Barker Manufacturing Company 24140 1.5" Auto-Drain

This purchase was the second auto valve I have purchased. The first one was damaged in a tire blowout. I was happily able to use the same connector as the previous install. These thing are great. I Installed them because I have an injured back and bad knees. This was a very difficult chore as the location of the drain valves required me to bend and lean forward under the Travel Trailer to release them. No longer have to do this. This chore is now quick, easy and clean. However my one complaint, not product related, is the advertisement of the product. The ad and indeed the box it comes in is deceptive. It shows the product with a drain valve attached as if it comes as a complete unit. THIS IS NOT THE CASE. YOU STILL, NEED TO HAVE THE ORIGINAL VALVE OR A REPLACEMENT INSTALLED IN ORDER TO USE THESE ACTUATOR AS INTENDED. So just be aware of this requirement and ignore the pictures.

It seems to be sturdy enough and opens and closes smoothly. Installing the valve takes less than ten minutes. The hard part is routing the wires, that took me days to complete. My water control panel is about 12' from the dump valves but finding a way to get the wires to the valves on my Motorhome was a huge challenge. I recommend installing new valves. My old valves were sticky and the light would not turn off when I closed the valve. I installed a new valve and it works perfectly now. I'm looking forward to not having to crawl on my knees to dump the tanks.

It works so far. It wasn't to hard to install. The only thing I will say to watch out for is the inner seals. they aren't attached and easily fall out while installing. so You have to make sure to pay close attention to make sure the seals stay in place when installing. one seal slid off to the side because it was a tight space on the grey line, not much room and it fell out of place. when we tested it it leaked really bad, we opened and closed it and felt tight so we took it back apart and saw the seal has slid out of place and it got crushed. we straightened it out best we could and put it back in and it sealed thankfully. but because it was bent the motor didn't have enough power to close it all the way so the light stays on all the time. So I will have to order new seals. the other one for the black line was lower and super easy to install and works awesome. closes all the way and light goes out showing its closed. Also it has super short wires to the open and close switch so I bought longer wire and just cut the switch wires in half and bought connectors rewire it so I could mount the switches inside the RV. its awesome, and I bought a 110v to 12v box (I can't remember what its called sorry) to hook the power wires right up to the wall outlet. because the ones that came with it are only like 12 inches long. so they assume you will have to buy wires to get it to power. Otherwise its pretty easy to install, it was a little harder for the grey line because it was in a tighter space, but with two people it was much easier. now that I have everything hooked up I love it. the switch is inside and I just push the button, no more going outside.

Make sure you order valves if the valves you have currently are not the ones they specify. Will not work with any other style valves. Tough and dirty job to do but well worth it.

Best addition to my rv wish I found them years ago

Their "universal mounting bracket" is not quite as "universal" as they think it is. The big problem is the whole thing is too far away from the pipe. So I had to drill two more mounting holes to get the motor/gearing unit closer. Thee "U" bracket that connects to the unit and the valve plunger is too short, so I also need to get a longer connecting bolt. So, I have it mounted (still need a longer bolt to be happy), but can't test it yet. The wiring is pretty short, but they really don't know how long the wire needs to be, so this is on the user. But, they put a connector on it. That means I have to cut the wires and make it longer and then seal the connections so they don't get shorted or corroded. It'd have been munch easier if they just supplied a connector with a pig tail and some heat shrink. My bag is electronics, so I have all that stuff, no big deal to me. But somebody else would have a hard time. It's not just a matter of (finding) and adding 12v. you need to extend EVERYTHING to mount it somewhere inside (I want it inside, not just inside the water closet where I still have to go outside to switch it). Even if you want it in the water closet, be prepared cut and add wire anyway. I'll update this review when I test it, the way is, it make break first time around..... Side note, use "dual wall" heat shrink, it has liner in the wall made of hot melt glue, so when you shrink it, it provides a water tight environment for the connections.

Missing valve assembly.

Fairly easy install if you make it easy, i chose to mount my control switch INSIDE my rig so i had to run more connection wire as the product only comes with maybe 3ft.of prewired pigtail connection. But beside that all straight forward plug and play hook up and the instructions are well explained and illustrated.

Having a larger fifth wheel I know that there would be extra wiring required. The Valves work well once installed and no issues being 25 feet away from the switch's . I installed two and will add 3 more.

Simple installation Works well so far

Very nice smoth opening and closeing