at the number of replies to this item, and yet I posted a thread yesterday about my habitation door stuck shut and got hardly any response!!

thanks for info ref filter...I use an inline water filter in my hose.....male connection at each end...normal hozelock fittings....cost me £5 from bandq...used in pressure washers hose pipe as debris can wreck the pump.
its surprising how much crud it collects....in spain last year i emptied/ washed it out (nylon mesh ) twice.
would love to hear from you ref sahara...planning trip tp morrocco in jan 15

Make sure you take some warm clothing. We went with Desert Detours. Expensive but worth it!!

That won't help.  It will still be slow becsuse the bottleneck is the solenoid valve and the small bore pipe to the tank.

hi Ron
Im happy with 6 min filling time from empty (inc hot water tank )   using old whale connector and hose pipe.
guess our water pressure from the mains is pretty high.