Carver - Caravelle 4 Not Igniting

[Frank_374377712]

Help please, fire will not ignite! Was working ok until the second week of the snow and minus temps.
The van is on hook up and electrics working ok. Using butane gas.
Gas is getting through system ok, I can light the 4 burners on hob, toaster and oven.
Initially when the control was switched on the igniter would click a few times then the green light would flash. Now it tries to ignite but after failing the light stays on.

I took the gas bottle indoors for a couple of days just in case the gas froze (not sure if it does or not!), even tried pre-warming the heater by putting a halogen heater facing it (about 2 foot away).

Any ideas??

Frank

 

[WoodlandsCamper]

Maybe you need to change to propane gas as it works better at lower temperatures. The heater may be more susceptible to the cold as it has a direct feed of cold air from under the van, whereas the hob burners are in the living space which is warmer and therefore still work.

 

[Guest]

Warming the butane gas bottle should have made sure that is not the problem, butane stops changing from a liquid to gas at -2C, (thats freezes to you and me), however the change from one to another produces more cold and further lowers the bottle temperature, this then means you should be using propane when outside air temperatures reach down around +5C.
So as to the 4, not the best fire to even start thinking of the actual problems, however one thing does spring to mind and that's the battery? you don't say if your battery is well up? it must be above 10.3v but over 11V to be sure it's not at fault.
As it is. the symptoms you describe suggest it's low, other than that and for the same reason, poor connections between control switch and heater, bad earth connection at heater end, poor fuse connection at switch end.

Lots of other possibles but the above need checking first,

 

[Frank_374377712]

Thanks for the replies guys.

My first thoughts were cold (freezing) gas which is why I brought the bottle to room temp and sat the halogen heater in van.
Never really thought on the battery problem but had thought as I was hooked to mains would be ok BUT I will charge battery up in morning (it will not even power lights just now)
Once again, thanks, will let you know tomorrow

Frank

 

[ProfJohnL]

Hello Frank,

As Gary says there are several reasons why the space heater may not work, but especially as it coincided with the cold weather and the fact that you were using Butane, my immediate suspicion is drawn to the gas supply. The main reason is that Butane stops producing gas (Boiling) close to zero C. take it only a few degrees below 0C and it will actually start turning from gas back to liquid (Condensing).

Just as in the gas bottle, you can have both liquefied gas and gaseous gas in the same piece of pipe, and the liquefied part will fall to the lowest point in the pipework.

The Caravelle 4 heater has its gas connection under the floor, so there is some pipe work is exposed to the coldest outside air. It is also probably the lowest point in the gas system so any condensed LPG will easily collect there and block the pipe to the heater.

The hob in the caravan will be slightly warmer and the pipework is above lowest point so some gas may get through.

Even when the weather does warm up, it is possible that the heater may not work, as the formation of any liquid gas in the pipework may have washed any residual oils in the pipe work down to the heater valve and these may have blocked the valve or the injectors.

Without any doubt, you should be using Propane (good for –35C) rather than Butane in these cold temperatures.

 

[Frank_374377712]

Thanks Prof John
Have taken on board the points re Butane.
Looks like I'm going to have to admit defeat, have charged up batteries and still no joy. When I reconnected battery the igniter did attempt to kick in but now not even that works!
From what I can see there is very little that can be done DIY wise, so will wait now till just before Easter and have the heater looked at, at the dealers.

Assuming the worse can anyone recommend a replacement heater? I have an Avondale "Wren"

Thanks again to all who have made suggestions
Frank