Expert Advice Needed Please.....
Hi people, I kind of need help. I’m temporarily living in a caravan during lockdown until I’m able to find a suitable rental property. It’s a four berth but I don’t know what make/age etc. I’m at the back of my parents hooked up to the mains & all 240v sockets work. However, the fridge (which is electric or gas), the stove / oven & heater (also electric or gas) don’t work. As I don’t know the age or history (it was a panic purchase or I’d have been homeless) I’m not happy about using propane without knowing it’s safe. So any advice on how I can find out the make/age & think about getting it checked or replacing defective stuff would be really appreciated. I’m so grateful to my parents but I feel bad that I’m in their face because I can’t cook or wash up or shower without having to use their stuff!! Really need my independence back for all our sakes...
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Go outside and see if you can find any badges/names on the outside walls of the van. You might also come across a small plate that indicates a make and model, and perhaps a serial number of the caravan. This is often down by the door. You could take photographs and post on here, as someone might recognise the make/ model from that. You need to locate the fuse box and any other electrics inside the van as well.
I presume you have had a good look around inside, but haven’t found an information book or other paperwork?
Take a look at the make of all the items you are worried about, could possibly be Thetford, Dometic, Alde or Truma. You can google information about these to see how they work. However, at the moment be wary of trying them out. You might need pipework, hoses renewing to run on gas, and the electrics might need checking out. It might simply be a matter of knowing how to switch things over from gas to electric.
I mobile caravan engineer is your best port of call if you don’t really have a clue. They will check things out for you, advise on what might need renewing.
Good luck with it.
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Yes, that’s the one I forgot to add👍
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May I suggest buying a Carbon Monoxide detector to give some piece of mind.
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A photograph on here would help the experts deduce the make, model and year and be able to provide more specific suggestions.
If a number of mains electrical items do not work there is likely a common cause. In the case of your caravan that might well be that there is a switch that controls all of these items. It is often called a "breaker" as it breaks the circuit should a fault occur, and can be reset by simply moving to the other position. Quite common for there to be two of these in a caravan, and also that the switch works in the opposite direction for the UK normal - i.e. up is ON.
Have a look inside cupboards and lockers, especially near to where the mains cable is plugged into the caravan. When you find it make sure your non-working electrical items are individully switched off. Then reset the breaker. If it holds then try appliances one at a time to see if any of them cause it to trip. If all OK individually then you are probably good to turn them all on.
Just remember that the house end of your cable is plugged into a normal 13 amp household socket and that 13 amps is all you should draw to avoid blowing the fuse in the plug in the house. Not difficult to exceed 13 amps in a caravan so get from the Internet a list of the typical currents drawn by different electrical items and try to keep the total below 13 amps.
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What a shame.
I was wondering why Lizzy hadn't been back on but then I saw that Ttda was the first to reply some 9 days after the original post so she's probably given up expecting anything.
I must admit I didn't see the post until today and can well imagine those replying only saw it today as well.
I hope she found other sources of urgent information to help her.
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I just assumed it had only come up today to be honest, thought it might be the vetting of new poster delay protocol.
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That's what I thought too. I spotted another dated 26 Dec I’d not seen before too.
People will probably never return here with that sort of speedy vetting 🤷🏻♂️
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Have reported your post TW to see if anything can be done to speed up the authentication of new posters. Hope you don't mind, see below my "report". Doubt that anything will happen but thought that I'd give it a try.
Couldn't something be done to ensure that new member's posts asking for urgent assistance is posted on the relevant section quicker than the 6 or so days that this one took to be posted. Delays such as this are not likely to be of any help those needing and rapidly.
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Cheers, Nellie. No, I don’t mind at all. It was a good move👍🏻
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Another response from HO noticeable for it's absence!😡
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Do I need to give you an answer?
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