Heating when camper has been winterised?

Julie S

Julie S

Joined
Feb 6, 2013
Posts
112
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Location
Mirfield West Yorkshire
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24,583
MH
Dethleffs Pulse G8
Exp
Since 2012
Hello all, I am new to motorhoming and this is my first winter. I did not know that my camper would automatically dump water, so I did it manually and I am now hoping I have not made any drastic/costly mistakes. My query is (and apologies for sounding dumb) how do I heat my van when I take it out in the winter? It has a Truma Combi boiler system. Recently I was in a campsite in Gretna and I selected electric for heating but it only blew out cold air. I was not sure if I should select gas (I have onboard LPG - not bottles). I am not bothered about hot water as I use camp site facilities at the moment. I would be most grateful for any help and advice you can give me.

Thank you
 
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From my limited knowledge electric is the most inefficient form of heating in a van. Use gas to get it warmed up and maybe switch to electric to keep it ticking over but experience is the best teacher.
 
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Hi, not sure if the combi boiler is the same principle as my system but here goes. When on ehu if using electric heater it is no where near as efficient as the gas heating, particularly if you are using blown air heating. The best way if its cold weather is to use the gas heater, if its extremely cold use gas and electric simultaneously.
Just one other thing to check though is that the heater is actually turned on. Besides the heater controls above my hab door, there is also a switched spur power switch in a cupboard adjacent to the heater that needs to be turned on. The blower side is 12v so does not mean that the heater is getting 240v ac power. Come back to forum if problem not solved, Lance
 
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I dont have experience of your boiler but two things spring to mind.....

Either it needs water even though you only want warm air (it may extract heat from the hot water) or the electric heating element has failed.
 
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Mine has Trumatic C, sat in it now heating blasting out no water in the van as I drained it down last week. Its in the storage yard until next week and no hookup but heating works fine.

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MY van has the option of having heating running on gas and electric at the same time, so warms up pretty quickly, and same for hot water...
 
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We have the same boiler.
If you have drained your boiler manually, then you need to reset it. The instructions above tell you how. Just a simple matter of putting the button in the right position. You will also need water in your tank as this is what is heated to give the warm air for heating.
This is from a non techy but I think I am right. It is true that if it is really cold you will need your gas on, as the electricity only gives a poor amount of heat.
 
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Forestboy said:
Mine has Trumatic C, sat in it now heating blasting out no water in the van as I drained it down last week. Its in the storage yard until next week and no hookup but heating works fine.
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Soaringman said:
We have the same boiler.
If you have drained your boiler manually, then you need to reset it. The instructions above tell you how. Just a simple matter of putting the button in the right position. You will also need water in your tank as this is what is heated to give the warm air for heating.
This is from a non techy but I think I am right. It is true that if it is really cold you will need your gas on, as the electricity only gives a poor amount of heat.
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The joy of forum answers.......one answer will be correct (y)
 
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We have 6E heating and can have blown air heat without water in the boiler.

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The Truma does NOT need water to provide space heating. However if you don't want it to dump water through the safety valve then leave the heater unit on 'water only' overnight and the safety valve sensor will not trigger (happens around 3c)

We are using electric heating right now (separate convector heaters......... not Truma) but still leave the boiler on water heating to avoid the safety valve dumping all our fresh water.
 
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chockswahay said:
The Truma does NOT need water to provide space heating. However if you don't want it to dump water through the safety valve then leave the heater unit on 'water only' overnight and the safety valve sensor will not trigger (happens around 3c)

We are using electric heating right now (separate convector heaters......... not Truma) but still leave the boiler on water heating to avoid the safety valve dumping all our fresh water.
Click to expand...

As I said been sat in mine for the last 4 hours heating blasting away and no water in the system. When we are away in seriously cold weather especially when skiing we put a peg on the valve to stop it dumping. We do leave it on 24 hours though just lower the temperature at bed time.
 
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Wow.....you lot are amazing. Thank you so much for all of your feedback. Now, I just have to make sense of it, especially the issue of 'YES, water is required to obtain heat' and 'NO water is required'. I will read the instructions although I have difficulty understanding them as much as I don't understand scientific terminology. I need to get to a meet where I can have some face to face advice.
 
