Bailey Approach 745 SE Truma heating questions.

When you say you were cold what was the outside temperature? We use level three if we want some background heat. Level four will provide real heat but of course whatever setting you have it on will be over ridden if the internal temperature is already quite warm, say 20 degrees + The air boost only tends to come on when the inside of the van is really cold or when on gas. You will also find that more heat comes out of the vents near the bed and in the bathroom. Like with many things its a case of find which setting suits you best.

David

Hi David

Thanks for the reply. The reason I used the 3 setting on the dial was I had left it at 5 the previous night and my Dad complained it was too warm.

 I just need to know why I woke up freezing cold to a flashing red light on that dial?  I was told this is because there’s a fault.  Have you had this?

So, the blower will only come on when on gas or gas/elec and when its cold? 

Thanks

vinatgeb3

I have had the flashing fault light. I find that switching the heating off and on again clears the fault. Is it possible there was a power line disturbance through the night that caused the problem? One easy way of telling if that happened would be the microwave
clock would need resetting. We never leave our heating on overnight even in the winter, mind you it does get pretty cold sometimes!!!!

I have only noticed the boost fan come on when it struggles to get up to temperature and it rarely happens on electric. If you come back from a day out and the van is cold that is when I would expect it to come on. However we are talking about a British
summer and I doubt the interior gets that cold even if it seems chilly outside.

David

Hi David

Thanks for your reply and thoughts.

This fault happened at two different sites, but of course it could have been a power outage at both sites. Not sure how likely that would be though. Like you, I reset the heating and got it working.  The blowers did not come on...but I only had electric
tat that time as the gas regulater was faulty. It took quite a while for the heat to build up.

I will set the microwave clock in future so I can help track down the fault.

We were in the Lake District and I actully love the cold and hate warm inclines. But I woke up frozen to the bone!

Do you have conecnerens about leaving heating on over night?

We used a small thermostatically controlled electric heater in our caravan without issuie.

May have to go back to that!...but had thought after sending this kind of money...the heating would work.

Thanks

vintageb3

you have two different questions here...

one is about how well the heating works, the other is to do with dentifying the fault indicated by the flassing red light...

1) the combi can only push out the amount of heat generated and an older version like yours, the fan speed is proportional to heat in the boiler.....so, on 900/1800w of electric, this wont be a vast amount, so the fan spins fairly slowly unless starting
from cold with a cold van.

switch to 'mixed mode' of gas&electric and you will notice an immediate difference as the gas side will bring the level up to nearly 4 kw (combi4) or 6kw (combi6) a big difference.

2) the flashing red light is not a random pattern.....it is blinking out a coded message of short and long flashes which can be identified and then checked against this table....

http://www.karavaanarit.fi/@Bin/105115965/bcl_769_1_0_61_en.pdf

Thanks BB  That link is great!...I'll use the pdf the next time I see the fault!

To be clear, it was damn cold when I awoke on two separate nights to find the fault. I was standing there swearing and wished I had brought my little fan greater with me!!!  As I have stated, the fans don't seem to running...the heat is just drifting
out of the ducts…i.e with no fan running. This is why I think there may be an issue. I would have thought that the fans would have come on after the heat built up to get the van warm quickly, then the fans would die down. This is how a service engineer explained
how it should work.  But I think David has said the fans only come on if you are on Gas or Gas/Elec mix.

Thanks! 

vintageb3  

even on elec 1 (900w) there should be some reasonable fan activity....

on elec 2 (1800w) it should be a bit more...

gas/elec1 (2.9kw), gas/elec2 (3.8kw) a real good blast

gas only (4kw) full speed fan....etc, etc....

the latest combis have an independently controllable fan (eco, high, boost) but yours is purely dependent on the amount of heat.....this is proportional to power source, so gas only at 4kw is highest, with gas/elec at 3.8kw next best, hence advice on using
mixed to 'test' the fan's function.

if you are still hetting a red light, try testing on gas only. it may be that your 'issue' is electric related, in which case mixed and electric modes will throw an error, whereas gas only may work.

if it works on gas, it will also give you a chance to see the fan in action.

Hi BB, this is all good advice on troubleshooting the issue.

How you describe how my system works is how i had it in my head. Now knowing that, I can hopefully get another fault up to use with the pdf given.

Thanks so much.

vintageb3