Automatic tank fill

Just been in my Broadway  eb to check everything ok  turned o the control panel noticed the  automatic tank fill when pressed  goes between  a green colour  and a blue  .it is a new panel.. thought when it was off it was greyed  out and blue by default when filling. Any one with a new or 2019 model  check there's  for me would be a great help. Did work ok last week when I filled it up it cut out when filled.

Ours is a new panel and does that also, problem is they forgot to wire it up.

Does yours work ok though.? Just ignore the green colour

Mids wrote:Does yours work ok though.? Just ignore the green colour

Don’t know yet, it’s going into have the WhAle socket wiring connected, but new panel is good

Mids - I think your question has been answered.  Mine is a 2019 model but not with a new CP.  When water is flowing into the fresh water tank the autofill button is illuminated blue.  It is greyed out when the fresh water tank is full or when the autofill is switched off.

Sorry perhaps  I worded  it wrong.yes what you said is correct.  But when mine is off its not greyed out but coloured green. Other than that it works.

Mids wrote:Sorry perhaps  I worded  it wrong.yes what you said is correct.  But when mine is off its not greyed out but coloured green. Other than that it works.

I wonder if it is greyed out when the autofill is actually switched off and green when it is switched on but no water is flowing because the tank is full and blue when water is flowing into the tank?

Perhaps we need to phone Sargent and ask them

Redcar56 can you clarify  is yours coloured green when turned off.

Yes, ours is blue normally and if it’s off or I tap it, it turns green

We are having the seemingly common problem of the water gauge not working.  Achieving a full tank has only been done by waiting till it overflows, not ideal. 

We had spotted the automatic tank fill option on the panel, but had assumed it was only for use when on a “superpitch” (one where you are permanently connected to water.) Now hoping from reading posts here that it is in fact a device to let you know when the tank is full.  Or is it?  Can anyone clarify what it does for us clueless please?

We are finding the whole water situation very annoying after having a previous van with a fully working gauge (and a perfect pump) for the whole 10 years we had it.

Page Turner wrote:We are finding the whole water situation very annoying after having a previous van with a fully working gauge (and a perfect pump) for the whole 10 years we had it.

You have my empathy!

Why must everything be automatic these days? Have we lost the ability to think for ourselves and press a switch . . . if there is such a thing as a real switch, and not just an icon to press on an expensive LCD panel which leaves us totally stuffed if it goes wrong!!!!

It's called progress, but the fact that it can be done is not necessarily a good reason for doing it!!

Gromit wrote:

Page Turner wrote:We are finding the whole water situation very annoying after having a previous van with a fully working gauge (and a perfect pump) for the whole 10 years we had it.

You have my empathy!

Why must everything be automatic these days? Have we lost the ability to think for ourselves and press a switch . . . if there is such a thing as a real switch, and not just an icon to press on an expensive LCD panel which leaves us totally stuffed if it goes wrong!!!!

It's called progress, but the fact that it can be done is not necessarily a good reason for doing it!!

Can’t beat a good hose pipe

Automatic fill is for  home or pitch for filling up should cut out when full.on a pitch you keep it connected  and as you use water it automatically  fills the tank back up.

Ah, thanks Mids, so it is designed for a superpitch.  We do have a pipe for use with one, but have never used it because we don’t book superpitches, we just fill on arrival with a bog standard hose and top up as needed (not that we always know when needed because our gauge reads 0% most of the time <sigh>).  
So thinking about it, we could use the superpitch pipe to fill with on arrival and then it would cut off when full?  That would lead to a situation where autofill says the tank is full but the gauge says it’s empty - bonkers!

Sounds about right

Page Turner.  On my 2019 model, I use the autofill in two situations.  

First - to fill the tank from a tap.  When the tank is full it automatically stops any more water entering the tank.  You can then turn the autofill and tap off, disconnect the pipe and proceed to the pitch, or, if the tap in on a super pitch, you can leave the autofill on and pipe connected and it will automatically keep the tank topped up from the tap but I don't do this because I think its unnecessary and the pressurised water pipe might become damaged and leak.  If you don't want to use the autofill to fill the tank there is a small white plastic gadget that fits into the unit that attaches to the motorhome which turns the pipe into a normal hosepipe to fill the tank through the lockable filler cap.

Second - to fill up the tank from a water roll using the external Whale Watermaster pump.  When the tank is full it switches the Watermaster off which is useful.  If you leave the autofill on and Watermaster connected, the pump will start up again as soon as you draw water.  For this reason I switch off the autofill so there is no risk of the Watermaster pump running dry.  When I am ready to pump more water into the tank I switch the autofill back on and switch it off again as soon as the water roll is empty and the Watermaster starts pumping air.

There are no switches on my watering can.

I feel cheated!!     

Gromit wrote:There are no switches on my watering can.

I feel cheated!!       

Of course you can still use a watering can to fill the tank but I think the water roll + Watermaster is preferable if you are doing all your washing and showering in the motorhome and the tap is distant.

Caraman wrote:Of course you can still use a watering can to fill the tank but I think the water roll + Watermaster is preferable if you are doing all your washing and showering in the motorhome and the tap is distant.