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HushSpain said:
Wow.....you lot are amazing. Thank you so much for all of your feedback. Now, I just have to make sense of it, especially the issue of 'YES, water is required to obtain heat' and 'NO water is required'. I will read the instructions although I have difficulty understanding them as much as I don't understand scientific terminology. I need to get to a meet where I can have some face to face advice.
Click to expand...

Im presuming you have a combi 4e or a 6e as youre able to select electric? the 4/6 doesnt work with electric (you will have two control dials for the 'e' variant

we have the 6e combi - only difference is the 6E has a max output of 6kw where as the 4e only goes to 4kw - but that is using gas,
on electric only the max is 1.8kw, which isnt alot to warm a van up, maintain the temp yes, but not get it there quickly!!

Saying that - the air coming out should not have been 'cold' - although it can take a good 5mins for the air at the vents to feel warmer, even longer for some of the longer runs, we have one that never gets above 'cool' unless i run the heater at full pelt and close down the other vents

The unit can be used without water in the boiler, for heating only - but you need to check the settings on the control panel to make sure you have only selected position D, as per below

upload_2015-1-16_16-24-11.png


Finally the valve will only auto dump when the temperature around it settles at or below 3c - our valve is situated next to the unit so if it is on then the temp of the unit alone will keep it above that, and you can only reset it if the ambient temperature around the valve is above 7c. Make sure you keep it closed though when your using the van...the water pump will merrily dump all of the contents of your water tank when its on!!!

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bungy said:
Im presuming you have a combi 4e or a 6e as youre able to select electric? the 4/6 doesnt work with electric (you will have two control dials for the 'e' variant

we have the 6e combi - only difference is the 6E has a max output of 6kw where as the 4e only goes to 4kw - but that is using gas,
on electric only the max is 1.8kw, which isnt alot to warm a van up, maintain the temp yes, but not get it there quickly!!

Saying that - the air coming out should not have been 'cold' - although it can take a good 5mins for the air at the vents to feel warmer, even longer for some of the longer runs, we have one that never gets above 'cool' unless i run the heater at full pelt and close down the other vents

The unit can be used without water in the boiler, for heating only - but you need to check the settings on the control panel to make sure you have only selected position D, as per below

View attachment 51915

Finally the valve will only auto dump when the temperature around it settles at or below 3c - our valve is situated next to the unit so if it is on then the temp of the unit alone will keep it above that, and you can only reset it if the ambient temperature around the valve is above 7c. Make sure you keep it closed though when your using the van...the water pump will merrily dump all of the contents of your water tank when its on!!!
Click to expand...

Hark at Inspector Gadget the Font of all Knowledge, well answer this;
How many spots on a leopard.????? :rolleyes::rolleyes:

Don't listen to him I had to show him how to use a smartphone.:LOL::LOL::LOL::LOL:
 
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Forestboy said:
Hark at Inspector Gadget the Font of all Knowledge, well answer this;
How many spots on a leopard.????? :rolleyes::rolleyes:

Don't listen to him I had to show him how to use a smartphone.:LOL::LOL::LOL::LOL:
Click to expand...
Numerous....
 
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Thank you BertieBasset for the instructions which I have now read. I do feel a lot more confident now and will take 'Betty' out for a day trip over the weekend and see what happens.

Are there any Funsters living near me in Mirfield, West Yorkshire?
 
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HushSpain said:
Are there any Funsters living near me in Mirfield, West Yorkshire?
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Possibly, but in a completely useless & otherwise unconnected piece of information, my grandfather was vicar of Mirfield from about 1923 to 1933.

As to the Combi, firstly, you are most unlikely to have damaged it by draining it. Our Combi 4e quite definitely blows hot air with or without any water in it.

If it's any consolation, it's almost impossible to work out what the various symbols & positions mean on the rotary control unless you have access to the manual. The twin dial gas and/or electric models are worse - I had to have a crib sheet for the first few trips. But bungy's picture above explains all.

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@Terry lives somewhere near there... maybe pm him to ask. He is very helpful.

