Previous posts indicate that you probably need to clean the poo and poopaper off of your sensors of which there are three. You can go the nasty route by pulling them out and cleaning them up close and in person. Or, you can pump out then fill with clean water and put Cascade dish washer soap in the tank and then drive around banging your own wake until you've disolved the poopaper mess. Some even put ice cubes in the tank for a little more "action". This is a process I'm in myself. Got the Cascade in the tank, been driving about as crazy as the Admiral will allow but still don't have anything registering on the tank monitor.

 

I hate to tell you, but this happened to us. The sending unit in the holding tank is stuck. It will need to be replaced (a crappy job) or somehow freed. Some have suggested putting ice down the head and running the boat to shake it free. I am not sure if that would work or not, not for us.

We ended up having the float and sending unit replaced.

 

most likely sending unit inside tank is "stuck"
Fill up your holding tank with soapy water, take boat for a ride and hope that it will clean sender inside tank, if not - it is a smelly job.

 

Are you adding holding tank treatment after every pump out? The chemical will break down the poo and toilet paper. Do you flush the holding tank with fresh water a couple times after each pump out? Also, I told my family no more poo ing on the boat. Walk to the bath house. So mean !

 

i got tired of those lame SR indicator lights that never seem to work. installed the smart mini...

http://www.snake-river.org/Products.asp

completely EXTERNAL (so no more snagged sensors) and a much better indicator of how many flushes left til you OVERFLOW! you pick up power from the existing sensor wires at the tank and leave the old sensor for dead inside the tank. no muss, no fuss. cant beat it for the money.

 

Excellent Post! Plus 1.

 

Any precautions , beside try to keep your breath if I want to remove the caps and clean them ?

 

As for the smell, you could go to a local safety house and buy "nuisance odor masks". You'll probably have to buy a package of 10. These are like dust mask respirators except they have a layer of activated charcoal. With one of these babies, you won't be bothered by the smell.

Dennis

 

How important is adding holding tank treatment? I have never had an issue so never felt the need to add another chore to the list but that dosn't mean I shouldn't be. Thoughts?

 

All we ever add is a small laundromt size box of Tide without beach during a pump out about once a month. Other than that, we add nothing after pumping out. This has been our procedure for years and we've had no issues. I do change our vent filter every year because we live on the boat much of the summer.

 

not sure how impt it is but i always dump in the prescribed amount. when i changed my duckbills and there were a few drops of spillage from the hoses, the only odor was ammonia. it literally smelled like some household cleaner. if that's b/c of my use of treatment, i dont know?

 

Oh God... the "put ice in the holding tank" crap again...

 

My indicator is blank except for the red Power light. My tank is near 1/2 full without any indication. MM told me that you do not get an indication until you are half full or above. Is this true? My fresh water has indications every 1/4 increment, seems the waste should have a similar sensor & display....I am off in left field??

Mike

 

Mike, while my boat is older than yours, the indicator is working exactly the same.

Over the last Month since the empty light went off, I thought it was busted. Being anal retentive, it bugged the heck out of me. So I started checking it out.

Here's what I had and found.

At spring launch, it read power with "empty", which soon went off, leaving only power. I went checking all the connections. All visually checked out tight. Then I removed the indicator tubes and started shaking them. They would cause the panel to flicker the 1/2 and full indicators. Then I got it :smt115

When the empty float is "hanging" in the tank, it illuminates the panel bulb for empty. Once the tank fills, and the empty float actually floats it turns the empty light off. You then only see the power light. Meanwhile, the 1/2 full float is normally hanging, which for it is "off" until it floats and it then illuminates that bulb. Same as for the full light.

To confirm, I have continued to fill the tank (Coors Light). Just last weekend, the 1/2 light came on which I visually confirmed by looking at the holding tank itself.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

 

Mike, while my boat is older than yours, the indicator is working exactly the same.

When the empty float is "hanging" in the tank, it illuminates the panel bulb for empty. Once the tank fills, and the empty float actually floats it turns the empty light off. You then only see the power light. Meanwhile, the 1/2 full float is normally hanging, which for it is "off" until it floats and it then illuminates that bulb. Same as for the full light.

Absolutely right, when using the TankWatch three-probe system. There are variations, but this one is common on sport cruisers. When I did not trust mine, I had a SeaLand service tech take the cap off and he found nothing wrong with the probes at all. His service fee was my tuition for the lesson.

