Accuracy of black, fresh, grey monitors

[dougb]

I have a 2019 Adventurer 27n. I am wanting to know how accurate the senders are that measure fresh, black and grey tanks. My fresh is oftentimes off by quite a bit.

[Nathan]

(We’re pulling a 2500 RL Minnie travel trailer) We’ve given up relying on any of these gauges only because one day later the gauge will seem to be accurate and then again it won’t! We have learned to consciously start from empty (on waste) or full (with fresh) and work from there based on experience with our rate of usage. That said, once we’re camping for more than 4-5 days, and depending on the kind of campgrounds we’re in (water hookup or not, etc), we expect to be surprised within a day or so. It does help to have a portable wastewater tank so that we can off-load as those tanks get full. (Then the problem is to empty the portable — no easy task when the campground dump site is not handy.)

[Morich]

There seems to be two different ideas to consider with this question.
One is how accurate the levels will be. Any setup that only has 1/3, 2/3, and full is not what many would consider accurate but more of an estimate.
If you park the RV on a hill or tilt, the estimate is not going to be accurate!

On the other hand if one is asking how reliable they are, the experienced user will often tell you they are not very reliable. They are better than older designs but still lack a lot on being reliable.

Stick contacts through the wall of the tank and it soon becomes a problem.
Stick the sensor on the outside and measure through the wall and it works better for longer but often fails.
It's a system built to do a tough job but using cheap electronics. Setting up any system to measure what is in the black tank is going to be hard as there is a lot of really weird stuff in there!
If one piece of paper sloshes around and sticks on the spot where the full sensor is located it messes with the reading! Even if that one piece of paper is the only thing in the tank, the system can't tell the difference!

[powercat_ras]

If you have the level display that shows 1/3 2/3 full etc. for the black grey and fresh tanks then you should see black squares stuck on one side of each tank these sense the presence of liquid on the other side of the plastic tank wall. They have a + printed on them and they signal the display when there is liquid at the height of of the + or higher.

They are quite consistent on my 2015 Vista 27N when I check with the RV level, which has exactly the same size fresh, grey, and black tanks as yours in exactly the same locations.

One think to note is that the water tank level sensors are near the front passenger side corner of the water tank sidewall and so if you are out of level the reading can be way off. Same is true of black and grey but to a lesser extent.

For the black or grey tank if the side of the tank next to the sensors gets more than a thin layer of reside on it it will display higher than it really is.

I've never had a problem with the grey tank, generally the warm soapy water that goes down the shower drain and kitchen drain keeps the grey tank from building up enough residue on the sides to mess up the sensors. That said don't put cooking grease down the drains it will eventually cause the problem.

Flushing the black tank to get the residue of that side of the tank is the fix. To minimize time between flushing try more liquid in the tank between dumps - it helps. You can also try adding detergent like dawn dish soap to help prevent solids from getting on the side walls of the black tank.

= = = = =

FYI, if you have found that your propane level is not displaying to your liking, there is a manually readable gauge on the propane tank and there is an adjustment in the control panel you can use to make it read correctly on the display. Mine was off from the factory.