Go to INBOX at top right of page. Click on it . Click on Start new conversation.
Put Terry in recipient. give it a title. and type your message. Submit. If you tell him where you live he will come back to you with all kinds of help. You may understand each other as some of us can't understand his Yorkshire accent. :)
 
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bungy said:
Im presuming you have a combi 4e or a 6e as youre able to select electric? the 4/6 doesnt work with electric (you will have two control dials for the 'e' variant

we have the 6e combi - only difference is the 6E has a max output of 6kw where as the 4e only goes to 4kw - but that is using gas,
on electric only the max is 1.8kw, which isnt alot to warm a van up, maintain the temp yes, but not get it there quickly!!

Saying that - the air coming out should not have been 'cold' - although it can take a good 5mins for the air at the vents to feel warmer, even longer for some of the longer runs, we have one that never gets above 'cool' unless i run the heater at full pelt and close down the other vents

The unit can be used without water in the boiler, for heating only - but you need to check the settings on the control panel to make sure you have only selected position D, as per below

View attachment 51915

Finally the valve will only auto dump when the temperature around it settles at or below 3c - our valve is situated next to the unit so if it is on then the temp of the unit alone will keep it above that, and you can only reset it if the ambient temperature around the valve is above 7c. Make sure you keep it closed though when your using the van...the water pump will merrily dump all of the contents of your water tank when its on!!!
Click to expand...


This all works fine if your manual ( assuming new owner) has all the correct info
Our Bailey had the info back to front and we were having major problems till park next to another 760 owner in the new forest in Aug so went to ask for help " sorry I can't help you as I don't understand them BUT I'll get my 14year old to come round as he does"
First thing he says is manual is wrong !!!! Explained everything and been fine since
The joys if youth or the disadvantage of getting old, once upon I time I would have worked this out !!!
 
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It doesn't help that Truma use the same symbol to mean different things on different, adjacent rotary switches. On the Combi boilers, there is one switch to choose between 5 different combinations of heat source. They use a 'two squiggly lines' symbol to mean 230v heating & a flame symbol to mean heating with gas. So far, very straightforward.

But on the switch that controls the heater function - whether it should heat the air, the water or both, the 'two squiggly lines' symbol now means water heating & the flame symbol means air heating - & it doesn't matter what fuel is being used - these symbols now differentiate between what is being heated, not which fuel is used.

On this second switch, there is one position that just shows a flame. The full meaning of this flame position is this:
"Heat the air, using whatever combination of mains electric and/or gas has been set on the first switch. Stop when the air temperature reaches the temperature set by the thermostat. If there is any water in the boiler, heat the water too, but only while heating the air. Stop heating the water when you stop heating the air, even if the water is still only tepid.". Simples, init.
 
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TheCaller said:
It doesn't help that Truma use the same symbol to mean different things on different, adjacent rotary switches.
Click to expand...
Thanks goodness it's not just me who gets confused. We have had 2 different motorhomes over the last 2 years with the same Truma system and I still have to consult the manual EVERY TIME I switch anything on. The symbols are totally user unfriendly and confusing!

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Thank you all for your continued input. I am so relieved to find I am not a total numpty and that others have had difficulty with understanding the instructions and knobs. I did not have any instructions so I really was in the dark. This afternoon I am going to sit in my camper and see if I can work things out and get the heating going (n) Will let you know how I get on.

Thank you Movan....I will try and make contact with Terry. I hate bothering people and yet here on this forum everyone is so helpful. A quick question. How do you know if a thread regarding ones query has already been active?

Many thanks for all your help. :smiley:
 
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Hello, @HushSpain If you go to the top right of the page yu will see a search box .. type in something like Truma heater and off you go. You will be amazed how many people have asked the same question proving you are not stupid at all ..
 
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Hi Broken Link Removed and welcome (y)IF you need to or want to get in touch rt click on my pic on left and start a conversation -or simply ask away on here
terry
 
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I still cannot get the heating going but I have now talked to Terry who has been really helpful. He has made some suggestions and if I still can't get it going I am going to see him, so he can talk me through everything (y)

You have all bee so kind.......THANKYOU. Perhaps I will get to meet some of you one day at a Rally :):)
 
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