Carver Cascade 2 water heater gas ignition failure
The Carver Cascade 2 installed in my 1996 Swift Royale motorhome suddenly stopped working on gas. The green light on the remote wall switch came on, but nothing happened. i.e. the burner wouldn't light, nor would the igniter function. The touble-shooting
section of the Carver manual says that the cause of this is that the 4-cable power lead from the wall remote to the burner unit has come unplugged. Well, it hadn't on mine (at either end) and there was power to the burner unit. Given that the burner unit wasn't
working, my considerable powers of deduction led me to the conclusion that the burner unit was faulty. Around £150 for a replacment. Sinking heart.
Now, the burner unit is a tidy piece of design and is held in by just two screws below and behind the gas control valve on the right hand side. Remove these (make sure the gas is off!) and the unit just slides out. Unplug the cable from the box and there
she is.
The plastic box behind the actual burner unit holds the pcb and there is a sticker on it saying something like "remove this and you can kiss goodbye to your warranty, sunshine". Given that my unit was made in 1996, I figured it was probably out of warranty
and so, being something of a maverick, I removed the label and opened the plastic box to reveal the pcb. Lo and behold, there was a fuse! It couldn't be that easy, surely? Well it was. I happened to have a new fuse (it's a 1 amp, 20mm glass fuse, by the way),
so I replaced the old fuse (word to the wise; don't assume it's fine just because it looks fine. Mine did and it wasn't) put the whole lot back together in about two minutes and away she went.
So if your burner unit gives up suddenly, check that fuse. If it's not that, send the unit to A&R Electronics (arelectronics.co.uk), who will recondition your unit for £60, which is a whole lot better than buying a new one.
I expect you knew all that, but I hope it saves someone a few pounds.