Waste water leak!!!!!

by seanroberts037 Mon 1 May 2017 - 6:11

Was away at weekend & whilst washing up heard load of water outside leaking from kitchen side, looked u see van to see all thus water pouring out, went back in and all the carpet soaking, sink empty and cupboards floated, located waste pipe under sink and traced as far back as I could & noticed the elbow joint had come apart, managed to push back on then cleared up, anyone know what caused this? Waste tank was only showing a quarter full.
Cheers

Sean

by Paramedic Mon 1 May 2017 - 8:24

How frustrating for you as certainly can spoil your day. History being that pipe joints just pull apart because of poor build installation or degrading over period of time. There has been previous threads with regard to leaks from water systems. Such reported events remind us all to frequently inspect areas for water leaks throughout the van. Hope you managed to mop up all the spillage.

by rgermain Mon 1 May 2017 - 8:40

Been there done that!

Just down to poor workmanship, mine were only PUSHED IN!!!! No glue to be found and only just pushed in. Pipe had been cut too short, my solution was to fix it myself with pipe glue.

No more problems and it passed the 1st year damp test, if they tested under the sink that is.

Just another Autosleeper QA problem shrugg

Hope you get it sorted and dried out.

Richard

by Askit Mon 1 May 2017 - 8:49

Unfortunately not an unusual occurrence. In addition to the possible reasons mention above, another possibility is small amounts of water left in the system can freeze over winter and push connections apart. Several of us have had the same happen with the bathroom sink, in our cases it seemed due to poor connections being made in the first place.

Hope you get the MH dried out ok, it's a timely reminder for us all to give our vehicle pipe work a once over.

by Jaytee Mon 1 May 2017 - 10:08

Same as ours censored!

. Pipe was cut too short at build and just came out of the connector. Hab check found damp under sink but they said they had checked all the pipes and all was OK. So I had to find the fault for them!!! censored!

. I have now made up longer pipes and also silicone sealed the fittings.
Why oh why can AS not sort this issue out shrugg

. It seems to affect a large number of vans, causes irreparable damage (our under sink shelf is all delaminated) and inconvenience yet they sing their own praises re their quality qualifications.
Come on AS read the flipping forum!!

by rgermain Mon 1 May 2017 - 10:35

Jaytee wrote:Same as ours . Pipe was cut too short at build and just came out of the connector. Hab check found damp under sink but they said they had checked all the pipes and all was OK. So I had to find the fault for them!!! . I have now made up longer pipes and also silicone sealed the fittings.
Why oh why can AS not sort this issue out . It seems to affect a large number of vans, causes irreparable damage (our under sink shelf is all delaminated) and inconvenience yet they sing their own praises re their quality qualifications.
Come on AS read the flipping forum!!

I totally agree with you, such a stupid thing to happen, would you just push fit pipes in your house? I think not.

I know others on here defend Autosleeper build levels, but come on, we are not making these things up and they are supposed to be at the top of the Motorhome game, well price wise anyway.

Richard

by Jaytee Mon 1 May 2017 - 10:50

I do think their build qualities are among if not the best but they keep making the same stupid mistakes. Surely it would be worth the cost of one person within the organisation having a look at this forum once a day and noting defects reported. Simples and very advantageous. Yet, whenever suggested as by letter to their Chief Exec by ?? on this forum they seem totally adverse to the idea. They say they monitor their quality by warranty costings and feed back so must presume poorly fitted drain pipes and subsequent repairs are not warranty items OR as like me owners fix it them selves shrugg

by rgermain Mon 1 May 2017 - 15:03

I would like to have sneak at their Company computer and see if ASOF is on their favourite list.

I bet they do have a look, I suppose we do not do ourselves any good by fixing problems where we can and not bringing them to their attention, but a small fix especially when on site does save a trip to the dealers and gets you out of trouble ( and a wet floor ). Apart from the dealer saying, ok we can book it in 3 weeks from now!

Some members on here seem to be many miles away from their dealer, making self repair the only real option.

by groundhog Mon 1 May 2017 - 17:32

Off to check mine before we go away this week, thanks for the heads up though sorry you had the problem, such a simple thing to get right and as has been said a typical area where it just shouldn't happen, ships and tar come to mind! Might even take them apart and silicone the joints if they are easy to get at just in case.

by Jaytee Mon 1 May 2017 - 20:19

groundhog wrote:Off to check mine before we go away this week, thanks for the heads up though sorry you had the problem, such a simple thing to get right and as has been said a typical area where it just shouldn't happen, ships and tar come to mind! Might even take them apart and silicone the joints if they are easy to get at just in case.

The main problem seems to be that the pipe sections are cut too short so they don't stay fully inserted in the sleeved joints. If yours are secure now then they are probably OK. A good look and a shake would show any probs. Shake the pipes that is hugegrins

.

by Maasai Warrior Mon 1 May 2017 - 21:44

So sorry you have had problems Sean. We have had a number of quality control issues with our van since we bought it new three years ago! One thing we haven't had problems with, yet! are joints coming apart. I will do a thorough check on ours before we go off to Scotland for a few weeks. Thanks for the heads up.

