# Water problems



## janet1 (Feb 10, 2012)

We arrived at a northern dealers to picked up our brand new Eldiss Autoquest 165 which was being registered on 1st Novemember and we stayed in it overnight at the dealership to check it out.

I used the shower but the water refused to drain from the tray. I had to step from the 2" water filled tray onto the kitchen carpet. 

I used the very small sink in the shower which slides out horizontally from under a cupboard, put although the water drained down to the plughole it not not clear from the horizontal waste pipe. This meant when you pushed your teeth, the toothpaste foam remained in the sink bowl.

Finally the sink takes up to 2 full minutes to empty. If you have just dumped greasy water after 2 minutes you have to rinse it again....which means another 2 minutes to drain away...etc etc. Initally their technician said "It's just one of those things....you've got to live with it". He filled the sink to the top and told us that Eldiss's benchmark was that if it emptied in 1 minute 38 seconds that was ok. (This it did). When I pushed further they took it into the workshop for 4 hours and brought it back saying it was now ok. I put 2-3 " of water in the bowl and again, it refused to empty for 2 minutes.

We had to drive it home owing to a medical appt. We have now been chasing the dearership for 9 days, meanwhile the water remains in the bathroom sink pipes and we cannot clear it. Winter is approaching. Also, we would like to use the van soon.

What do you all suggest? (sorry its so long winded).


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## rayc (Jun 3, 2008)

I remember a few years ago at an MHF rally spending a few hours with an Elddis owner sorting out his waste drainage problems.
It was all down to poor design. Small bore flexible pipes with long runs but the main problem was that the runs were uphill in many places especially one that run under the floor and upwards to clear the step. There was no way the kitchen sink would drain so the pipework was all rerouted. Be careful putting greasy water down them as the grease will settle in the pipes and make drainage even slower. There was a lump of grease trapped in the lower part of the pipe run.

A load of rubbish to be honest and would have been particularly unusable in cold weather.


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## Charisma (Apr 17, 2008)

We had a Compass Avantguard back in 2004 which had the same problems (made in the same factory as Eldiss I believe) and it was due to small bore pipes running uphill in places. Just really poor design.

Depending on how far you are from the dealer, I would return it and get them to sort it out properly. If you or someone you know is handy with things like this (and you want a proper job) it may be easier to do it yourself with some larger bore piping and rerouting to ensure a decent downhill drop to the waste tank. 

Make sure that the van is level when parked up as that could also adversley affect the draining speed.

Dave


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## Senator (Apr 24, 2008)

We sometimes find our bathroom sink is slow to drain (but not always) and generally I think it is an air lock in the pipes. Sometimes the angle of the van makes a difference to how quickly the sink empties.

Our kitchen sink and shower generally drain quickly.

From what you say it sounds like something is not quite right in the routing of the pipes.

Bottom line is that we are all expected to pay a small fortune for these vehicles and in my opinion we should expect everything to work properly. I would take it back and leave it with them until it's sorted!

The comment " got to live with it" would really annoy me :evil:

Hope you get it sorted and start to enjoy using it  

Mark


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## janet1 (Feb 10, 2012)

The dealership called back and is saying that Eldiss want them to take a similar van from the showroom and make a diagram of the plumbing structure and send it to them. Errrrr this will be a brand new van and not ours, the one which has got the problem! As I type Elddis is now talking to the dealers. Elddis have just come back and said they are having trouble trying to find out who is dealing with this at the Dealers. SO ARE WE!!!


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## HarryTheHymer (May 1, 2005)

I would agree with the previous posts - the pipework should be laid on a downward gradient to the waste tank with no dips along the way which could trap the water and reduce the efficiency of the discharge.

The shower tray is normally the most difficult to drain because there is less hydostatic pressure to drive the water to the waste tank ie. less vertical height between the shower tray and tank.

I would suggest you test the system with the external water fill cap removed. If there is an improvement in the discharge rate, then you may have a venting problem. The waste tank must be vented otherwise you get a build up of pressure in the tank which makes it more difficult for waste water to enter the tank.

Hope this helps but suspect it might be a design fault (small bore pipework and bad routing) as suggested by others.

Suggest you say to the dealer that you never had this problem with your previous van so the problem must be an inherent design fault particular to this converter.


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## rayc (Jun 3, 2008)

> HarryTheHymer said:
> 
> 
> > I would suggest you test the system with the external water fill cap removed. If there is an improvement in the discharge rate, then you may have a venting problem.
> ...


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## Quintana (Oct 28, 2014)

As stated above, uphill runs are the usual Elddis problem. They have a tendency to take run waste pipes first outside the chassis members and then down and back up the other side in a loop to the top of the waste tank..

When we had a 140 all the pipes except for the bathroom sink had to be re-routed to give a constant downhill gradient. Luckily they could be moved both inboard of the chassis and also above rather than below the floor in one go thus also protecting them from frost.

We never found the type and diameter of pipe to be a problem, just the rubbish routing.


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## HarryTheHymer (May 1, 2005)

Rayc - well spotted, yes you are correct, I must have been having a senior moment.

I should have said, remove the cap to the waste water tank and check if there is any improvement in the discharge rates.

Thanks rayc for raising this point.


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## cabby (May 14, 2005)

What I want to know is who is this dealer whose after sales is rubbish and knowledge of his vehicles blooming pathetic or just does not want to spend unpaid time fixing faults.
If they do have a workshop I wonder I fancy of us would trust them with our motorhomes.

