Blow air heating not hot on electric hookup

[Carpe Diem]

We are in beautiful Castleton and have a pilote sensation p740 and notice the blow sur heating is only blowing Luke warm air - on gas only it’s great. We’ve had our van for 3 years and never had a problem before. Has anyone any ideas as to what could be wrong? We might have to head home as it’s too cold and get it fixed.

 

[Riverbankannie]

I am assuming that you are EHU, so my suggestion would be to buy a cheap small electric radiator or fan heater from nearest Argos or similar. I keep one in the van to save using the Truma on electric only.
Edit: I do realise you are in the middle of beautiful countryside but maybe worth the trip out to save the holiday.

 

[AdrianChen]

Are you getting a good supply from the EHU? Site I was on last week was down below 200v at times, I checked our cable etc because it drove the AES fridge crazy! I think the sites 8 pitches were all using their heating because of the cold conditions, and the "system" couldn't cope. It was also raining at times so perhaps there was some water ingress issues with the various posts and leads.......

 

[iandsm]

Assuming it's a Truma dual fuel with either gas or low and Hugh power electric elements and you have set the heating control to high power electricity you either have a faulty heating element in the unit, a blown fuse or the electricity supply is restricted so that only the smaller of the two elements is actually working. I believe that if you have the hot water on at the same time the unit gives priority to either the hot water or heating I can't remember which. It may be an idea to test the unit on Electricity only on a different EHU in case the supply you are on at the moment is low.

The reason I know is I once took a newish van to a dealer for annual inspection, I had previously had no problems but the 'technician' swore blind I needed a new element in the unit as the higher power one had blown. This was replaced at considerable cost to me and I thought all was well after testing at home. I later discovered that the EHU at the dealer was limited to 6 amps, no wonder the higher power element didn't work. I had some interesting negotiations with the dealer later about this issue and the fact that when fitting the new element the 'technician' had damaged the boiler casing which he then repaired with gaffer tape.

 

[iain26]

I concur it sounds like one of the electric heater elements has gone. You need to test the current draw to the heater (or get an auto electrician to do it) to establish that first.
We have had an element replaced at the Truma Service Center near Derby, on a service exchange unit supplied and fitted by Truma and the element was under warranty. So they do fail.

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[Carpe Diem]

I concur it sounds like one of the electric heater elements has gone. You need to test the current draw to the heater (or get an auto electrician to do it) to establish that first.
We have had an element replaced at the Truma Service Center near Derby, on a service exchange unit supplied and fitted by Truma and the element was under warranty. So they do fail.

Thank you all for your replies, we’re on a MCC site so no problems with EHU here, we changed our EHU cable in case the other one was faulty but it made no difference. We didn’t know there are 2 elements in the boiler, this makes sense now as only half the boiler was getting hot. We’re going to ring Truma this morning and hopefully get it fixed as their service centre is on our way home. Thanks again.

 

[AdrianChen]

Glad you're sorted!

 

[VXman]

Thank you all for your replies, we’re on a MCC site so no problems with EHU here, we changed our EHU cable in case the other one was faulty but it made no difference. We didn’t know there are 2 elements in the boiler, this makes sense now as only half the boiler was getting hot. We’re going to ring Truma this morning and hopefully get it fixed as their service centre is on our way home. Thanks again.

When set to low it uses one (900 watt) element. When set to high it uses 2 (1800 watts) . This is useful for it you are at a campsite with limited amps. Did you have it set to high? I find the electric heating pretty useless on low.

 

[dunnah01]

When set to low it uses one (900 watt) element. When set to high it uses 2 (1800 watts) . This is useful for it you are at a campsite with limited amps. Did you have it set to high? I find the electric heating pretty useless on low.

The Truma Combi 4E/6E heaters actually use both elements at either 450W on low or 900W on high which can make fault finding a bit more interesting when using a clamp meter.

 

[Carpe Diem]

When set to low it uses one (900 watt) element. When set to high it uses 2 (1800 watts) . This is useful for it you are at a campsite with limited amps. Did you have it set to high? I find the electric heating pretty useless on low.

Thanks, yes we have it set to high.

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[dazandandrea]

Our heating when on EHU will only function on low setting , any higher and it trips the supply.
We have gas so thats the answer.

 

[Carpe Diem]

The Truma Combi 4E/6E heaters actually use both elements at either 450W on low or 900W on high which can make fault finding a bit more interesting when using a clamp meter.

Thanks for that, got Moho booked in for Monday, fingers crossed it gets fixed.

 

[Reallyretired]

The electric heating is always much less effective than gas which is much higher powered. We use gas to get it warm and then electricity if available to maintain a temperature

 

[Stealaway]

We have one of these for when we are on EHU.
1Kw is usually enough to keep the van toasty

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[Guigsy]

We've got a 6E. It takes forever to heat water on electric (EL2 setting). And running the blowers while the water is heating up just means it takes even longer. I generally switch to MIX setting to use gas and electric if I want to warm the van and the water is also cold.

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[davida71uk]

I find it can vary at different sites and different wattage settings. One site it can blow nice and warm, another, luke-warm or cold. Often after a period of warm air on gas the electric is then warm. There seems to be no pattern and the only affecting factor is either turning the wattage up or down. All very odd. We just use a small John Lewis fan heater but only on the low setting.

 

[JCE]

Interesting thread which leads me to a newbie type question. Our MH is parked up at home for the winter now with all water/boiler etc drained, frost valve open etc. However, I was going to run the electric heating from time to time over the winter (we have EHU on the shed wall) and was struggling to find confirmation in the various manuals that came with the van that the blown air heating could be used without the boiler being full of water. Sounds from this thread that the two are independent?

