Cascade 2 Carver water heater

[petrK]

Good evening,
Got cascade2 in van, are they limit on usage in winter - if i got full with minus outside say -10, but using this every day would it have problem? I would like to ask only someone who really know by experience as this can turn ugly if tanks burst from frost. Defo need to drain when not using.

Other thing is insulation heater itself transmit a lot of cold from outside, for that insulation, but wonder if i insulate it completely tight on would i also remove intake of oxigen for and for this case would be better to insulate rather furniture around then?

Yet with this in mind - if i would insulate well and tight and outside gets minus, then there would be better chance water can get frozen inside the tank as its not heated from inside.

I missing a bit win-win solution here, only resonable usage when its minus is really not using it when its below zero with having insulated...

If someone got idea would be good

 

[ProfJohnL]

Hello PetrK.

Most UK caravans are only designed for UK winters with a low temperature of about -5C. If you are experiencing much colder weather conditions, UK caravans and equipment may struggle to keep you comfortably warm. But provided the interior of the caravan at +10C or above, it's unlikely you will suffer and frozen appliances or internal water pipes.

If the heater is used in the morning and then turned off until evening, the the residual heat retained in its water tank should be sufficient to stop it from freezing under normal UK winter conditions, but in much colder situations it would be sensible to keep the heater turned on and cycling on its thermostat whenever there is water in the tank.

Because the Cascade 2 only uses air from outside the caravan for burning, there is no problem with increasing the insulation around the tank inside the caravan if you wish. If you want to use the gas burner to heat the water the you must NOT obstruct the external flue cowl in any way.

If you have the Cascade 2GE or Rapide variant with a mains electric heating element, then you can choose to not use the gas, and you could block the external vent to reduce the cold air circulation through the heat exchanger. With a completely blocked vent there would be insufficient air able to get to the burn to sustain a flame and the gas controller should shut down. But for safety it is best to turn the water heater's gas isolation valve off to prevent any accidental attempts to ignite the gas system.