Truma water heater not heating
we have a Bailey 2022 caravan, this trip the water heater isn’t getting the water very hot, whereas it’s normally like lava… fuses all good and no error codes on the panel.
any thoughts on what this might be?
Or is it just so cold at the moment it’s struggling?
Thank you
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@TheCaravanningMummy - is your boiler the Truma Combi 6e? I assume it will be. Unfortunately, I have 6 years worth of experience of this bit of kit!! Two quick checks - are you certain it's switched to Elec 2 for your source of power? It it isn't - and you're running on Elec 1 - that will mean that only one element is being used and it will take a lot, lot longer to heat up the water.
Have you tried running it on gas? If you do - and it gets hot - then unfortunately it means that one of the heating elements has failed. It won't be both of them because if that were the case, your water wouldn't be getting warm at all on electricity.
If the van's had a normal to heavy amount of use, the elements will only last for about two years or so.
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thank you for this @richardandros this is helpful, we are on electric 2, but have always wondered the difference so have learnt something new today! 👍🏻
Heading out shortly so will try the gas when we get back later.
Much appreciated! 😁
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@TheCaravanningMummy If you keep the caravan at home, or are able to get it there and have a smart, meter you could check how many watts it is using. One of our elements failed after four years and it was easy to see it was only using 900 watts even when set to electric 2. Unfortunately it’s not just a case of having an element replaced, Truma only supply the full electric heating unit. Our combi is shoehorned under the dinette seating and had to come out. It was therefore rather expensive. I’m not sure I would have it done again if the same happened. We have refillable gas and would probably just use that to supplement the one element. When in France it rarely gets off of electric 1 anyway.
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If it's working on gas then it could be the overheat trip switch has tripped out. This has happened to us twice. Look in the instructions to find where it is.
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can’t get the caravan home unfortunately. Thank you for the info, it will go to the dealership if we can’t work it out.
so we shall see, hopefully not an expensive fix however as the tow car just did us the dirty on the MOT 😱😭😂0 -
Oooh thanks for this info. We will check later about this once we’ve tested on gas. 👍🏻☺️
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thanks everyone, we have hot water on gas… the rest as to why is unknown for the moment so shall leave the rest to my dealer as the caravan is due in for service soon anyways!
Muchly appreciate the help from everyone.0 -
@TheCaravanningMummy - so the fact that it's working on gas and there isn't an error message says to me that, unfortunately, it's a heating element that's gone. As @SteveL says, upthread, I'm afraid it's a big and expensive job. Since I have a power meter installed in the van, I am able to get an instant indication because instead of pulling the correct 7.5A on EL2 (for both elements) it drops to just over 3A when one has gone.
It will mean taking the boiler out of the van and it means a new heat exchanger. Up to about 3 years ago, it was possible just to change the element. However, because the element has to be crimped into the cooling fins - and this wasn't being done properly by dealers - leading to premature failure - Truma adopted a policy of only supplying the complete heat exchanger with both the elements already installed. Last time I had this done - just over two years ago - it cost me £750!!
When the boiler packed up again, just before last Christmas - and we were due to go away - the error code told me and the dealer nothing and their diagnostic laptop when plugged in - didn't give any further information as to what was wrong (but it wasn't the elements, this time). It would have meant sending the boiler back to Truma with no guarantee they could fix it and certainly not before we went away. I got them to change the complete boiler which arrived within two days and was fitted in two hours - but at a cost of over £1600. At least this one has another two year guarantee.
There is a slight possibility that, as Corners says, that it's an overheat switch that's tripped - but since the water is warming somewhat, indicating that one element is still working, I think this is unlikely. If it had tripped, neither of them would work.
Sorry to be the bearer of not-so-good news, but I was just trying to brace you for worst case scenario😥. I hope I'm wrong😀.
For all of that, I still think the Truma is a good heating system - it's just that they've made it overly complicated. One final tip - although the instructions say you can run the boiler dry (for heating only) - I am convinced that's what led to our last failure and now only run the heating with water in the boiler.
Let us know how you get on.
Richard
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Hi, I have a Swift Challenger (Sport) with a Trauma water heater UGE 103 which keeps tripping the main hook-up power supply.
I have carried out isolation of supplies and the problem is related to the Trauma water heater. The ELCB on the van consumer unit does not trip out when the water heater is switched on to heat. any ideas please, greatful for any help. Thanks!
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Is this a CAMC site 16amp supply or a lower rated EHU? Could you be overloading the EHU by running other things as well as the Truma? It might be worth getting the site to check the bollard.
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@Aza It very such sounds like a duff heating element. They can be replaced. I have put a link to a YouTube Video below that walks you through the replacement process.
David
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As @richardandros says:
There is a slight possibility that, as Corners says, that it's an overheat switch that's tripped - but since the water is warming somewhat, indicating that one element is still working, I think this is unlikely. If it had tripped, neither of them would work
Now there is a setting (I think) where the heating is on and the water gets heated as a 'by-product' of the heating for the caravan. If the heating for the caravan isn't set at a high setting or only needs to warm the caravan a few degrees this may cause the sligh warming of the water. I know this is a long shot but worth thinking about?
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@Cornersteady - as far as I know, there isn't an actual setting to make the water heat as a by-product of the space heating. It happens anyway. If running just the heating on gas - with the water heating switched off - it will heat the water - quite noticeably. Same thing happens with electric - but doesn't get anywhere near as hot. That's my experience, anyway.
@TheCaravanningMummy have you managed to get your problem sorted out? And exactly which Truma system is fitted in your van? I said, in my original post that I assumed it was the Combi 6e - because that's the latest one. @DavidKlyne - interesting video - but that one is nothing like the 6e. The two elements are part of the heat exchanger and have fins attached and the only way to get at them is to remove the complete boiler and strip it down to dismantle the heat exchanger and remove them that way. And since Truma now only sell the elements as a complete kit - already attached to the fins, unfortunately, there is no other way of doing it. I actually watched the process, last time the Tech at the dealership changed the elements. It's a big lump of complicated alloy machining that has to come out! In most installations, there just isn't the room to do it without taking the boiler out.
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@richardandros there is such an actual setting either on electric or gas. It's described in this video at time index 1:18, as it says, 'you'll get a certain amount of water heating…' so as I posted: it will 'make the water heat as a by-product of the (space) heating'
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@richardandros The first caravan we had with a water heater had a Cascade boiler fitted and then came the Ultrastore which @Aza was referring to in his post and it seems for that boiler the parts are readily available. Obviously the Combi boilers are the next series up and it seems more difficult to swap the elements over making it an expensive job. Changing the element in an Ultrastore is probably not much more complicated than changing an immersion boiler element or in the olden days a Russell Hobbs kettle element.
David
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@Cornersteady and @DavidKlyne - I think we're all correct! The trouble is, we don't know exactly which Truma heating system is fitted in the OP's van - hence my question above. I am assuming it's the Combi 6e because of the relative newness of the van.
The controller for the 6e looks like this - and is nothing like the one in Corner's video and even the newest version of the 6e which has just been fitted to my van, operates in a slightly different way from the last one, indicating that they have probably altered the software / firmware.
We will have to wait and see if @TheCaravanningMummy answers my questions!
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