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.

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.

The Barker Auto Drain works well but the quality control is starting to lack. I had to drill the excess plastic out of the holes for the bolts to go through and one of the switch assemblies has been wired wrong and the light did not come on when open. I switched the wires to the correct locations and it worked fine. The drain valve arrived as scheduled and was packed well.

Just what I needed to repair my RV.

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.

Missing valve assembly.

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.

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