If AS could only get on top of these silly quality control issues, they would lead the market. It's not rocket science - come on AS. Most of us love their vans, going by the amount of money we have sunk into the company. Surely we all deserve to be listened to.

However nothing will ever change, thank goodness for Mark at AS's Service Centre, as I have said so many times before!

Pete

by Twiggy Tue 2 May 2017 - 10:41

Our under the sink plumbing parted company at the elbow joint dropping all the washing up water onto the food stored below and soaking the carpet. The problem was the same, pipework too short and not fitted into the elbow far enough plus no pipe support brackets. A/S should have a word with the pipe fitter guy.

Twiggy

by Paramedic Tue 2 May 2017 - 15:19

Paranoia will beset us all until such time we can assure pipework is sound in our vans. Problem being, those parts we are unable to readily observe could clandestinely detach and water covertly do it's worse over time. Apologies if I come across as the prophet of doom. think_smiley_46

by Jaytee Tue 2 May 2017 - 19:38

Paramedic wrote:Paranoia will beset us all until such time we can assure pipework is sound in our vans. Problem being, those parts we are unable to readily observe could clandestinely detach and water covertly do it's worse over time. Apologies if I come across as the prophet of doom.

by groundhog Tue 2 May 2017 - 20:21

We're doomed Cap'n Mainwaring, we're all doomed.... hugegrins

by Askit Wed 3 May 2017 - 20:25

Did a quick check under the sink on our MH as we're away for a few days, looks like it's ok but no complacency here. It'll get regular checks from now on.

by Peter Brown Mon 8 May 2017 - 17:29

There is a considerable amount of relative movement between the floor, sides and worktops when travelling, I know you shouldn't, but sit in the back and watch it.

The pipe joints are left unglued to allow movement and stop something fracturing. If you do glue the pipe joints, make sure that the whole pipe can move through any holes or clips.

There should obviously be sufficient overlap in the unglued joint to stop one pipe jumping out of the other when the stretching occurs and if there is not then that is a fault.

Prior to using this system AS used flexible pipes but complaints were that the draining was too slow and it wasn't as easy to install 'traps' to prevent smells from the waste tank getting into the van.

by StewPotch Mon 8 May 2017 - 17:41

rgermain wrote:****** mine were only PUSHED IN!!!! *********

Mine too - under the sink. I reckon A/S must save about 50mm on pipework with every build ..... that will soon add up where they have saved a whole £5 in a year! scratch head

Also, they managed to get the polarity wrong on one of my hab 12V sockets. Good job I only blew a fuse on a fan and not a TV up!

No doubt about it - A/S QA department has fallen asleep on the job boo

by kaspian Sat 13 May 2017 - 17:47

StewPotch wrote:
rgermain wrote:****** mine were only PUSHED IN!!!! *********

No doubt about it - A/S QA department has fallen asleep on the job

I agree 100% Stew but until we all contact A/s direct with our common examples of poor workmanship they will remain blissfully unaware ( they are at times laughably shoddy in their build but not psychic as far as I know! ) And , if bombarded with common faults examples would surely have to smarten up their act. Furthermore they will continue to laughably produce stats re. Quality improvements and falling warranty claims which do not tie up with our experiences! The last thing we want is for them to get a bad name for quality and residual values suffer but something must be done to make them aware And give them the opportunity to Improve quality.

by Jaytee Sat 13 May 2017 - 21:07

Well put Kaspian up!

by StewPotch Sun 14 May 2017 - 6:57

kaspian wrote:
StewPotch wrote:
rgermain wrote:****** mine were only PUSHED IN!!!! *********

No doubt about it - A/S QA department has fallen asleep on the job
I agree 100% Stew but until we all contact A/s direct with our common examples of poor workmanship they will remain blissfully unaware ..........

I actually sent an email, with a photograph of my multimeter connected up, showing reverse polarity to one of their engineers ……………. He never got back to me to ask any questions, put me on to another department or even apologise.
I really think it will take a lot of effort for A/S to wake up to their problems!

by kaspian Sun 14 May 2017 - 8:08

Unfortunately that is exactly the sort of attitude I met with when reporting problems Stew.
Problem is they probably sell every one they build so why care? Only when bombarded with every problem customers suffer could we hope someone would take us seriously.
A start would be for someone from A/s to monitor this forum regularly and perhaps we could have a section where we could highlight build problems saving them having to trawl through the irrelevant stuff.
A build common issue highlighted at the beginning of a build run of vans could save them and us a lot of stress money and time ( and reputation) having to repair or modify vans. Only when someone posts on here a specific issue do we then find out many others are quietly working away fixing the same problem and thats only taking in forum members and of those the ones who can be bothered to share experiences.
Eg the van I viewed recently had been wet under the kitchen sink area with shelves and unit bottoms delaminating no doubt due to the drain pipework coming apart causing a flood
NO self respecting company with such experience would rely on dry push fit pipework even if allowing enough length to ensure full engagement in joints without even a smear of silicon or pvc cement to fix in position . Even more so as Peter reports our units walls pipework and appliances wobble around like a table jelly under way.Off to check the rest of the drain pipework as the first joint checked had pipe inserted only about 5 mm into joint - a stitch in time!

by StewPotch Sun 14 May 2017 - 8:54

Good luck Kasp - have your mop and sponges on standby.

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