 

[davida71uk]

Separate independent systems, well in ours anyway, Ultraheat and Ultrastore. Warm air can be used with water system empty. I don't see the need to run the heating, better to keep cold air out than warm air in, place moisture traps around to reduce ambient moisture.

 

[mikebeaches]

As I understand, the Truma electric heating elements are prone to failure and expensive to replace. So we don't bother using the onboard electric heating. Instead we either use the gas blown air, or a free-standing electric fan heater - usually switched to 1 kw.

Hope you can get yours sorted out.

 

[Clive Beeza]

Assuming it's a Truma dual fuel with either gas or low and Hugh power electric elements and you have set the heating control to high power electricity you either have a faulty heating element in the unit, a blown fuse or the electricity supply is restricted so that only the smaller of the two elements is actually working. I believe that if you have the hot water on at the same time the unit gives priority to either the hot water or heating I can't remember which. It may be an idea to test the unit on Electricity only on a different EHU in case the supply you are on at the moment is low.

The reason I know is I once took a newish van to a dealer for annual inspection, I had previously had no problems but the 'technician' swore blind I needed a new element in the unit as the higher power one had blown. This was replaced at considerable cost to me and I thought all was well after testing at home. I later discovered that the EHU at the dealer was limited to 6 amps, no wonder the higher power element didn't work. I had some interesting negotiations with the dealer later about this issue and the fact that when fitting the new element the 'technician' had damaged the boiler casing which he then repaired with gaffer tape.

Name them and shame them

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[Towat101]

We are in beautiful Castleton and have a pilote sensation p740 and notice the blow sur heating is only blowing Luke warm air - on gas only it’s great. We’ve had our van for 3 years and never had a problem before. Has anyone any ideas as to what could be wrong? We might have to head home as it’s too cold and get it fixed.

Ours was blowing cold and I found a video on Youtube about a reset button on the side, it worked and it now blows warm, however a small cheap fan heater gives out more heat imo.

 

[iandsm]

Name them and shame them

Brownhills, but it was in 2010 so things may have changed since then, on the other hand!!!!!!

 

[VXman]

Interesting thread which leads me to a newbie type question. Our MH is parked up at home for the winter now with all water/boiler etc drained, frost valve open etc. However, I was going to run the electric heating from time to time over the winter (we have EHU on the shed wall) and was struggling to find confirmation in the various manuals that came with the van that the blown air heating could be used without the boiler being full of water. Sounds from this thread that the two are independent?

Never done it, but yes, I believe you can run it without water. It does say in the manual.

 

[KPM]

We are in beautiful Castleton and have a pilote sensation p740 and notice the blow sur heating is only blowing Luke warm air - on gas only it’s great. We’ve had our van for 3 years and never had a problem before. Has anyone any ideas as to what could be wrong? We might have to head home as it’s too cold and get it fixed.

Hi I had a Pilote P710 Sensation and the heating demonstrated something similar almost straight away. It turned out to be a problem with the ducting taking the hot air away from the Truma to various parts of the van. Sone of the joints came apart behind some of the panelling. It was a real job to get to the joints behind wall panelling but with care and perseverance it was possible. It looked like some assembly acres were mitring. Adding the correct screws and buck tsping the joints to Jake sure it didn’t happen again solved it.

 

[Gents]

Separate independent systems, well in ours anyway, Ultraheat and Ultrastore. Warm air can be used with water system empty. I don't see the need to run the heating, better to keep cold air out than warm air in, place moisture traps around to reduce ambient moisture.

Sorry for being Thick!!!, but could you expand on moisture traps ?

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[Pausim]

The Truma Combi is principally a gas boiler, the units sold in the UK usually have additional electric elements but these are only 1.8kW. In cold weather it is asking a lot for 1.8kW to heat the hot water and run the blown air system. The 6E combi produces up to 6kW on gas which is far more effective.

If one or both of my electric elements failed I probably wouldn’t bother to get them replaced. With the cost of electricity leaping up, particularly the charges businesses such as campsites have to pay, they will either install meters or put 6A or 10A breakers in. I noticed earlier in the year (before the big price hikes) that a refurbished site I visit fro time to time had replaced its 16A breakers with 10A ones. 10A is enough for a 1.8kW combi but at about 8A you will have to turn off most other appliances to keep it running. Personal opinion is that the money to repair the electric elements might be better spent on buying a refillable gas system.

 

[Graham Mew]

We are in beautiful Castleton and have a pilote sensation p740 and notice the blow sur heating is only blowing Luke warm air - on gas only it’s great. We’ve had our van for 3 years and never had a problem before. Has anyone any ideas as to what could be wrong? We might have to head home as it’s too cold and get it fixed.

I was advised by my habitation check engineer to carry a small fan heater for emergency use for the Truma heating systems are not well made. Be warned, not all German goods are well made.

 

[Pausim]

I was advised by my habitation check engineer to carry a small fan heater for emergency use for the Truma heating systems are not well made. Be warned, not all German goods are well made.

Not sure I entirely agree with that, they have had to pack a lot of engineering into a very small space. They also have to keep the weight down. Without space and weight limitations they would probably produce something entirely different. I think a small 6kW space and water heating boiler that includes hot water storage is fairly impressive. The weakest part seems to be the 230V operations but that is only an additional option. It would be cheaper to buy the gas only option and a separate fan heater.

 

[davida71uk]

Sorry for being Thick!!!, but could you expand on moisture traps ?

No worries - Kontrol Mega Moisture Trap. They absorb ambient moisture and prevent condensation also. We have four and just place them around the vehicle while stored.

 

[dunnah01]

Truma heater elements 4 bends £145 min.


Bosch German heater element 6 bends £ 13.00


Motorhome rip off again

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