12v battery

[jo3]

I had our 2004 Avondale serviced after barely using it last season and, as well as a fair degree of damp, the water heater and heater arent working off the 12V.
Is this likely to be becuase the battery needs renewing? If not, what else is the likely cause.
Thanks
Jo

 

[Gagakev]

Hi Jo first off who serviced your van, surely they should have been able to tell you why it does'nt work.
ie; fuse gone, flat battery
Does it not work on either gas or electric, does any of your other 12 volt items still work?
Just a few questions you will be asked by the real experts on here

 

[Damian]

There is not really enough information to work on.
You say the water heater and heater dont work on 12v, but they wont, they work on mains power, or do you mean the fan on th efire is not working and the control for the water heater is not working?

What make and model heaters?

Is the battery charged? did you remove it for the winter and keep it charged up?
If you had the van serviced you should have been at least told what is wrong , and in reality the faults should have been fixed, or the "service guy" has NOT done a proper service.

If you dont mind answering, how much was the service and how long did it take?

 

[jo3]

It was a mobile service and it cost £ 130, took 4 hours.
He confused me a bit to be honest and I'm going to change the battery anyway, but I thought that the water heater at least worked off the 12v. We had a night away without EHU last year and I thought we had hot water.

 

[colin-yorkshire1]

It was a mobile service and it cost £ 130, took 4 hours.
He confused me a bit to be honest and I'm going to change the battery anyway, but I thought that the water heater at least worked off the 12v. We had a night away without EHU last year and I thought we had hot water.

hi jo,
As Damian asked what heater and hot water system do you have this is important. Damian is a service engineer and probably knows more about these components than the rest of us put together,
in the mean time there is no water heater that I know of that runs off 12v, they run off 240v, or gas the controls are 12v but thats all,
in our bailey the control panel has a switch well 2 actually one is on its own at the side of the control unit and the other is in the control unit the one on it's own is the 240v the one in the control panel is gas, when it is flicked on there is a green light in the centre of the temperature control this tells you that the boiler has lit if it goes red the boiler has failed to ignite,
it can be run on 240v electric or gas or both. the space heater also works off gas or 240v but here the gas is ignited manually, but the control unit is for 240v only,if you think about it, it has to be as getting 2kw out of a 12v system would cane the battery in a very short time even it it was possible.
hope this helps
colin

 

[Parksy]

The water heater uses lpg ( gas ) when you are not on ehu Jo as does the heater.
Try the 12v lights and the water pump before you spend money replacing the battery, and if possible plug the ehu in at home to test the water heater and the heater but remember to fill the boiler with water from the system first to test the water heater.

 

[jo3]

Thanks for all the advice, which will help a lot.
I clearly need to get it plugged in to the mains at home, and check for myself what's working, which I suspect might be just about everything.
To be honest we've had the van (a Dart) for 5 years now and I've always found the controls for the diferent appliances very confusing. A simple small light to indicate whether the heater or fridge is on would take away the confusion.
Many of the controls seem uneccessarily complicated, but maybe thats just me.
Thanks again
jo

 

[colin-yorkshire1]

Thanks for all the advice, which will help a lot.
I clearly need to get it plugged in to the mains at home, and check for myself what's working, which I suspect might be just about everything.
To be honest we've had the van (a Dart) for 5 years now and I've always found the controls for the diferent appliances very confusing. A simple small light to indicate whether the heater or fridge is on would take away the confusion.
Many of the controls seem uneccessarily complicated, but maybe thats just me.
Thanks again
jo

hi jo,
sounds like that maybe a good resolution but as parksy replied dont forget to fill the system with water (as on site) and remove any vent covers.
I agree that some controls can seem complicated, but that it just because van equipment is designed to to be dual or even triple supply orientated, most of us camp with ehu so never bother with gas apart from the cooker but this is not a good idea in the long run.
I allways test all the functions on all equipment before every trip and once I get there tend to fire everything up on gas to start with fridge, water heater, and space heater. and run for 24 hrs before plugging in the EHU.

 

[colin-yorkshire1]

oops duplicate post

 

[Dustydog]

jo
See this link. It may help unconfuse you

http://www.practicalcaravan.com/advice/how-use-truma-ultrastore-water-heater