Vista 378 - Tank Monitors

Pilotpak · **Posted:** Tue Jan 21, 2014 5:17 pm

The 2006 378 that I have owned for just one week has 3 Fireboy tank monitors, Holding, GreyWater and Freshwater. When you press any of the tank buttons the green empty light flashes. The Fireboy manual says this means no connection to the sender units - but to me it seems strange that all three senders would either be disconnected or faulty.

Any ideas where I should start looking ?

The monitors are in the head, and I'm not sure how to gain access to behind them ?

firecadet613 · **Posted:** Wed Jan 22, 2014 7:30 am

Are you sure all three tanks aren't empty?

First thing I'd check is the connections to the sending units, which will be at the top of your holding tanks. Unfortunately I'm not sure where they would be on a 378. My 318 has them in different spots than my 268 did.

Pilotpak · **Posted:** Tue Jan 28, 2014 4:05 pm

Thanks Firecadet,

Yes, checked at the week-end. All tanks had content in them. Checked the accessible connections - all appear OK.

The flashing light is the key - indicating some form of connection fault - just seems strange that all 3 tanks (2 monitors) are showing the same indication.

I'll have to leave it to the electrician - who is now talking with the Fireboy people.

Marks · **Posted:** Wed Jan 29, 2014 6:54 pm

I had a similar problem on my 2006 278 tank monitors. About a year after new, I had to replace the in-tank sensor on the holding tank because of the flashing green light. That solved the problem.... for about another year, then it happened again. I didn't replace it again, I thought it was a poor designed sensor for a holding tank. The freshwater sensor never had a problem, still works good. I chalked it up to the sensor is easily reading the water, but the holding tank seems to get fouled from all the, ya know....
3 sending units all bad at the same time, suspicious. Maybe the gauge, not the sending/sensors?

Justhavenfun · **Posted:** Sun Feb 09, 2014 5:43 pm

I have had Vista's for 4 years now. Our 268 water level gausges never worked and now on the 328 same thing.

I started to ask other vista owners about this and they say yep don't work.

I researched this many times online and found yep very common problem.

I do want to get all mine working too but for now I lift the midberth cusion, grab the flashlight and check the black water tank level.

The fresh water stays towards full all the time and I do brew coffee from the holding tank water and rinse it out alot during the season, since we overnight anchored out alot.

For the most part when it's hot your not going 2 weeks on the waste water anyhow at least I'm not (insert Lynyrd Skynrd song eww! eww! that smell) I'll be at the gas dock every other week anyhow because we only get about' half tanks of gas at a time...

Would I like new sensors, yes. Do I have an unlimited credit card, nope.

Bliss36 · **Posted:** Sun Feb 09, 2014 8:54 pm

Justhavenfun wrote:

I do brew coffee from the holding tank water

I bet your coffee tastes like crap :lol:

I have the same situation..3 sensors and none of them work. The sensors look easy to replace so I will probably do the holding and fresh water tank sensors this year. The other senor is for my toilet water supply which doesn't create an emergency when it runs out. As others have said I think they are really poorly made, but the new replacements are a different design so maybe they will last a little longer...I hope :roll:

erie cruiser · **Joined:** Mon Jun 06, 2011 6:40 am **Posts:** 68

yes very common problem, i have not seen one work ever, none have worked on any of our vista's, none have worked on any vista's that friends in our marina have.....its a joke among us, (who needs to pump out and who needs fresh water and when).

Bliss36 · **Posted:** Mon Feb 10, 2014 8:31 am

I pulled the fresh water tank sensor out last season and the design is SO simple, it's basically a pvc tube with a bare wire looped through it. It has no float, at least mine doesn't so I can't figure out what is going wrong with these sensor's. There has to be an easy at home fix for these! I get irritated giving a company money to replace something they didn't get right the first time :evil:

This forum is full of smart people...let's figure out how to do an at home fix on the senor's!!

Decision · **Posted:** Mon Feb 10, 2014 9:20 am

Our combination gauge located in our head that reads holding tank and fresh water tank level only has the fresh water portion of the guage working. In our last three boats I have not had the holding tank level monitor work, so we have used JD's flashlight monitoring system. On our present 328 we have the optional extra 30 gallon holding tank, so that gives us plenty of capacity, but we prefer timely pump outs as opposed to hauling two full holding tanks around.

After solving holding/water gauge reading issues, maybe we can move on to solving all the outdrive trim gauges that don't read or don't read correctly?

Mike.

ric · **Posted:** Mon Feb 10, 2014 9:29 am

Decision wrote:

After solving holding/water gauge reading issues, maybe we can move on to solving all the outdrive trim gauges that don't read or don't read correctly?

Mike.

I replaced my fuel level sensor the other week with a newer style, it's quite accurate now and the gauge doesn't flap around on waves! You can adjust the trim level sensor it's super easy.

Justhavenfun · **Posted:** Thu Feb 20, 2014 1:04 pm

Decision wrote:

I have not had the holding tank level monitor work, so we have used JD's flashlight monitoring system.

Pilotpak · **Posted:** Thu Feb 20, 2014 3:43 pm

Thanks All.

BTW...I too have been troubled in the past by the outdrive trim sender issues - anything that doesn't work 100% drives me nuts !

So I solved the outdrive trim indicator issue - I bought a V378 with Shaft Drives !

Bliss36 · **Posted:** Sun Mar 09, 2014 6:57 pm

Bliss36 wrote:

This forum is full of smart people...let's figure out how to do an at home fix on the senor's!!

Finally made it out to the boat yesterday and decided to pull the fresh water sensor while I was there. Tore the sensor apart and it looks like the circuit board has corrosion from water intrusion. The way the internals were potted into the sensor I can see how this might be a major problem for these. Anyways I will have to eat my "let's fix these" words and order a new set :oops:

Pilotpak what did you decide to do with yours? Xintex again or maybe something better?

Pilotpak · **Posted:** Sun Mar 09, 2014 7:10 pm

Thanks Bliss36 -

After putting out the fire on my boat yesterday, I also pulled out the holding tank sender and replaced it with a WEMA analogue gauge. Reasons for do this are;

1/ None of the Xintex gear on my 6 year old boat works
2/ Wema use a standard sender - when they fail they can be cheaply replaced.
3/ Wema were one of the few brands that has a single wire connection (i.e. 1 sender wire + Earth)
4/ All up, cost was around $120 Aussie dollars.
5/ Wema uses fully variable resistance as opposed to the 5 step measurements of Xintex - i.e. the slight movement of the needle during reading tells me the sender is still working.

I needed to fabricate an adapter for the tank due to a strange thread size - separate post has been made on this.

weather · **Posted:** Tue Mar 11, 2014 10:05 am

Our fresh water sensor works, but the waste has never worked, and yes - I use a flashlight too! :lol:

Someday when I find the time, I plan on replacing the holding tank sensor with an external one, here is what I'm looking at: https://tankedge.com/products.html

www.iFourWinns.com

Vista 378 - Tank Monitors

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