Truma Combi boiler/heater fault
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37 years caravanning - spent with cold water only, Carver and then Whale, I am now the owner of a C'van with the mysterious Truma Combi Boiler..... and, although in 10 months of use it has never let me down, all those years of caravanning tell me that (like all things in a Caravan) it probably - no, almost certainly, will - and I shall be eternally grateful for this and many other resurrected threads. Thanking you in anticipation....
A Grateful Caravanner
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Our first 2 week holiday in our first caravan the heating failed on day one. Fortunately we were able to purchase a 2kw fan heater in Hawes. As we were stopping totally on 16 amp sites that wasn't a problem. Once at home we substituted a 1 or 2kw fan heater we already had and have carried it ever since. Only used it a couple of times since, in 15 years, once when the Alde control panel packed up and again when we had to turn the heating off to sort out a leak, however it's nice to know it is available just in case
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We have just bought a new (to us) motorhome with a Truma Combi 6E and Truma CP plus. We used to have a 17 yr old Alde Compact 3000, which always had problems so I was hoping the Truma would be less of a problem. However...
The heating side appears to work fine, but the boiler, when using gas, only with heating off should, according to the manual, heat the water to 60c in approximately 20 mins. However it takes an hour plus. Electric on 1800 is significantly quicker. (On heating using gas the blown air is considerably hotter than on 1800w electric.) I have tried using Boost but the result is the same.
In other respects it seems to be working well.
Any thoughts or suggestions? The dealer has yet to return my phone call and they are >300 miles away!
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We had a similar problem with our 2015 challenger sport, the dealer replaced the circuit board but it played up again so we took it back but the dealer said it was all OK ( I later found out they did not have the test equipment to check the heater) so we contacted Truma and they asked us to take it to them which we did, they connected it to their gadget which brings up the faults codes in our case it pointed the the combustion fan so that was replaced under warranty
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notwithstanding the possibility of an issue as in the post above, the gas should heat the water easily in 20mins as the combi 6 uses 4kw of gas to heat water.
however, check you are on gas only and not mixed as this is not a recognised setting for water heating (although it is for heating!.
if used, the gas is NOT used and only the electric portion is used, so if you had it set to (say) mixed 1, you would only be using EL1, ie 900w, hence a slow warm up time.
are you sure about the setting? can you hear the gas boiler roaring away, a sure sign that the burner is working?
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Many thanks for the replies.
I have tested it again today, no ehu. After 20 mins with heating off and hot water on 60, water temp into mid 20s. (I ran off 1 litre first to make sure sampling boiler water temp) . Listening by the flu, only quiet and warm not roaring but definitely working.
Repeated with heating switched on, but water on boost so effectively heating switched out again for 40 mins. Again after 20 mins only 20 degree lift in water temp. And only quiet flu. Once boost ran over 40mins and heating came back on, boiler obviously working much harder, more noise and flu dramatically more exhaust draft. Hot air blown from ducts, working well.
So it does not appear to be a combustion fan fault as it works at full power on heating, and is on but quieter on water heating. Could it be a software glitch? CP plus problem? It seems like it's working on limited burners like the boiler might with no cp plus, when on summer mode. Would resetting the cp plus help?
Many thanks
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An update, I rang Truma and was told "as no error code, that's what we expect, the weather's cold." Cornwall last week was 11 degrees so not really relevant. Even from water temp 28c it took 40 mins to get to 60c, and then only 3 or 4 litres before down to 30c again. Barely enough for a quick shower. Certainly not an evenly distributed tank full.
Dealer does not know what to suggest.
What do others find their Truma Combi 6 water heating performance is like? Do we put up n shut up cos it's often like this, or make a fuss because something is clearly not working as it should?
Cheers
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as David says, there is a problem.
the hot water on gas should 'roar' in the same way as the heating does and the water should be hot in 20mins...
the combi 6 has three (not user managed) gas levels, 2/4/6kw, all these are used when space heating if required.
when heating water it should use 4kw (ie two burners) which you would hear easily.
i suspect there is a PCB fault as the burners obviously work when using space heating.
persist with Truma, as my PCB 'guess' is only that...it needs a diagnostic check but something isnt right.
good luck.
