Truma combi hot plastic smell venting into caravan

Paul and Lisa P
Paul and Lisa P Forum Participant Posts: 12
edited November 2019 in Caravans #1

We purchased a new Swift caravan 3 weeks ago and for several reasons we have taken it back to the dealer and rejected it.

One of the issues is that the Truma combi produces a terrible eye watering, throat burning, acrid burning plastic/electrical smell when the hot water and heating are running on electric. 

One of us is asthmatic and these fumes triggered attacks along with headaches.  This despite have all the roof vents open and several windows on the vent position.  

We have been caravanning for over 30 years and owned about 10 caravans and we have never experienced this from previous Truma combi's. (this is first swift we have bought, and the last due to this and the other problems we have experienced)

The dealer says there is nothing wrong and nothing to fix on the combi, although he did agree there is a smell.   

We then spoke to a technical guy at Truma who told us smell is normal and that when the boiler gets too hot, the cooling fan will blow the hot air into the living space.  He also confirmed that there are some plastic parts that are probably getting too hot.  Other than this information he was unhelpful.

He also said that the manufacturer (Swift in this case) had probably not bent the air vent pipes correctly and that they should be kinked with a 'trap' just like a sink waste pipe! I think he must have been joking tough?

On reading up about it, we realised this issued has been going on for some years now and it seems that many people have been advised that the smell is innocuous and not a problem, and some of you have been reassured by this advice. 

However, we have read up about the fumes some plastics can give off when they get hot and they could cause serious health issues and some could even cause cancer.  (not pointing at Truma as I know nothing of the plastics they use)

Please, for the sake of your health, do not assume any smells/aromas/fumes are normal, they are not. 

Interested to hear your comments please.

 

Comments

  • SteveL
    SteveL Club Member Posts: 12,303 ✭✭✭
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    edited November 2019 #2

    We then spoke to a technical guy at Truma who told us smell is normal and that when the boiler gets too hot, the cooling fan will blow the hot air into the living space.

    The cooling fan on the Truma in our MH, which I assume cools the electronics, vents to the outside not into the van,

  • richardandros
    richardandros Club Member Posts: 2,681 ✭✭✭
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    edited November 2019 #3

    Well I don't believe the guy at Truma, saying that the smell was 'normal'. We have a Truma in our Knaus bought new last December and there has never been a smell of any kind whatsoever.  If that were the case, then surely everyone would have experienced this problem?

  • Unknown
    Unknown Forum Participant
    edited November 2019 #4
    The user and all related content has been Deleted User
  • Paul and Lisa P
    Paul and Lisa P Forum Participant Posts: 12
    edited November 2019 #5

    The cooling fan on the Truma in our MH, which I assume cools the electronics, vents to the outside not into the van

    we can't believe that this doesn't.  Thought it would be the obvious thing to do.

    It is obviously such a bad design, that it is getting too hot and then they send the heat (& smell) back into the living space!  Clearly, no health and safety concerns about hot plastic giving off fumes or about asthma suffers.

    Any asthma suffers out there, that have mentioned their asthma when buying a caravan?

    Surely, it seems to us, that these fumes should be mentioned when buying a caravan.  Asthma does kill. We guess, as in all things about public safety, some poor soul will have to lose their life before things change.

     

     

  • Tigi
    Tigi Forum Participant Posts: 1,038
    500 Comments
    edited November 2019 #6

    Never experienced the smell you describe, the only concern I would raise from a previous caravan was how hot the front shelf got while the heating was on with the boiler directly below.

  • sxj747
    sxj747 Forum Participant Posts: 1
    edited June 2021 #7

    We have the same issue with a 2018 Swift Alpine 4 (hardly used) and the smell has been there from new on heating hot water at max setting on electric, when we asked the dealer to look at it at first service they said it was "newness". It hasn't got any better over the last two seasons, we wonder if it ever will. Does it take a fire or death for manufacturers to take it seriously. Swift do not respond to emails in my experience.

  • Tinwheeler
    Tinwheeler Forum Participant Posts: 23,142 ✭✭✭
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    edited June 2021 #8

    It’s nothing new. It’s the insulation on the pipes. We had it on one of ours for 3 years of use. If would smell strongly while the water was heating then ease off once it reached temperature. It may annoy you but it's not a hazard.

  • Cornersteady
    Cornersteady Club Member Posts: 14,427 ✭✭✭
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    edited June 2021 #9

    On our swift it usually happened when things are cooling down, and it is mentioned in the manual somewhere as being normal. As the caravan got older it stopped happening. 

  • Richard Beech
    Richard Beech Forum Participant Posts: 1
    edited September 2021 #10

    Can I suggest that anybody that has this issue looks closely at the insulation on the cables coming from the back of the element to the thermal cut out. I have had this same problem for years and when the element eventually failed it was removed and the insulation on both wires to the element had melted.

    please inspect thoroughly or have your serice engineer check this each year.

    I hope this helps

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