Bypassing Carver Cascade

[Doctor_Rockter]

I have an intermittent leak on a Carver Cascade 2 water heater. The van is a 2000 Autosleeper Symbol. It leaked on a weekend away. I drained it off after the weekend, then later got access under the seat to check out the leak. Filled the heater, heated it up and of course, no leak !!

So my question is, can I bypass the heater in future if it decides to leak again? The instructions mention a fast drain plug. I didn’t think mine had the fast drain, but once I’d taken off the outer cowl, there it was at the top-left. I think I read somewhere that the heater can be bypassed using this plug. Has anyone got any experience of this? How do you activate the bypass and does it work?

Thanks in advance.

Anthony

 

[Phill D]

As far as I know there will be a dump valve close by the heater, to drop its water automatically if not in use and the temp falls below a given figure possibly 5'c.
That is activated auto and normally can be manually opened to dump the water quickly.
Aside from that if you are going to bypass the heater then you will likely need to cut into the water supply line and exit pipeline and bridge them with 2 on off taps. 1 to prevent water going to the heater and 1 in the bridge pipework to either send water to the heater or allow bypass when the other tap is switch off.

Don't know of any already fitted pipes that would allow bypass.

 

[Phill D]

PS, afterthought.
If there is no non return valve in the outlet pipe from the heater you may need to fot either a non return or a 3rd tap.

The plastic push fit taps are easily available and seconds to fit.

 

[PP Bear]

What he said

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Big Boy Metal Filler

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[Jev88]

I can confirm the Propex Malaga heater fits approximately same footprint as Carver (swopped out in my old 2000 Autocruise Impala Coach-built). 13 litres and far more efficient and speedy heating.

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[Spriddler]

They are quite simple to fix. I got all new parts, seals etc. with full disassembly/fitting instructions from an eBay seller.
I completely rebuilt my Carver Cascade with many new parts after the cylinder tie rod broke through corrosion.
You can bypass the heater by removing the blue cold water inlet pipe and the red hot water outlet pipe at the heater (both only fixed with Jubilee clips) and join them together with a plastic straight connector.

New tie rod

Refurbed unit.......

 

[Doctor_Rockter]

Thanks for the replies. The problem with just fixing the leak is that once I'd got access to the heater (under the seat) and tested it, it didn't leak. When it leaked during the weekend away I could only see the wet carpet through the peephole - I couldn't see the source of the leak.
When I go out in the van next time I'm not going to know if it's going to leak or not.
The van is off for MOT at the mo and all the paperwork is with it. I think it may be in the Autosleepers manual where it says remove a plastic piece then invert it, thus pressing something and stopping the heater filling. Once I get the van back I'll see if I can find the section. It just means if I go away and it leaks again, I can still use cold water without using the heater.