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While we have a caravan with no computers and just switches to manually control each aspect of the heating, boiler , fans etc .and never had any problems ...recently bought a 2019 Autosleeper motorhome with the Truma combi boiler . It doesnt feel like a step forward .
I now seem to get a fairly regular E 514 H error with no reset for 15 mins message .. currently only running up the systems in covid lockdown but don't want to be caught out when we can go out . The code isnt in the Truma manuals but understand it relates to 12v supply and incorrect shutdown . An eventual full INIT reset does seem to clear it but dont want to be faced with this when site setting up .
Autosleeper and Truma havent replied yet ( furloughed ? )
Has anybody seen this and understand what is happening? There is nothing in manuals about shutdown procedures .
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Rod, I'm sure someone on the Autosleeper Owners Forum will be able to help. I recommend registering on there to get full benefit.
https://www.autosleeper-ownersforum.com
My initial thought is that you may not be shutting down the control panel before disconnecting power.
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Thanks .. I have done some more research and find that while its not in any of the manuals you must turn the heating off and wait for a complete shut down ( up to 15 mins ? ) before either starting the engine or turning off the Vans console .. effectively what you were thinking .
Bit disappointing .. that its not clear in the guides and given that its now computer controlled and the 12 v to the system is there it cant exercise a controlled shutdown rather than throwing an error and locking it for the next time you want to use it .. Hey Ho .. bet that catches quite a few people until they work out what's happening .
Will follow up the link .
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We had this error code and after googling found a fantastic video that explained it was to do with carbon build up. Tap the boiler near the fan( video will show exactly where), it starts up. Have done this three times now and then boiler works like a dream so far.
To find video just Google Yorkshiremotoroamers error code E89H update. Good luck1 -
I don't know why this old thread has suddenly reappeared - but since it has, I will add my experience. Our caravan - a Knaus Starclass 695 is fitted with the Truma Combi 6E. The van is coming up to 4 years old now - and until the start of this year, everything with the heating has been fine.
We are away all year round so the heating and hot water gets a lot of use but at the start of the year, the hot water suddenly stopped working. It went back to the dealer and, at great expense, the heating elements were replaced only to fail again a couple of months later. They were replaced again, obviously at no cost to me.
During that period, my research brought two important things to light. Firstly, the elements have a limited life span of a few thousand hours - which equates, with our sort of usage, to about 18 months use. Secondly, if the elements are replaced without crimping the cooling fins around them, they will fail in a very short space of time. Presumably this is what happened to ours.
It is interesting that Truma have now discontinued selling the elements alone and can only be bought with the fins already attached as part of a complete repair kit. Obviously at even greater expense but this also means stripping the boiler down completely to fit them and it's hardly a diy job unless you have relevant experience.
I am told by my dealer - and I don't know how true this is - that Truma are discontinuing the Combi 6E and it is to be replaced with something totally new. One can only assume that this is due to its inherent unreliability.
The elements failed a third time a couple of months ago which transpired to be nothing more serious than a loose wire coming from the 240v consumer unit and was easily fixed and not the fault of Truma. However, when this happened at the start of a week's holiday, we were able to heat the water on gas and contrary to some of the experiences above, I found that the water was heated much more quickly - 20 mins max instead of the 40 mins or so on electricity.
When working, the Truma system is every bit as good - if not better - than our previous Alde system, but in terms of reliability, I doubt I would ever buy a van again with it fitted.
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We had problems with our 2015 Swift Truma heater on our first outing the dealer fitted a new PCB but it still didn't work so took it back to the dealer who said it was OK ( I was told later they did not have the test equipment to check it ) in the end we rang Truma who suggested we took it to their place in Derby, the engineer plugged it into his gadget which showed all the fault codes on the heater he said it could be the combustion fan and a new one was fitted under warranty and all done in an afternoon
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