 

i have a plastic translucent tank. when i place a handheld spotlight behind it and shine it through the tank, i can make out the level. not good enough. so i put in the snake river canyon indicator, which i love! i also bought a "stud sensor" at home depot, thinking maybe it'll read the resistance of the fluid (and i use the term loosely) in the tank and light up when it goes over the level. didnt work.

 

Rondds, Great Link. Plus 2!

 

I bet the dealers love these kind of service calls!! :smt043

Mine is brand new..I "think" the first couple of times we used the boat it read 1/4 tank...then 1/2...
I'm noticing now it just goes from empty to 1/2...I guess it's good enough for me...(Too much Information):lol:

 

Ours only reads empty right after a pumpout. It goes out after just a few flushes. With just two adults, it takes many many weekends of use to ever have the 1/2 full light come on. However, we have gotten it up to full (do not flush) a few times in over fours of year-round boating.

 

Ours only reads empty right after a pumpout. It goes out after just a few flushes.

That's perfect, right? That way, you know when you've emptied it out completely.

 

I replaced all the sensors with floats (there were two bad sensors) . There is a sensor that shows when empty, another for 1/2 full and one for full(don't flush). Not the most pleasant job but I hope the new ones will last for a long time

 

Finally, I decided to clean the floats myself and skip the ice thing...It's not so bad to do. It took me about 10 minutes and everything works great now!

 

I had my duck bills and bowl seal replaced this past weekend in Newport. Total time for the tech was 1.5 hours, total cost including parts was $368. Well worth the money, in my opinion.

I had him open the tank and pull up the sensors and clean them. It was a "shitty" job for sure, but the smell was tollerable, and if you have a strong stomach, it is not a big deal. We then tested the indicators manually to make sure all the lights work.

What I found out was that although I thought the 1/2 light was not working, the truth was that the tank never really got that full before I had it pumped out. I had used the boat the previous 5 days (with 2 people on board) and the tank was still less than half full. I usually have the boat pumped out every weekend. The vacu flush heads use very little water to flush. Maybe you are not letting the tank get full?

 

In my holding tank it takes quite some time to get 1/2 full and I always pump out once that light comes on. Looking at the tank at half full - it appears to be over half full at that time.

 

These inaccurate holding tank indicators waste a ton of the average boater's money. We pumped our head out in Harbor Springs a couple of weeks ago and the charge was $25 on top of the $500 we spent on fuel. Most marinas charge $10 and a few only $5. Mostly the charges in our area are $10-$20. If you boat alot, you can spend $40-$50 a month on pump outs. There is a solution and its pnuematic. While there are a number of pnuematic monitors, we happen to have a Tank Tender. They are trouble free and give you the exact status of your tanks. We have gone from pumping out once a week to pumping out every 2 weeks when cruising and every 4-6 weeks when just putzing around our local lake. While not cheap ($450???), this instrument paid for itself in the first year it was installed.

 

Mine doesn't work at all. I've never seen any of the lights illuminated for either the fresh water tank, or the holding tank.
Luckily, we have free a free pumpout in a local transient marina for town residents. They even have a free pump out boat that comes alongside if you want when you're at the dock. There are also several other free pumpouts sponsered by municipalities in the area.
I use the pumpout at the transient marina just before leaving after every stay. I usually top it off with fresh water from a hose just before I pump it out, and if there is time I follow up with another fill up and pump out of fresh water. We use the boat for day cruises in between, but the waste tank doesn't even come close to being full after several of these.
The fresh water tank is more of a PIA for me. I like to keep some water in it for general clean up on the afternoons we spend cruising around or on the hook, but I don't want to keep it too full.
One of these days I'm going to have to spend some time figuring out how to fix it.

 

Here in NJ it's rare to get charged anything at all, but our cheap ass marina charges $5.

if you arent sure about your tank's level at any given time, get in the bilge after dark with a flashlight and back light the tank (if you have a translucent plastic tank). that is one definite way to see what's in there and see if your indicators are working. i do this occasionally to check the snake river device and it always proves to be extremely accurate.

one pee-pee flush is going to send around the amount of fluid in a plastic water bottle into the tank (no i didnt pee in a water bottle - i eye-balled it by pouring a bottle full into the bowl and comparing it to the level of a normal #1). one water bottle is about 17 fl oz. do the math and you'd be surprised how many flushes it takes to fill a holding tank.

 

My holding tank wiring harness was modified to add an in-line connector. Now I just unplug and unscrew the sending unit. The crud is easily cleaned and the unit restored to normal operation.

Remove the sending unit after pump-out for easy service.

The opening also permits easy access to the tank interior. I use a garden hose and long handle brush to clean the interior periodically, prior to winterization.