Intermittent fault on water heater? (1 Viewer)

[Touchwood]

On our last trip out our electric water heater seemed to not work - it had been on a good hour and when Jill went to wash the water was only luke warm - it normally is piping hot after about 30 minutes. She immediately checked and the mains power was on.

We were on EHU (obviously!) and the power hadn't tripped, either in the 'van or at the source. I asked the site manager and as far as he knew there hadn't been any outage.

We left it switched on, and 20 minutes later had plenty of hot water.

Seems like maybe an intermittent fault, but I'm struggling to think what could fail on an intermittent basis with basically a very simple circuit. Thermostat maybe? Though there is no provision to set water temperature when using the electric water heater.

Any ideas? What can I check?

 

[Lenny HB]

Is it a Combi 4 or 6?
If so may not be anything wrong if it is the 40 deg setting (now renamed ECO) you are using. It has a very wide hysteresis, after getting up to temperature it will not turn on to reheat until the temperature drops below 27 deg, makes it unusable on the 40 setting.

 

[Touchwood]

Is it a Combi 4 or 6?
If so may not be anything wrong if it is the 40 deg setting (now renamed ECO) you are using. It has a very wide hysteresis, after getting up to temperature it will not turn on to reheat until the temperature drops below 27 deg, makes it unusable on the 40 setting.

No - it's a Truma - and as for an ECO setting, as I've said we don't have any settings, just an on/off switch!

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[gloworm]

We had same problem but, only when using gas, turned out to be PCB, Had it replaced by Truma last year and its been fine since.

Eric

 

[Robert Clark]

Have you ever descaled it ?
Could be that the element is covered in limescale.

We descale ours anually with white vinegar which we get off EBay

 

[Touchwood]

Have you ever descaled it ?
Could be that the element is covered in limescale.

We descale ours anually with white vinegar which we get off EBay

Good thought - I never think of scale build up as we are a very soft water area and never have a problem at home - but of course that doesn't apply when travelling countrywide and using different water sources.

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[Robert Clark]

Good thought - I never think of scale build up as we are a very soft water area and never have a problem at home - but of course that doesn't apply when travelling countrywide and using different water sources.

Here's how we did it

10 litres of vinegar was sufficient for our Truma

Drain Truma

Pour 10L vinegar into empty water tank

Add 10L water to dilute

Draw water into Truma through hot water tap

Turn on water heater and wait a while. We waited overnight

Add more water to tank and flush vinegar solution through taps

Works a treat !

 

[tonyidle]

If are not in the UK check the mains voltage?

 

[Touchwood]

If are not in the UK check the mains voltage?

Definitely in the UK!

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