I don't - but that's the beauty of this forum above some others I could name.
We can air an opinion, disagree, and carry on as usual without falling out. 

We would find a water roll a pain to store as we have limited space already, and I'm too idle to get stuff out, plug things in, fiddle with switches, pull things out of plugholes, dry stuff and put it away, and fiddle with switches again when my "water roll" has a spout to pour the water straight in. 

P.S. I will happily accept that I may be a bit weird!! 

I think it all depends on how you want to use your van.  In a previous German caravan with an on-board water tank we used the watering can method which was fine because we always used the loo/shower/washing block and I had two boys to do the filling!  Now it's just the two of us and we use CLs that rarely have facilities and probably just a tap in the corner of the field, the watering can method would be good exercise but a bit tedious.  I understand that not everyone wants to take a water roll with them but ours fits comfortably on the shower floor and goes outside as soon we get to a pitch.  Filling the tank with a hose with or without the autofill is fine but having to up-sticks just to refill the water tank isn't always convenient and some CL taps can't be reached easily with a motorhome.  For our type of use, the water roll + Watermaster pump gets our thumbs up.

Just picked this up from another thread:

Firedecisions wrote:Hi Mid
Automatic tank fill is greyed out when not in use, when whale pump connected and button activated its blue and green when filling.  Hope this helps

This is an improvement.  With my CP there is no way of knowing if the autofill is off or if it is on but the tank is full.  I got caught out by this early on when I left a nearly empty water roll and Watermaster connected thinking the autofill was off because the button was greyed out. Whilst having my shower I heard the Watermaster switch itself back on, although at the time I didn't know that was what it was, and had to take quick action to prevent the Watermaster from burning itself out.

Caraman wrote:I think it all depends on how you want to use your van.  In a previous German caravan with an on-board water tank we used the watering can method which was fine because we always used the loo/shower/washing block and I had two boys to do the filling!  Now it's just the two of us and we use CLs that rarely have facilities and probably just a tap in the corner of the field, the watering can method would be good exercise but a bit tedious.  I understand that not everyone wants to take a water roll with them but ours fits comfortably on the shower floor and goes outside as soon we get to a pitch.  Filling the tank with a hose with or without the autofill is fine but having to up-sticks just to refill the water tank isn't always convenient and some CL taps can't be reached easily with a motorhome.  For our type of use, the water roll + Watermaster pump gets our thumbs up.

"I think it all depends on how you want to use your van. "
this is very true, as is the size of your tank and the amount of water you use each day...
we have quite a reasonable tank at 120ltr (although some are much larger) and when on a non-facilities site we use around 20ltrs a day...this covers showers, teeth cleaning, washing up, hand washing, toilet flush etc.
now i know that isnt a lot of water each day, but we are naturally frugal (no hand washing under running taps, only use just enough water to wash crockery etc....)
so, without trying, we get 5/6 days 'water support' on a non-facs site (our waste tank is also large enough to cope with this length of stay without having to empty....although on a CL this might just mean a pipe into the hedge)....
so, as we are unlikely to be there more than 5 days, we dont need to take on or dump water at all...
however, we do also use non-fac THS sites and may stay more than a week, so i use a 10ltr water carrier which can be poured easily directly into the 'water filler hole' via a guttering elbow.
we also carry two long hoses which can be joined together and, sometimes, i can reach the tap to refill in one go, so no need to use the carrier...
when on a site with facilities, our water usage is about half the above (no showering in the van) so we can last 10-12 days without a problem...
again, we would never be staying on a site in this country for that long, so never run out of water.
just about all the continental sites weve used have access to a tap within the range of our joined hoses.
'water management' is an oft discussed topic and the key deciders are usually 'how much water can you have on board', 'how much do you use each day', 'how long will you stay on site?'...sometimes followed by 'how much room do i have for extra WM kit, like aquarolls, wastemasters etc...
there is no one way to manage the water supply to a van, the factors above will often steer folk on one direction or another.

bolero boy wrote:

we have quite a reasonable tank at 120ltr (although some are much larger) and when on a non-facilities site we use around 20ltrs a day...this covers showers, teeth cleaning, washing up, hand washing, toilet flush etc.
now i know that isnt a lot of water each day, but we are naturally frugal (no hand washing under running taps, only use just enough water to wash crockery etc....)

You are very frugal bolero boy.  In warm weather on a basic non-facilities CL and with no eating/drinking out the two of us can get through 50 litres a day and 30 litres of that can be for showering.  These are approximate and maximum figures.  Our water tanks are 102 litres fresh, 10 litres hot and 71 litres waste, so not as big as yours.  If I remember and it's possible, we use the hose to fill the fresh water tank on arrival but we rarely move the van just to refill it.  We could take a watering can to fill the fresh water tank but we don't need to or want to as we have the space for a water roll and the Nuevo comes with a Watermaster pump and the means to use it.  I use the bucket and chuck it method to empty the waste water tank into a hedgerow if there is no waste water disposal point which there usually isn't.  I find this easier than taking and setting up pipes.  The only waste water container we take is the bucket which is collapsible and used for other purposes.