I can see a shaking of heads. 

cabby


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## janet1 (Feb 10, 2012)

Can I just say that we think a kick -- the ---- has been given today by the Sales Director, and staff have been told to get it sorted!!! Tomorrow is another day......;-)


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## erneboy (Feb 8, 2007)

Many dealers will do what they can to avoid fixing problems like that. I've fixed the same thing on two new Autotrails. Dealer wasn't interested, just said it was normal, Alan.


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## barryd (May 9, 2008)

Our kitchen sink takes a while on our Kontiki but probably not two minutes. It also makes a difference if the van is parked on a slope or at a funny angle. Bathroom is fairly quick though as its pretty much above the waste tank.

Its right about watching what you put down it though. Mrs D put a load of fat down ours once and it completely blocked the pipes and rendered the sink unusable until the entire system was ripped out and cleaned with proper plumbers rods. :roll: 

I would imagine it awkward to redesign ours so yours may be the same. 

There is a sharp kink as it goes down at a right angle bend under the sink then down behind the drawers before then exiting along the bottom of the van (almost flat) into the waste tank. Cant see how else you could do it really. I suppose some kind of vacuum pump could be incorporated but thats just one more thing to go wrong.

I suspect yours is partly blocked.


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## bognormike (May 10, 2005)

it's a new van, it doesn't work properly, the dealers should sort it. Full stop.


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## rosalan (Aug 24, 2009)

On the off-chance that there is an air-lock or the route, in part, goes uphill, try a plunger to start the flow.

This situation is not satisfactory. The van costs a lot of money and is being let down by what seems to be a single, poor quality fitting, compounded by some poor design by Eldis.
DO NOT attempt to re-route the pipe at this time, for that is just the excuse the dealer may raise for any further problems that may arise, to nullify your warranty.

Alan


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## rosalan (Aug 24, 2009)

rayc said:


> > rosalan said:
> >
> >
> > > On the off-chance that there is an air-lock or the route, in part, goes uphill, try a plunger to start the flow.
> ...


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## janet1 (Feb 10, 2012)

We walked into the local town and bought a plunger but it made no difference. Sometimes there are bubbles coming up through the kitchen sink but overall it makes no difference to the speed of drainage. I agree with those who say it is the up/down travel of the pipes. We do appreciate all your suggestions.


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## tony50 (Oct 16, 2007)

janet1 said:


> Can I just say that we think a kick -- the ---- has been given today by the Sales Director, and staff have been told to get it sorted!!! Tomorrow is another day......;-)


Unless the problem is at the shower tray outlet, the workshop staff must be useless, the pipework is not exactly a mile long! they should be able to sort that out in a hour max.As regards to Elddis factory staff I have always had good service.

Tony A.


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## janet1 (Feb 10, 2012)

Must say we found the customer care staff at Eldiss, over the phone, really sympathetic and supportive. Nicola and Angela were polite and attentive. No problem with them.


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## rayc (Jun 3, 2008)

> rosalan said:
> 
> 
> > Rayc I am the last one to disagree with your superior knowledge but, yes it is possible (unlikely) to have production crud in the pipe even after the dealer fixed it.
> ...


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## Zebedee (Oct 3, 2007)

It's a pity all manufacturers don't use rigid piping, similar to a household installation. Dead easy then to avoid airlocks and the like, also easy to install a decent stench trap, and easy (for a third time) to ensure there's a downhill run all the way.

And the water would drain within a few seconds.

Too much trouble though, so understandable why they don't.

Dave


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## barryd (May 9, 2008)

I didnt read the post properly sorry. If its a new van then take it back and complain like hell.


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## zappy61 (May 1, 2005)

*Water Drainage problem*

Our first M/H was an Eldis a few years ago and I had the exact same experience whish made me late for a training session I was doing. The water in the shower refused to drain away and I had to bale it our before I could go to work, I was furious. When I investigated I found the waste pipe had not been securely clipped and was sagging when filled with water which I soon rectified with extra support. I wrote to Eldis and got a reply saying the would inform quality control :lol: :lol: 
Bound to be something similar but I would take it back and insist that it's sorted asap or money back. I did that with Brownhills with our third M/H and succeeded with a refund!

Graham


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## janet1 (Feb 10, 2012)

Latest in the saga!!.......I have just put this on Elddis's website as they don't appear to want to sort out new van problems.....

"Anyone thinking of buying an Elddis motorhome ......I wouldn't bother!! Buy another brand!! We bought a brand new van from them on 1st November 2014 through a northern Motorhome Dealership and 5 weeks later with less than 100 miles on the clock we (or they) cannot get Elddis to sort out a major plumbing problem. This could mean our plumbing could freeze and cause damage in Sink, shower and bathroom sink. They will not take responsibility even though we have volunteered to drive it to their workshop in Co Durham for their technican to look at it. Anyone who wants copies of the background correspondence, just comment on here. Thanks."

Wonder if they ever heard of good public relations?

I am now so annoyed, I can see us turning up at their premises next week....where our van might just 'break down' at their customer entrance (with some laminated posters in the windows describing our problems.....).


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## Pudsey_Bear (Sep 25, 2008)

Zebedee said:


> It's a pity all manufacturers don't use rigid piping, similar to a household installation. Dead easy then to avoid airlocks and the like, also easy to install a decent stench trap, and easy (for a third time) to ensure there's a downhill run all the way.
> 
> And the water would drain within a few seconds.
> 
> ...


No trouble at all Dave it's what I did, although the kitchen sink has 25mm pipe as it runs straight down almost, shower has a B&Q trap, with clean out point.


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## Pudsey_Bear (Sep 25, 2008)

I dare say it could be modified if there wasn't too much other gubbins in the way of running standard waste pipes, even if a lot of joints had to be used it'd still be much better.

Waste from shower


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