Alde heating, Gas out error

[Mandarin]

Not having used the gas part of the heating since buying our first caravan in August last year we thought we'd better give it a try today, however it wouldn't fire up, just giving a 'gas out' errror message.
We checked the gas taps under the cooker, that was ok, tested the gas by lighting the hob, checked the boiler unit - the pump was running and when we tried to start it there were various clicking and wiring noises.
Each time we got the error message we turned it off and then tried again, but no luck.
We did note that the battery was showing 12.2v and have now taken it home for a charge, but I read the boiler should work with as little as 11v.
The van is a Bailey Unicorn Valencia S2.
Any ideas what to try next, with a full battery?

 

[Craigyoung]

Hi there , our ( truma ) heating system has a control panel above our door where you can select what to have the water temperature and what kind of power supply you wish to be on , i.e , electricity or gas , is there not a control panel where you need to choose between what power you need or want to use ?

 

[Mandarin]

Hi, yes it does, that's how we start it up in gas mode and where the error message shows up. The manual just says turn off and try again, which we did, about ten times.

How many times should we have to try to get any residual air out of the has lines.

Until now we've only used it in electric mode.

 

[ProfJohnL]

Hello Mandarin,

Whilst I am not familiar with the latest heaters, generally those with electronic ignition systems shouldn't take many start cycles to purge the gas pipe work, compared to older systems that use a small pilot light.

Consequently it leaves you with two possibilities. The first is gas is not getting through to the heater, in which case you need to digilantly trace the gas supply pipes and check you haven't missed a stop ****.

The second suggests the is a problem with the heater, and that will require technical expertise to investigate and rectify. You should refer the problem to an Alde trained technician.

It may be the heater needs a service or a real fault might have arisen.

 

[Craigyoung]

That's probably as much as i could say and suggest as we've had ours 2 year and have never run it on gas either !
Let us know what happens .

 

[Damian]

Quote " we've had ours 2 year and have never run it on gas either !"

That comment is the very reason that when actually needed, if an appliance has never been used on gas it most likely will not work.

Lack of use is one of the main causes of problems yet it is so very easy to not get in the situation of a non working appliance when needed simply by running every gas appliance for 5 or 10 minutes on gas every time you use the van.

I cannot recall how many times I have offered this advice but still it goes unheeded, so the best thing I can say is simply Use it or Lose it !!!!!!

 

[Craigyoung]

Gas is always on for the oven which is used but have never powered the whole system on it .

 

[Raywood]

We did find on our last caravan that the heater could cut out on gas or electric only but if you switch to a mix of gas and electric it worked better. This is only of use though if you are on a hook up. The cooker always needs far more time to get the gas through than the heating though, so if it has got to that then I doubt the supply is a problem providing the valve is on.

 

[Boff]

Although, the panel says gas failure warning. The actual fault is caused by an interruption to the 12v supply. I think that the Alde advice is to switch of the panel disconnect the white plug to the boiler then reconnect. What I have done in the past, well Friday actually is switch then panel off and pull the fuse that supplies the boiler and put it back in again. You can also do it by momentarily disconnecting the battery lead. I have had this fault when playing with the 12v system, quite scary and thoughts of costing me ££££££’s. Ironically the incident on Friday we had stayed on a CL Thursday night because the van was,going in for a service. I noticed the fault showing when I explaining to the engineer what I wanted doing. So I pulled the fuse and replaced it took me less than a 30

seconds. I assume the fault was thrown up because the system had been left on and or I had unplugged the ehu lead prematurely.

Hope that yours is as easy to fix as mine.

Ps. Thinking about this if you were connected to ehu then you would have to disconnect that as well as the battery.

 

[otherclive]

Quote " we've had ours 2 year and have never run it on gas either !"

That comment is the very reason that when actually needed, if an appliance has never been used on gas it most likely will not work.

Lack of use is one of the main causes of problems yet it is so very easy to not get in the situation of a non working appliance when needed simply by running every gas appliance for 5 or 10 minutes on gas every time you use the van.

I cannot recall how many times I have offered this advice but still it goes unheeded, so the best thing I can say is simply Use it or Lose it !!!!!!

I always run the fridge, van heater and water heater on gas at some time during a stay. Generally not immediately as apart from the cooker our gas appliances seem to need the gas permeating along their pipework.

 

[Mandarin]

Thanks everyone,. There is only the one gas tap, under the cooker , which was on. Next weekend we'll try again with a full battery and do as Boff suggested and report back.

If all else fails it's back to the dealer.

 

[Boff]

If all else fails talk to Alde, they are generally very helpful and knowledge. Their contact number is on their website. Tbh if I were you I might be tempted to pick up the phone now.

 

[David_5127637]

Had a mystery with our Alde central heating heating which would not run. It was a user error. If the hot water boost (the tap icon on the control panel) is activated then the central heating doesn't work for about 30 mins.
When the icon was turned off the heating fired up immediately.
This may not have been your problem but something to bear in mind.

 

[Craigyoung]

That's correct . Our Truma system is the same , i was told from someone on here that the boost option will knock the heating off and the power will go towards heating the water up quicker .

 

[RayS]

I've had a similar problem to the OP but with the Truma cobi/ warm air system.
Around new year in Spain and with an air temperature around 3C the truma control uit showed a fault which translated gar inlet valve frozen. Odd because everything else - fridge cooker - worked normally at the same time and on the same supply. The bottle was nearly empty at the time, but the fault remained when all other users were turn off. Fault cleared once a full bottle installed even at the same air temperatures.
To me this suggests either a transient fault which has cleared itself, or something about the inlet gas valve in the Combi which freezes up with gas flow (due to small pressure drop through valve ?) This is odd because the Cobi itself was warm since the water had been heated using the electric setting just previously.
I needed to run the heat on the Mix 1 setting as it was pretty cold in the van and the site supply will not run the higher power electric setting.
I understand Truma now 'owns' Alde so there may be some common components ?

 

[waffler]

Only one gas tap sounds unusual. Have a good look for another. Then try the fuse removal dodge. Power might remain on even with the panel off and so removing the fuse reboots the system. If the software has got its knickers in a twist this should solve it. Don’t drop the fuse in the gap!!! Another thought is that you might be short on gas- you are using propane I guess. The boiler uses a lot of gas and being low might be a problem.

 

[Mandarin]

Thanks to everyone for your input. Went back today with a fully charged battery and it fired up first time, we did prime the gas supply with the cooker burners, but can't imagine that would make the difference.

All your input is very much appreciated.

 

[ProfJohnL]

I glad its now working for you.